Re: [gentoo-genkernel] Genkernel and Dracut integration

[Richard Yao]

On 09/01/2012 07:46 AM, Amadeusz Żołnowski wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have a bit more brain resources to continue the integration of Dracut
> with Genkernel, at last.  Dracut was meant to replace internal Genkernel
> initramfs generator, but recently Genkernel is being developed quite
> actively, therefore I think it would be a waste to just replace it.
> Both can coexist.  Although there are a lot of differences between
> Genkernel and Dracut, therefore there's no much sense to continue the
> integration the way I have started.  I have tried to replace initramfs
> generator transparently, translating command line options and
> configuration to Dracut options, to be fully compatible.  Quickly it has
> become a burden, because Genkernel code has to be updated according to
> changes in Dracut.  Just imagine you would have to update Genkernel for
> every kernel release.
>
> I propose to extract the initramfs generator from Genkernel and make it
> a standalone project.  The rest of the Genkernel could be rewritten to
> support both Gentoo's initramfs generator, Dracut and maybe some other
> in the future.  Of course this would be my job to do so and I'm only
> asking for acceptance from you.
>
> Another problem arisen is the name and versioning.  Solutions:
>
> 1) The framework integrating old Genkernel and Dracut could be just
> bumped to:
>
>   a) 4 - because there's no official 4.x release,
>   b) 5 - because there's an unofficial and dead 4.x:
>          https://github.com/eedgar/genkernel4

I would prefer calling it genkernel 5 to avoid confusing people.

> 2) The framework could be named genboot, because it actually takes care
> of kernel, initramfs and boot manager entries.  Although we're losing
> old good name.
>
> I am definitely for (1).  The extracted old internal Genkernel initramfs
> generator would need to be named differently for either case, for
> example: geninitrd, geninitramfs, genifs, genird or geninitfs.
>
>

We could just refactor genkernel by doing the following:

1) Copying /usr/bin/genkernel to /usr/bin/geninitramfs.
2) Rewriting /usr/bin/geninitramfs to only be capable of generating an
initramfs image like dracut.
3) Rewriting /usr/bin/genkernel to provide the user with the option to
invoke geninitramfs, invoke dracut or use a user generated initramfs image.

We would also need to update man pages and provide a geninitramfs man
page, but this should be workable.