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On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 10:22 AM, Greg KH <gregkh@g.o> wrote: |
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> On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 03:08:27PM +0000, Ciaran McCreesh wrote: |
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>> On Wed, 14 Mar 2012 08:04:31 -0700 |
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>> Greg KH <gregkh@g.o> wrote: |
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>> > Not always, no, it isn't obvious that something didn't start up |
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>> > correctly, or that it didn't fully load properly. Some programs later |
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>> > on recover and handle things better. |
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>> |
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>> So why not work on fixing those things, since they're clearly symptoms |
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>> of a larger "oops, we have too much coupling" problem, instead of |
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>> forcing a workaround onto large numbers of users? |
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> |
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> I seriously doubt there are a "large number" of users here that have |
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> this issue. |
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> |
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|
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The majority of users should not encounter any difficulty due to this |
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issue. Those that are doing special things that require careful |
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mounting, etc should be sufficiently competent to deal with this issue |
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without any trouble at all, especially given the various solution |
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paths. |
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|
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> And even if there is, again, there is a simple solution that Gentoo |
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> provides for this issue, see the earlier initrd solution that we support |
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> today. |
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> |
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|
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Gentoo provides a solution with genkernel, dracut provides a solution, |
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even the linux kernel itself provides a solution (in my view the |
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easiest solution at that). |
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|
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> I'll go back to lurking now, and getting stuff done, like everyone else |
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> on this thread should be doing, instead of complaining (this is -dev, |
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> not -users...) |
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> |
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> greg k-h |
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> |
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|
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Oh, please Greg, do continue to stay engaged, I enjoy your perspective |
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very much. |
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|
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I just wanted to drop this simple fact in there. This has been coming |
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for several years now AND the linux kernel has been using an initramfs |
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for every boot, every time for a long time now, all 2.6 and up as I |
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understand it. If the initramfs is empty, well the kernel is smart |
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enough to fall back on "legacy" boot process. |
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|
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If you care to read about it, its all contained locally if your kernel |
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source in the file |
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linux/Documentation/filesystems/ramfs-rootfs-initramfs.txt |
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|
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Its a great read, sure to entertain and enlighten. It saved my bacon a |
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few times when mdadm switched to the new metadata format. Once I began |
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to learn about what the initramfs made possible, entire new worlds of |
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possibility appeared (and I was not even on drugs!). |
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|
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It's actually something of a surprise to me that there are people |
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upset about this change, since it cleans things up a bit while also |
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giving people that want and/or need it, a great deal of power and |
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control over the boot process that was not nearly as easy before. |
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|
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I do believe Gentoo, as a community/volunteer-run and super-power-user |
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distribution, should be careful, a bit wary, and seriously consider |
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the decisions made by our corporate colleagues (we do have the mandate |
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to maintain our independence). However, simply because RHEL, SUSE, etc |
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are corporation controlled distributions does not mean they are bad or |
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trying to control/ruin the rest of the distros. |
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|
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Anyway, I merely thought I would place my commentary on this situation |
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here for posterity. Since I have an opinion, I thought I would share |
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it for better or worse. |
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|
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-- |
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Matthew W. Summers |
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Gentoo Foundation Inc. |