Hi all,

My laptop HD just died, so I figured since I'm installing everything again, I'd like to use Reiser4.
Also, I'd like to use a Debian based distro, and I am adverse to Gentoo (don't like waiting for compilation)... I could tolerate a Fedora or Suse.

I would like to know how to go about installing any one of these distros from scratch using Reiser4, and without doing something cheap like:

install w/o reiser4
make reiser4 kernel
make reiser4 partition
cp old stuff to new partition
set boot params for new partition

because doing that I'm stuck with a non-reiser4 partition, and its a pain.

Any ideas?

You can install Gentoo without compiling everything.
If you hesitate between Fedora and Suse, then install Suse without hesitation.
If you want a Debian-based, then Ubuntu is pretty popular those days. (Knoppix rocks too)
If you want something very powerful, then go for Slackware. Reiserfs is the default fs, then you should be happy.
Enjoy.

slackware is reiser3.... right?

I think I will go ubuntu... but I still don't see how to make it ubuntu/reiser4

Slackware 10.1 was released after Reiser4 but i don't know how to check. Cfdisk isn't very verbose.

AFAIK, Slack doesn't have reiser4, though it must be possible with the help of a recent Gentoo liveCD.. I will do it 3 days later; as soon as my midterm exams are over.
Here's the plan: I will install a -very- minimal system. Then install reiser4progs, and compile a kernel with reiser4 support. Put it into my -seperate- /boot partition, backup my minimal system to another partiton, boot system with Gentoo CD, make my / partition reiser4, copy back my minimal system in place.. I hope it works, any ideas appreciated...

Reiser4 also requires you to build and install libaal (also available for download from Namesys), then reiser4progs.

Also, reiser4progs will try to install it's important binaries (e.g. fsck.reiser4 etc) to /usr/sbin - these need to be moved to /sbin.