i''m not an expert, but ill do my best to answer. replies interspersed
below.
On Sun, Aug 8, 2010 at 8:57 PM, Evert Vorster <evorster@gmail.com>
wrote:> Hi there.
>
> Has anybody got a btrfs root filesystem that is running on a bare
> block device? Would lilo be able to boot an initramfs that is living
> on such a filesystem?
i haven''t [ever] used lilo, but AFIAK no bootloader, with the
exception of maybe syslinux (extlinux), can boot from a btrfs device;
you won''t have to worry about the initramfs, because the loader
won''t
even be able to find the kernel. you''ll need a boot partition with a
filesystem supported by the loader.
> What I intend to do is to erase all the partitions off my system, make
> a btrfs volume on /dev/sda, and then just use subvolumes in stead of
> partitions.
>
> Is this folly?
not at all. this is what many of us would like to do, but we run into
the bootloader issues above.
> Would having an initramfs be a boon or a bane in this endeavour?
a non-issue, as the bootloader cannot even get the kernel (unless your
booting the kernel/initramfs from a different device...)
> Would lilo writing to the mbr of a device that is claimed by btrfs
> break the file system?
i don''t think so, but i''m not sure.
> Do you need to have a partition table to have an MBR?
i just read about this recently. IIRC, the partition table is within
the 512 byte MBR; it''s a 64 byte section starting at byte 446. so...
no :-)
C Anthony
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