Slackware{64,}-current, GNU GRUB and XFS v5
 

GNU GRUB can't boot Slackware-current from a XFS-formatted volume when the filesystem format is XFS v5, provided by the latest Linux kernel versions.

GNU GRUB indeed returns a "not a correct xfs inode" error message and switches to the emergency console (I attached a screenshot from a VirtualBox VM).

Steps to reproduce:
Install Slackware-current on XFS from a -current ISO and choose GNU GRUB as your boot loader (BIOS or UEFI doesn't matter).

Support for the new format was committed a year ago.


The solution is to upgrade GNU GRUB to the latest git revision or to backport the commits to the current version, as long as it's possible.


Cheers,
Luca De Pandis

Another solution is to use a GRUB-supported filesystem for /boot.

Until Grub also gets a stable new version release, and not more beta releases, or git pulls with a date-time stamp, and Patrick changes his mind on which version of Grub we use, just use a separate /boot partition. It's actually better practice to use a separate boot as Patrick recommended anyway, and if needed, you can always disable it being automounted in fstab for better security practices. Many recommend ext2 for /boot.

Both of you are right, I guess. Thinking back, upgrading to an unstable release of GRUB is too risky.

That said, actually I use XFS for my recovery partition (a simple Slackware64-current tree rsync-ed from a remote mirror). For root and home I use BTRFS, and I prefer to avoid splitting my root, because I don't like separate /boot partition when I don't use special configurations like LVM+LUKS.
I used XFS for root just to report the bug, so until the next stable version will be released and the package will be upgraded, I think I'll switch to another FS, like ext4.

Thank you very much for your answers, both of you. :)

Cheers,
Luca De Pandis