ext4 support has returned in Limine bootloader

See discussion at github:

https://github.com/limine-bootloader/limine/issues/386

In a nutshell, Limine is a bootloader that is much simpler to use than grub2.
It is suitable for any Linux distro, not just EasyOS. Can boot Windows also.

Limine, up until v5, supports fat12/16/32 and ext2/3/4, no other filesystems.
The developer mintsuki has an ideology to keep Limine very simple, and she considered that the kernel vmlinuz and initrd could be in a fat partition, so could drop support for ext2/3/4.

The problem with that is EasyOS separates the bootloader and the OS, with the latter including vmlinuz and initrd being in a ext4 partition. Which is also how many other Linux distributions install.

So when mintsuki decided to drop support for ext4 in Limine v6 late last year, it left us stuck on using v5.

With upcoming 7.12.0 she has relented, but with the understanding that ext is experimental and unsupported. That means, if we do encounter any problem with ext4 then we should take it onboard to find the cause ourselves and present a solution, as a patch, to mintsuki. And not trouble her by reporting a fault.

Though, there are no problems with ext4 in the EasyOS usb stick.

Regarding the "Cannot enable A20 line", this is an ancient problem that goes right back to the IBM PC in 1981:

"A20 - a pain from the past"
https://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/kbd/A20.html

For ongoing discussion about this new development in Limine, I have posted to the Puppy Forum:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=12214      

Tags: easy