Persistent ext4 Roots for Multikernel Linux on Google Compute Engine

Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My first Multikernel Linux experiment on Google Compute Engine (GCE) showed that one VM could run a primary kernel and multiple child kernels at the same time. The children could use different kernel binaries, but their root filesystems were either minimal initramfs images or DAXFS. That left an important question unanswered: could a child kernel have a persistent, read-write ext4 root filesystem?

Ext4 on Experiment, Fail, Learn, Repeat

Persistent ext4 Roots for Multikernel Linux on Google Compute Engine