[$Header: D:/ext2-os2/doc/RCS/README,v 1.4 1995/09/07 23:55:25 Willm Exp Willm $] ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» º Linux ext2 file system driver for OS/2 2.x and WARP - Allows OS/2 to º º access your Linux ext2fs partitions as normal drive letters. º º OS/2 implementation : Copyright (C) 1995 Matthieu WILLM º º º º This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify º º it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by º º the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or º º (at your option) any later version. º º º º This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, º º but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of º º MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the º º GNU General Public License for more details. º º º º You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License º º along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software º º Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. º ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ BETA VERSION 0.4 Please consult the online help file (ext2-os2.inf) for IMPORTANT installation and configuration instructions. Please read the documentation BEFORE trying the driver !! ***** IMPORTANT WARNING - READ THIS FIRST ***** This is a beta file system driver. It means that IT IS NOT FINISHED AND STILL UNSTABLE. Being a driver it runs at the most privileged level of the OS/2 operating system, known as "kernel mode". IN KERNEL MODE THERE IS NO MORE CRASH PROTECTION. It means that if a bug occurs in the driver IT CAN CAUSE A HANG OR A SYSTEM HALT, AND THUS CAN CAUSE LOSS OF DATA. Write capabilities are not yet completely bug free, so please notice that if a problem occurs, IT IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE THAT EXT2-OS2 COMPLETELY TRASHES YOUR EXT2FS PARTITION(S). HAVING A BACKUP OF YOUR LINUX PARTITION WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA ! I *STRONGLY* recommend to test this driver on a dedicated ext2fs partition first. - DON'T RUN THIS DRIVER ON A PRODUCTION MACHINE - DON'T RUN THIS DRIVER IF YOU MANIPULATE CRITICAL DATA - DON'T RUN THIS DRIVER ON A HEAVY LOADED MACHINE - BE PREPARED TO ENCOUNTER SYSTEM HANGS - BE PREPARED TO ENCOUNTER SYSTEM HALTS - BE PREPARED TO HAVE YOUR EXT2FS PARTITION DAMAGED OR EVEN DESTROYED AND ALL ITS DATA LOST - USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISKS, AND ONLY ON A TEST MACHINE YOU ACCEPT TO CRASH AND REINSTALL ! Note : If you don't want to take the risk of trashing your ext2fs partition(s) then don't use the read-write version, use the read-only version (V0.1) included in this package instead (it's in the file ext2_os2.zip) : V0.1 is pretty stable according to people who tested it since released. TROUBLESHOOTING : ----------------- To help debug this driver, I included two useful files : - ext2-os2.exe : a IFS debug console. If you suspect a problem, try to look at the messages it produces...they are sometimes useful ! - ext2-os2.sym : the symbol file, for those who play with the kernel debugger daily :-)) PREVIOUS VERSIONS TESTERS : --------------------------- Many thanks to all of you. This is really helpful to debug and improve ext2-os2 ! You can find a summary of changes in ext2-os2.inf INCLUDED IN THIS PACKAGE : -------------------------- The package now includes Deon van der Westhuysen's Linux ext2fs partition filter V 1.2b Please look at the file ext2flt.doc for its usage and Deon's copyright notice. (I started to merge e2flt12 doc with ext2-os2.inf but it's not yet finished !) This package includes : - e2flt12b.zip : original ext2flt package with sources - ext2flt.ddp : ext2flt device driver profile - ext2flt.doc : ext2flt documentation - EXT2FLT.FLT : ext2flt filter driver - ext2flt.sym : ext2flt symbol file for kernel debugger users WRITE ACCESS CONSIDERATIONS : ----------------------------- - This release uses only lazy writes : it means that data are not committed to the disk immediately. You *MUST ALWAYS* SHUTDOWN YOUR SYSTEM PROPERLY so that data can be written to disk. IF YOU DON'T FOLLOW THIS RULE, YOUR EXT2FS PARTITION WILL BE PROBABLY DAMAGED, AND YOUR DATA LOST. - I included a sync utility that flushes the cache to disk if you need to be sure that data are committed without shutting down the system. This sync utility is still primitive, so please use it only when no other activity is taking place on your partition. - I included also a lazy write daemon that runs at a low priority and tries to write at most 10% of buffers every 30 s. (if they are dirty). This daemon (ext2_lw.exe) is automatically loaded at boot time. DEFAULTS SETTINGS : ------------------- -he default behavior after installation is read only. To turn on read/write access you have to specify -rw on the ext2-os2.ifs command line AND /W on the ext2flt.flt command line. Matthieu WILLM willm@ibm.net (home) mwillm@vnet.ibm.com (work) Note : file_id.diz contents, for BBS sysops ! ---- Cut here ---- Linux ext2fs file system driver (IFS) for OS/2. Version 0.4 beta. Allows OS/2 to access Linux native partitions (ext2fs partitions) as normal OS/2 drive letters. (replaces ext2_os2.zip, ext2_02a.zip, ext2_03a.zip and ext2fix.zip). Licence agreement : GNU GPL. Matthieu WILLM Home : willm@ibm.net Work : mwillm@vnet.ibm.com ---- Cut here ----