Azure Linux version
Azure Linux 4.0
Deployment / platform
KVM VM (PXE network boot, offline installer)
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
When installing Azure Linux 4 using the offline installer ISO with a custom kickstart, I cannot use XFS as the root filesystem. The offline repo bundled in the ISO (/opt/azl-offline-repo/) does not include xfsprogs, so mkfs.xfs is unavailable during installation. Anaconda fails if the kickstart specifies --fstype=xfs.
The kernel has XFS support compiled as a module (xfs.ko.xz is present), and xfsprogs is available in the upstream repo (azurelinux-base), but during offline installation there's no network access to fetch it.
Describe the solution you'd like
Include xfsprogs and its dependencies inih and userspace-rcu in the offline installer repo so that XFS can be used as a filesystem option during installation, same as ext4.
Describe alternatives you've considered
Using ext4 instead. Works fine, but XFS is the standard for RHEL-based environments and many enterprise workloads expect it. Having it available during offline install would make Azure Linux more flexible as a drop-in for those environments.
Additional context
The offline repo has around 410 packages covering the base system. Adding xfsprogs and its dependencies (inih, userspace-rcu) totals ~1.4 MB and would enable XFS support without meaningful impact on ISO size. The kernel module is already shipped, just the userspace tooling is missing from the offline bundle.
Azure Linux version
Azure Linux 4.0
Deployment / platform
KVM VM (PXE network boot, offline installer)
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
When installing Azure Linux 4 using the offline installer ISO with a custom kickstart, I cannot use XFS as the root filesystem. The offline repo bundled in the ISO (
/opt/azl-offline-repo/) does not includexfsprogs, somkfs.xfsis unavailable during installation. Anaconda fails if the kickstart specifies--fstype=xfs.The kernel has XFS support compiled as a module (
xfs.ko.xzis present), andxfsprogsis available in the upstream repo (azurelinux-base), but during offline installation there's no network access to fetch it.Describe the solution you'd like
Include
xfsprogsand its dependenciesinihanduserspace-rcuin the offline installer repo so that XFS can be used as a filesystem option during installation, same as ext4.Describe alternatives you've considered
Using ext4 instead. Works fine, but XFS is the standard for RHEL-based environments and many enterprise workloads expect it. Having it available during offline install would make Azure Linux more flexible as a drop-in for those environments.
Additional context
The offline repo has around 410 packages covering the base system. Adding
xfsprogsand its dependencies (inih,userspace-rcu) totals ~1.4 MB and would enable XFS support without meaningful impact on ISO size. The kernel module is already shipped, just the userspace tooling is missing from the offline bundle.