Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: waltdnes@××××××××.org
To: gentoo-dev@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] usr merge
Date: Sat, 09 Apr 2016 18:47:16
Message-Id: 20160409184712.GB17891@waltdnes.org
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-dev] usr merge by Rich Freeman
1 On Sat, Apr 09, 2016 at 07:11:31AM -0400, Rich Freeman wrote
2 >
3 > An initramfs is just a secondary bootloader for userspace. I almost
4 > always use them even if I'm just booting a VM with a single partition
5 > on it. If something goes wrong you can fall back to a shell in the
6 > initramfs and it is like having a rescue disk built into your system
7 > disk. For a more complex setup it is much more robust than relying on
8 > the kernel to find your root, and it also lets you build with a more
9 > module-based kernel, which has some benefits as well even if you build
10 > kernels tailored to each host.
11
12 Another point that just occurred to me...
13 - get a machine with 128 gigs of RAM
14 - put *ALL* software on the initramfs
15 - when initramfs comes up, it won't have to hand off control to the
16 "real init", because everything will be running off initramfs. A
17 hard drive will only be used for storing data, and config files.
18
19 What worries me is a future where only initramfs images will boot on
20 UEFI machines. Make that *SIGNED* initramfs images. I'm sure Microsoft
21 would love that. initramfs images with annual licence fees, hard-coded
22 telemetry to the mothership, and forced "upgrades" every so often.
23
24 --
25 Walter Dnes <waltdnes@××××××××.org>
26 I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications