microsoft / microsoft/azurelinux

[4.0] Offline installer ISO missing xfsprogs package preventing XFS filesystem during installation

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4.0 enhancement
Dominant language
Python
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Description

**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.

Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Inspect the offline repository at /opt/azl-offline-repo/ and determine how its package contents are assembled. Confirm that xfsprogs and its dependencies, inih and userspace-rcu, are included, then verify that a custom kickstart using --fstype=xfs succeeds without network access.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
linux
Domain
operating-systems
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
68/100

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