How to avoid the difference in options that were used for creation of ext4 partitions on different Linux distro?

Question

I have some set of scripts that create qcow2 file with grub legacy (0.97) with special patch to boot from ext4 and ext4 file system for '/'.

When I run those scripts on Ubuntu 12.04/14.04 the VMs works in KVM. But for Centos 7 the grub legacy doesn't load from ext4.

The '/' is creating with mkfs -t ext4 -L BOOT /dev/mapper/loop0p1

When I move qcow2 files from Ubuntu to CentOs they can boot. But qcow2 images that were created on CentOs 7 can't boot on both systems.

When we are executing mkfs -t ext4 -L BOOT at:

Ubuntu KVM host 12/14, dumpe2fs shows:

Filesystem features: has_journal ext_attr resize_inode dir_index filetype needs_recovery extent flex_bg sparse_super large_file huge_file uninit_bg dir_nlink extra_isize
Journal features: journal_incompat_revoke

CentOs 7 KVM host, dumpe2fs shows: When we executing mkfs -t ext4 -L BOOT at:

Ubuntu KVM host 12/14, dumpe2fs shows: Filesystem features: has_journal ext_attr resize_inode dir_index filetype needs_recovery extent flex_bg sparse_super large_file huge_file uninit_bg dir_nlink extra_isize Journal features: journal_incompat_revoke

CentOs 7 KVM host, dumpe2fs shows:

Filesystem features: has_journal ext_attr resize_inode dir_index filetype extent 64bit flex_bg sparse_super large_file huge_file uninit_bg dir_nlink extra_isize
Journal features: journal_incompat_revoke journal_64bit

So mkfs.ext4 adds:

1. Journal features:journal_64bit
2. Filesystem features: 64bit

How to avoid this?

Regards.

Answer 1

man mkfs.ext4

The defaults of the parameters for the newly created filesystem, if not overridden by the options listed below, are controlled by the /etc/mke2fs.conf configuration file.

Ubuntu host, cat /etc/mke2fs.conf

[defaults]
        base_features = sparse_super,filetype,resize_inode,dir_index,ext_attr
        default_mntopts = acl,user_xattr
        enable_periodic_fsck = 0
        blocksize = 4096
        inode_size = 256
        inode_ratio = 16384

[fs_types]
        ext4 = {
                features = has_journal,extent,huge_file,flex_bg,uninit_bg,dir_nlink,extra_isize
                auto_64-bit_support = 1
                inode_size = 256
        }
        ext4dev = {
                features = has_journal,extent,huge_file,flex_bg,uninit_bg,dir_nlink,extra_isize
                inode_size = 256
                options = test_fs=1
        }

CentOs 7 host, cat /etc/mke2fs.conf:

[defaults]
        base_features = sparse_super,filetype,resize_inode,dir_index,ext_attr
        default_mntopts = acl,user_xattr
        enable_periodic_fsck = 0
        blocksize = 4096
        inode_size = 256
        inode_ratio = 16384
[fs_types]
        ext4 = {
                features = has_journal,extent,huge_file,flex_bg,uninit_bg,dir_nlink,extra_isize,64bit
                inode_size = 256
        }
        ext4dev = {
                features = has_journal,extent,huge_file,flex_bg,uninit_bg,dir_nlink,extra_isize
                inode_size = 256
                options = test_fs=1
        }