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On Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 1:06 PM, Ian Stakenvicius <axs@g.o> wrote: |
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> |
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> Genkernel's initramfs generation was what we endorsed for the most |
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> part, until dracut came around. it's hard to say what "most" are |
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> doing but i expect dracut and genkernel based initramfs's make up |
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> the vast majority in use by gentoo users, with a small minority |
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> rolling their own through other means. |
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> |
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While I personally endorse dracut over genkernel, the reality is that |
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only genkernel is actually documented in the handbook. This is due at |
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least in part to laziness on my part as I've been meaning to add it |
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since forever. |
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Likewise I intend to update the handbook to make selection of |
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openrc/systemd less convoluted as well. The current handbook does |
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offer systemd as an option but then basically refers you out to |
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another page that doesn't follow the same flow as the handbook. |
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In my notes I've found that it is a pretty trivial change to pick one |
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or the other actually if you do it at the right time, so this could be |
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added to the handbook with very little disruption to the flow for |
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non-systemd users. I imagine other service managers would be similar, |
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or even simpler. I found that switching between the two only requires |
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two changes - one is to pick a systemd profile relatively early in the |
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process before doing a world update, and then changing one line in |
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your grub config at the end. If you emerge world after you do most of |
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your system configuration systemd will automatically pick up all the |
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openrc configuration and use it, which as a bonus leaves you with a |
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system that is easy to boot in either mode. |
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Getting back to dracut - it is really just a few lines added as an |
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alternative to the initramfs section. After you build your kernel it |
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is really just a one-liner, and grub2-mkconfig picks up on it |
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automatically (as I imagine it probably does with genkernel as well). |
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Unless you want to play with the configuration there isn't much fuss. |
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I think we really should give strong consideration to recommending |
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dracut as a default, while of course preserving the option of |
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genkernel. I'm certainly open to feedback if there is some use case |
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where genkernel is better, but dracut is cross-distro, gives you |
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options to easily maximize or minimize your config, and is really easy |
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to tailor with modules. |
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-- |
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Rich |
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