[PATCH] olpc.fth - grow the root filesystem partition on boot

[Daniel Drake]

Hi James,

On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 5:58 PM, James Cameron <quozl at laptop.org> wrote:
> Consensus is to implement a partition resize in OpenFirmware as the last
> step of ''fs-update''.  This doesn't preclude the initramfs doing it,
> and the initramfs will do the filesystem resize.
>
> In OpenFirmware, we might either:
>
>  * do the resize only if the .zd file requests it, (a new ''resize:''
>   line after ''zblocks-end:''), or
>
>  * do the resize regardless, thus affecting previous builds once a
>   firmware update occurs.

I think I see a potential problem here. The problem is that during
upgrades, we run fs-update before upgrading firmware, and a firmware
upgrade is necessary for this new functionality.

Lets say an XO-1.5 is running 11.3.0 with a firmware that doesn't
support the resizing. The XO is upgraded to 12.1.0 final via
fs-update, and the 12.1.0 image requests a resize (if that is the road
chosen).

However, as the fs-update is done with the old firmware, the resize
does not happen. The system reboots, upgrades the firmware, and then
boots into a system with no free disk space.

Maybe I have just made a good argument as to why this needs to be done
in the initramfs: to avoid tricky upgrade considerations.

Daniel