TITLE:          Reiserfs
LFS VERSION:    Any with lilo 21.6 or newer
Author:         <roryo@roryo.dynup.net> and Tio Hiap Ho<deux@deux.dyndns.org>

Synopsis:
        Reiserfs is an alternative filesystem which people are growing to like
since it would out perform the ext2 filesystem in most of the cases. This hint
are for those who want to use reiserfs without any ext2 filesystem in their lfs
system.

HINT:
WHAT TO CHANGE FROM THE LFS BOOKS

        If you are not going to use ext2 at all, it is safe for you space
monkeys out there to skip the installation of e2fsprogs, although they can/will
come in quite handy.  Reiserfs requires a minimum of 32 mb (for the journal) on
a *writable* media, so using it on a floppy or a cdrom is out of the question.
The badblocks program could also be of some use.


SETTING UP THE BOOTSCRIPT

Change the content of your /etc/fstab to something like below

/dev/hda2 / reiserfs noatime,nodiratime,notail,defaults 0 0
/dev/hda3 /var reiserfs noatime,nodiratime,notail,defaults 0 0
/dev/hda5 /usr reiserfs noatime,nodiratime,notail,defaults 0 0
/dev/hda6 /home reiserfs noatime,nodiratime,notail,defaults 0 0

The above /etc/fstab will cause fsck to be skipped so you can remove the checkfs
bootscript safely

WHAT TO DO WITH THE KERNEL
1. Enable
        Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers
2. Enable
        File systems ---> Reiserfs support
3. Recompile Kernel

In older kernel you might need to get the patch from www.reiserfs.org and patch
it first. In the latest kernel 2.4.5 you will need to use
reiserfs-umount-bug-fix-patch-for-linux-2.4.5 patch:
Get the patch and put it in /usr/src
patch -p0  linux-2.4.5-reiserfs-umount-fix-patch

Or just use a kernel version <> 2.4.5.  ;)


INSTALLING Reiserfsprogs 3.x.0k.pre8
        ./configure --prefix=/usr &&
        make &&
        make install

HOW TO CONVERT FROM ext2fs to reiserfs

*** QUESTION ***
Is there a method of actually converting ext2 to reiser?
*** ANSWER ***
In short, no not without a lot of buggering around.
Long answer http://www.namesys.com/change_fs.html


And now a few boring facts about the different configurations possible when
creating your reiser partition.  There are three different types of hash
(and before some clown asks, no you cant smoke it!) available when
making your reiser partition :

    rupasov : the fastest yet MOST unstable type available, DO NO USE IT!
              It will, in most cases, cause you to have hash collisions,
              a very bad thing to happen.  You will loose some/all the data
              that you are in the process of writing.  You have been warned.  ;)

    tea     : This is the slowest of the hashes available, it does mean that
              you are VERY unlikely to get any hash collisions, hence no loss
              of data.

    r5      : This is a modified rupasov hash, it is the default hash and is the
              middle in terms of speed and relability.  Being a total reiserfs user
              i can say that I have never had a problem with r5, where i had many
              when using rupasov.

Before starting a new LFS that will be on reiserfs
        a. Install Reiserfsprogs 3.x.0k.pre8
        b. Do
            mkreiserfs -h r5 -v 1 /dev/<whatever> (for patched 2.2.x kernel) or
            mkreiserfs -h r5 -v 2 /dev/<whatever> (for kernel 2.4.x series) instead of mke2fs
        c. And do everything else like those in the books except for the change
           mentioned above

WHAT NEXT
        Now you have fully reiserfs LFS =)

