Most of the documentation is a snapshot of the old Namesys site (archive.org, 2007-09-29).
There was also a Reiser4 Wiki (archive.org, 2007-07-06) once on pub.namesys.com.
Reiser4 development appears to have stalled and ReiserFS is deprecated and scheduled to be removed from mainline Linux in 2025.
Reiser4 Howto
Reiser4
As reiser4 is not in mainline yet, we have to apply the right patch to get this working:
$ wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/edward/reiser4/reiser4-for-2.6/reiser4-for-2.6.30.patch.bz2 $ wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/edward/reiser4/reiser4-for-2.6/reiser4-for-2.6.30.patch.bz2.sign $ gpg --verify reiser4-for-2.6.30.patch.bz2.sign reiser4-for-2.6.30.patch.bz2 gpg: Signature made Tue 23 Jun 2009 12:43:47 AM CEST using DSA key ID 517D0F0E gpg: Good signature from "Linux Kernel Archives Verification Key <ftpadmin@kernel.org>" $ cd /usr/src/linux $ bzip2 -dc ~/reiser4-for-2.6.30.patch.bz2 | patch -p1
Now enable CONFIG_REISER4_FS and build (and install) your kernel. Reboot, and don't forget to
report bugs if things go wrong. Even more important: don't forget your backups before messing with your filesystems!
ReiserFS
Since reiserfs is in mainline, just enable the following options in your kernel .config:
CONFIG_REISERFS_FS CONFIG_REISERFS_FS_XATTR (optional) CONFIG_REISERFS_FS_POSIX_ACL (optional) CONFIG_REISERFS_FS_SECURITY (optional)
Todays distributions should have this options enabled already, no need to build your kernel. However, not every Linux distribution supports reiserfs. But if you disregard your distribution's recommended settings, you'll probably know what you're doing anyway.
Booting off a ReiserFS/Reiser4 partition
Booting off a ReiserFS/Reiser4 partition: what we mean here is that the kernel (usually a file in /boot) is actually located on a ReiserFS/Reiser4 partition. If you have a separate partition for /boot (e.g. a (readonly-mounted) ext2 partition at the beginning of your disk) and your root-filesystem is on a ReiserFS/Reiser4 partition, you only need to make sure that ReiserFS/Reiser4 support is enabled in your kernel - but that's true for every filesystem and has nothing to to with the bootloader.
As far as the writer is informed, booting off a ReiserFS partition is fully supported by LiLo or GRUB.
For Reiser4, LiLo is known to work out of the box. To install GRUB on a Reiser4 partition, a few more steps are needed.