Arch Linux User Repository

@demizer I don't/won't run ZFS as a root file system. I'm getting the following build error: http://pastebin.com/ZcWiaViK

@modular, I don't use zfs as root, but I don't think you need to depmod and mkinitcpio every time you upgrade, i'm not 100% sure though since I don't use zfs as root. depmod is done automatically by makepkg on install. I do know for sure that on kernel upgrades (3.5.5 -> 3.5.6), you will have to rebuild and upgrade. I am working on a DKMS solution to help alleviate this and am also working on making an unofficial repository so users don't have to build themselves. Honestly at this point I would not use zfs as root because linux support is still under very heavy development. zfs is stable as a rock, but not the integration into linux. Case in point, the 3.6 kernel is released and the patches have been merged into the ZOL source tree, but the ZOL devs still have not made a release. To this end, I would say if you use zfs with anything in linux, make sure you have proper backups before updating. You just never know. As of this moment I am waiting for the next ZOL release, rc12, before I update the packages on AUR. At some point in the future I will also update the git packages in AUR, after getting permission or control from the current zfs-git package maintainer in AUR so users can easily build the latest git version if they choose.

Isn't there a more elegant version of updating? What do you guys do? depmod, then mkinitcpio -p linux every time? Linux 3.6.2 is current in Arch, can you fix this package accordingly? Thanks!

@srf21c, I will see about adjusting the dependency versions to have a minimum for the lts kernels. I'll have to look around to see what the standard practice is for kernel packages when it comes to linux-lts. Until then, change 3.5 to 3.0 when building the packages with makepkg, or whatever you use to install packages from AUR. It should install fine. Let me know if you have any problems. @ronnylov, I just finished setting up my data server with systemd and also ran into no problems with zfs, but I also don't run zfs as root. I think the main issue with systemd and zfs is with those that run zfs as root. From what I have read, the ZOL developers that run as root, don't use systemd... yet. Of course, I would also like to get rid of the last vestiges of the old initscripts off my system, as we all probably do, but the arch devs did a great job of integrating everything and it is completely out of the way.

I'd like to build this package on a system running the linux-lts 3.0.46 kernel. It seems that the spl dependency requires linux-headers>=3.5. According to http://zfsonlinux.org/faq.html#WhatKernelVersionsAreSupported supported Linux kernel range is 2.6.26 - 3.5. Are there any workarounds you are aware of to get zfs running with linux-lts?

@mikers and @demizer: Regarding systemd I can say that "A mixed systemd/initscripts installation" according to the systemd wiki with zfs being the only daemon listed in rc.conf works for me. But I do not use ZFS on the root file system. So there is no need to avoid systemd.

I have flagged all of the packages out of date due to the 3.6 kernel in core. The spl package does not currently build with the 3.6 kernel and the api updates to allow it to build will not land until rc12 which should come in the next few weeks. Until then I recommend staying with 3.5 kernel until rc12 is released. Thanks!

@mikers, thanks for the tip. Now i'm not sure when systemd support will be implemented. I myself don't know enough about the internals of systemd (or zfs for that matter) to implement the support myself, and have zero time to really dig deep. Looks like my desktop will not be systemd for a while.