I have configured a system like this: - 3 partitions: hda1, hda2, hda3. - In hda1 I've installed Knoppix 3.7 (kernel 2.4.27) on an ext3 filesystem - hda2 is a clean ext3 partition - hda3 is a swap partition
I'd like to use UnionFS as root filesystem in order to merge hda1 (read only) and hda2 (read write). In this way all the system chages will be saved in hda2, leaving hda1 unchanged. I use an initrd tha contains the following linuxrc: #!/bin/sh export PATH=.:/:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin mount -t proc /proc /proc mkdir -p /mnt mkdir -p /mnt/hda2 mount -nt ext3 -o rw /dev/hda2 /mnt/hda2 mkdir -p /mnt/hda1 mount -nt ext3 -o ro /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1 modprobe unionfs mount -t unionfs -o dirs="/mnt/hda2=rw:/mnt/hda1=ro" unionfs /mnt/hda2 umount /proc cd /mnt/hda2 mkdir -p initrd pivot_root . initrd At boot I obtain a kernel panic: Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 03:02 I use grub as boot manager, with this configuration: title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.4.27 (Safe Mode) root (hd0,0) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.27 root=/dev/hda2 ro ramdisk_size=100000 \ init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off nomce initrd /boot/roinitrd.img.gz savedefault boot If I add this line at linuxrc, after pivot root: exec chroot . bin/bash <dev/console >dev/console 2>&1 I obtain that: - The system doesn't crash and UnionFS is correctly mounted as root filesystem - The init process doesn't start: in this way I can't use the graphical environment (KDE)! My goal is to obtain a system that works in the same way as if I boot from hda1 only, but that doesn't modify hda1 (the changes are written only on hda2). Is it possible? Can anyone help me to resolve the problem? Are there any alternative methods to obtain what I want? Thanks. Francesco _______________________________________________ unionfs mailing list [email protected] http://www.fsl.cs.sunysb.edu/mailman/listinfo/unionfs
