[gentoo-amd64] Re: grub and maximum kernel file size

[Duncan]

Branko Badrljica <brankob@××××××××××.com> posted
49DE4433.3010701@××××××××××.com, excerpted below, on  Thu, 09 Apr 2009
20:53:39 +0200:

> I need initramfs to be able to boot from RAID. Same for LVM.

Yes, for LVM, no, for RAID, at least md/mdp kernel RAID. DM based 
firmware RAID is different, and not something I'd trust /my/ system to.  
Does it need userspace setup?  Regardless, most firmware RAIDs can be 
configured JBOD and run with the more standard md/mdp kernel RAID anyway.

I run my root on partitioned mdp kernel RAID without an initramfs, so 
it's definitely possible.  But I deliberately kept root out of the LVM 
since it requires userspace config and therefore an initramfs/initrd.  
/home, etc (not /etc), are on lvm, but I can boot the main system for 
troubleshooting purposes, without lvm.

> It is also useful for uvesafb. Uvesafb driver is finally the one that
> gives me nice high res even in console, but it needs v86d, which has to
> be compiled against the particular kernel that will use it.

user-vesa-framebuffer, I take it?  FWIW, I'm running radeonfb here.  But 
before it, I was running a very small font on vgacon.  It worked 
reasonably well, tho radeonfb is certainly more flexible.

But what I'm really looking forward to is kms, kernel-based-modesetting, 
getting it out of X, so the kernel handles it all.  Intel has it in 
2.6.29.  Radeon has/had it, but it's using the old ttm (? IIRC that's the 
abbreviation, GEM's the new one) and will need reworked but hopefully 
later this year.  What the status is on others, I really don't know.

> This is the reason I use two-part initramfs:
>
> - first is bundled within kernel
> - second gets loaded by grub

That's a really interesting idea. =:^)  I'm sure others use it too, but 
this is the first time I've read of it.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman