Re: ZFS for a desktop computer

On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 8:53 AM, Doug Rabson <dfr_at_rabson.org> wrote:
>
> On 10 Nov 2008, at 19:57, Joao Barros wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 6:43 PM, John Nielsen <lists_at_jnielsen.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> On Monday 10 November 2008 09:47:46 am Joao Barros wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Nov 1, 2008 at 7:17 PM, John Nielsen <lists_at_jnielsen.net> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> There are patches available to allow [booting from ZFS]...
>>>>
>>>> Can you point out those patches? Thx
>>>
>>> I may have mis-spoken. I believe it is being worked on but I don't have
>>> any pointers to specific code.
>>>
>>> What I had in mind was http://wiki.freebsd.org/ZFSOnRoot, which allows
>>> the
>>> root partition to be on ZFS but still requires a small UFS /boot.
>>
>> Yes, there is an item in the wiki for zfsboot with a big finger
>> pointing at Doug Rabson (cc'd) but I don't know the status of the
>> task.
>> I was using the /boot on small ufs partition method to boot my raidz
>> but upgraded my machine and added a 1TB disk to the mix. I'll be
>> booting from a usb pen with root on zfs.
>> As soon as zfsboot works I'll ditch the usb pen.
>>
>> Doug, can you provide some status update on zfsboot? Do you need help
>> on something?
>
> I implemented zfsboot for simple disks and mirrors and also collections of
> simple disks and/or mirrors. This work is in pjd's perforce tree and will
> end up in current when that tree is ready to commit. If I manage to find
> some spare time before then, I hope to add raidz and raidz2 support to it.
> The key problem here as in so many other things is lack of time :(
>

I'd like to start by saying "Thank you!" for your work on zfsboot :-)

Actually zfsboot is available'ish in the zfs patch (see freebsd-fs_at_)
Pawel made available some months ago.
I didn't try it because my old machine wouldn't boot CURRENT with a
Promise (regression). My new machine runs CURRENT just fine but from
the feedback on the zfs patch thread the patch doesn't apply to a
recent CURRENT.
I took a peek at Pawel's commits at perforce and he seems busy so
we'll just have to wait for a new patch :-)


-- 
Joao Barros