Grub ext3 256 byte inode issue

[Greg Schafer]

Hi List,

This came up a while back on the LFS lists and various other places but I
haven't done anything about it yet (shame!)

Summary, From about e2fsprogs-1.40.6 onwards, mkesfs started creating ext3
filesystems with default 256 byte size inodes instead of 128. Unpatched Grub
can't read these file systems and therefore can't boot them. Just google for
grub inode size to find plenty of references.

Has anyone here actually hit this problem?

Grub legacy is unmaintained. Big distros tend to carry a zillion Grub
patches. I've been reluctant to patch grub because of this.

A possible workaround is to edit /etc/mke2fs.conf or maybe even just make a
note to alert Refbuild readers of the issue.

Opinions?

Regards
Greg