Re: [gentoo-user] Another plan for /usr and udev-181

[Canek Peláez Valdés]

On Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 8:44 PM,  <felix@×××××××.com> wrote:
> Dale as inspired me to finally do something about udev-181.  Can't
> keep my finger in the dike forever.  But I have been thinking of a
> different approach.
>
> What annoys me the most about this forced change is that I like the
> old unix style of a single minimal base partition for booting, and
> being able to manage all the other partitions while unmounted in
> single user mode.  In my case, /usr is an LVM partition precisely
> because I want to sit in single user mode while resizing it (it seems
> to keep on growing ...).  However, progress marches on, removable
> media are taking over, and it's best to not be a luddite all the time.
>
> So I think I will try the initramfs approach of mounting /usr during
> boot.  I don't think this will make growing /usr any easier; single
> user mode won't umount it.

Mmmh. You don't need single user mode anymore with an initramfs (at
least with dracut). From dracut.cmdline(7):

rd.break={cmdline|pre-udev|pre-trigger|initqueue|pre-mount|mount|pre-pivot}
           drop to a shell on defined breakpoint

You add that to your kernel command line in GRUB/GRUB2, and it drops
you tou a shell before doing the mount (pre-mount). Then you only need
to put the necessary LVM tools in the initramfs; since my LVM
installation is 3.13 MB, it sounds like a reasonable feature. Or you
can have a "fat" initramfs (with another GRUB entry) for resizing LVM
volumes, and a "slim" normal initramfs with its corresponding GRUB
entry.

Other way in which (IMHO) an initramfs is a better option that
stuffing everything and the kitchen sink on /.

My 0.02 ${CURRENCY}.

Regards.
-- 
Canek Peláez Valdés
Posgrado en Ciencia e Ingeniería de la Computación
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México