Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: Matthew Thode <prometheanfire@g.o> (prometheanfire)
To: gentoo-dev@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] rfc: locations of binaries and separate /usr
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2012 07:35:18
Message-Id: 20120101013305.74edaba8@khorne.mthode.org
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-dev] rfc: locations of binaries and separate /usr by "Olivier Crête"
1 On Sun, 01 Jan 2012 02:12:22 -0500
2 Olivier Crête <tester@g.o> wrote:
3
4 > Hi,
5 >
6 > On Sat, 2011-12-31 at 19:59 -0600, William Hubbs wrote:
7 > > I have been working with robbat2 on solutions to the separate /usr
8 > > issue (That is why I have specifically cc'd him on this email)
9 > > which will allow people to not use an initramfs. If we migrate
10 > > everything off of the root fs to /usr, all of those solutions become
11 > > moot. On the other hand, if we don't migrate, we run the risk of
12 > > eventually having our default configuration not supported by
13 > > upstream.
14 >
15 > I think the general consensus among other distros is that initramfs is
16 > the new /. Many core elements of the Linux system will start
17 > installing themselves in /usr, starting with udev, so we won't have a
18 > choice anyway. Also, I doubt it's currently possible to boot a Gentoo
19 > system without /usr mounted anyway.
20 >
21 > > 1) Start migrating packages along with upstream and have everyone
22 > > who has a separate /usr (including me by the way) start using an
23 > > initramfs of some kind, either dracut or one that we generate
24 > > specifically for gentoo. The reason I suggest the initramfs, is,
25 > > unfortunately if we migrate everything, nothing else would work.
26 >
27 > I also don't see a good reason to not adopt dracut, re-implementing
28 > something that already works and is maintained by a competent upstream
29 > seems wasteful to me. I really don't see why people resist using an
30 > initramfs so much.
31 >
32 > The udev/kmod/systemd/dracut effort to standardise the base userspace
33 > of Linux is probably scary for quite a few Gentoo-ers as it means
34 > that the end result of an installed Gentoo system will be less
35 > differentiated than it was before. But it still is a step in the
36 > right direction as most of these standardized pieces are much better
37 > than what we currently have. The OpenRC/baselayout-2 fiasco, not much
38 > better than baselayout-1 and unmaintained upstream shows that even a
39 > relatively large distribution like us can't maintain a competitive
40 > base system solution, adopting the udev/kmod/systemd way will allow
41 > us to use all the work that they are doing and instead concentrate on
42 > making a better system.
43 >
44
45
46 All of my systems currently have a seperate /usr that is mounted at
47 boot. Unfortunately I do agree that this is not something that we can
48 fight. This was brought up earlier and the only thing we can do
49 for people like myself (who mount /usr at boot) is to create a simple
50 initramfs that only has the purpose of mounting /usr at boot. The main
51 thing I don't like about initramfs is that we have to regenerate it any
52 time we update the packages that get included in it.
53
54 --
55 Matthew Thode (prometheanfire)

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