install corrupts existing ext3 multi-boot partitions

[Ron Yorston]

arjanv at redhat.com wrote:
>On Sun, 2004-10-24 at 20:56 -0700, John Reiser wrote:
>> The cause might be that install causes all existing ext3 filesystems
>> get the new attribute ext_attr, and older kernels have bugs interpreting
>> this.  This seems to happen even for filesystems that were omitted from
>> the mount list when DiskDruid was run during install of FC3test3.  "Auto
>> management" of /media/idediskN might be a reason  why.
>>=20
>
>There is one caveat to be aware of: ext3 provides compatibility in one
>direction; new features can and are getting added that aren't readable
>by older kernels. Yet being able to read and write to older partitions
>is a very important goal for ext3.

Yes, all very true, but that doesn't address my concerns about this issue.

The original poster suggests that even unmounted filesystems can be
affected by intalling FC3.  Is that true?  And if so will it be fixed
before FC3 is released?

Can potential problems be avoided by installing FC3 with SELinux
turned off?

Until I have more information about this I'm not going to let FC3
anywhere near machines that multi-boot other versions of Linux.

Ron