ext3 partition compatibility

Gene Czarcinski
Sat, 05 Feb 2005 17:36:39 -0000

Recently, I had some experiences that raises the question as to how compatible
(how safe) it is to mount and then read/write a partition using a system such
as FC1 or debian where the partition was  created under FC3.

1. I recently attempted to run e2fsck running on a FC1 system against a FC3
ext3 partition ... the program refused to run.  When I took the e2fsprogs
package from FC3 and rebuilt it on a FC1 system, I was able to run the
rebuilt e2fsck no problem.

2. I have a systems (laptops) which is dual boot with win2k and FC3.  I have
another dual boot system with win2k and debian.  I attempted to use
Symantec's ghost to image (backup) the drives -- the whole disk with all
partitions.  Per advertising, ghost supports NTFS, fat16, fat32. ext2, ext3,
and swap partitions.  Running ghost on the win2k+debian system worked fine.
However, when I ran it on the win2k+FC3 system it got errors.  After finally
finding the right google search, I located a mesage from a user with the same
problem.  That user had contacted Symantec and, apparent, ghost did not work
on FC3 (or FC2) partitions.

My suspicion is that the reason it does not work is SELinux.  Although the FC3
system was installed with SELinux disabled, I suspect that SELinux must
require some modifications/additions to the file system which may (does)
cause problems when it is access from a non-SELinux system.

Any help would be appreciated.  I am not looking for the ability to access
these partions, just to know if it should work or not.

Gene