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On Mon, Aug 15, 2016 at 5:06 AM, J. Roeleveld <joost@××××××××.org> wrote: |
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> On Monday, August 15, 2016 04:32:29 AM Rich Freeman wrote: |
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>> |
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>> It is also somewhat dependent on a correct fstab. Don't take that for |
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>> granted: the kernel doesn't look at fstab at all when mounting root, |
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>> and neither do most of the other tools, so if your root partition |
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>> isn't correctly defined in fstab you might never know it and dracut |
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>> will get confused. If nothing else once it does have it correctly |
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>> mounted it will read fstab and then mess it up when it re-mounts root |
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>> per "your" instructions. |
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> |
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> I understand what you're saying. Except in my case, that wasn't the cause. |
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> |
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Oh, I agree. I just said that in lieu of replying to every single |
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other email in this thread. :) |
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>> If you just need to tweak dracut behavior you may be better off with a |
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>> dracut module. They're just shell scripts and pretty simple to write. |
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>> That lets you tweak something at some point during boot without having |
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>> to build the entire thing yourself. |
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> |
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> This actually had (or has, not bothered to check current status) a distinct |
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> lack of usable documentation. Looking for clear howto's on creating my own |
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> (embedded into the kernel) initramfs was a lot quicker. |
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Yeah, I found this frustrating as well. |
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This may or may not be helpful: |
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https://rich0gentoo.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/a-quick-dracut-module/ |
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In general the benefits of using dracut are the benefits of using |
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anything that somebody else maintains. You could replace openrc with |
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a single shell script as well, or a fair bit of systemd. That doesn't |
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mean that this is really the optimal approach. |
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>> And since it uses udev it is fairly robust against things like adding |
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>> a drive and now the kernel re-letters everything. |
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> If I were using normal partitioning, I wouldn't need an initramfs. |
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An initramfs is beneficial even if you don't "need" one. To start |
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with it allows you to build a more modular kernel, which is especially |
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beneficial if you aren't customizing your kernel for every host. It |
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also tends to be more robust when something goes wrong. You end up |
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having a rescue shell even if root doesn't mount, more robust fsck/etc |
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during early boot, and it is going to be a lot smarter when you |
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add/remove a drive (since root can be identified by UUID or label). |
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Dracut is becoming common enough that I think it is worth learning... |
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-- |
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Rich |
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