VXEXT Linux FileSystem Module

The files you find in this directory are part of a reverse engineered implementation of the so called VXEXT1.0 extended DOS filesystem shipped and used in the VxWorks Real-Time Operating System developed by Wind River, Inc.

Sources and development of this filesystem is largly based on the standard FAT and MSDOS filesystem routines found as part of the main linux kernel sources which are copyright by their respecitive authors mentioned there. However, minor cosmetic changes have been made to the sources and non required parts were removed wherever possible, making the sources easier to maintain.

AUTHOR

Development started in July 2004 and a first 1.0 version was published in early August 2004. The current author is:

Jens Maus – mail@jens-maus.de, http://jens-maus.de/

INSTALLATION

Installation of this filesystem is mainly based on the way you want to integrate it into the linux kernel:

(1) Compilation/Installation outside the kernel tree as a module (*.ko):

1. Make sure you have installed the correct kernel sources for your currently running linux system.
2. Unarchive the vxext_fs-x.x.tar.bz2 and cd into its subdirectory
3. run make and cross your fingers!
4. copy the final vxext.ko kernel module into the modules directory: cp vxext.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/misc
5. run depmod -a
6. run modprobe vxext to load the kernel module
7. mount your disk with mount -t vxext /dev/sda

(2) Direct integration into the linux kernel tree and compilation as either a module or compiled in filesystem:

1. Install the proper kernel source tree in /usr/src/linux
2. copy the vexet_fs_1_0-linux-X.X.X.patch patchfile to /usr/src/linux
3. change to the /usr/src/linux directory
4. run patch -p1 <vxext_fs_1_0-linux.X.X.X.patch to patch your kernel tree
5. run make menuconfig and configure the VXEXT filesystem either as a module or directly compiled into the kernel.
6. run make ; make modules_install in /usr/src/linux
7. reboot and have phun.
8. mount your disk with mount -t vxext /dev/sda

COPYRIGHT/LICENSE/WARRANTIES

The sources and all other documents found in this archive are free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

It is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

VxWorks is a registered trademark of Wind River, Inc.

COMMENTS

Please note that as this is a completley reverse engineered filesystem driver based on the results of a VxWorks 5.2 system no warranty can be given that it might also work with later versions of VxWorks or any other brand of the VxWorks RTOS. Absolutly no documentation or official help from Wind River Inc was received during the development of this implementation. So the implementation is only based on the research done during development but using disk analyzing tools and such. So if you have any detailed official information about the exact implementation of this filesystem you can share, please feel free to contact me.

MORE INFORMATION

Please consult the linux based vxext.txt filesystem documentation included in the driver for a more detailed information on the particular implemenation.