Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Alan Mackenzie <acm@×××.de>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: After /usr conflation: why not copy booting software to /sbin rather than initramfs?
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:27:59
Message-Id: 20120327212422.GA3437@acm.acm
In Reply to: RE: [gentoo-user] Re: After /usr conflation: why not copy booting software to /sbin rather than initramfs? by Mike Edenfield
1 Hi, Mike.
2
3 On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 03:56:01PM -0400, Mike Edenfield wrote:
4 > > From: che@××××××.se [mailto:che@××××××.se]
5
6 > > Neil Bothwick <neil@××××××××××.uk> writes:
7
8 > > > On Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:26:46 +0000, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
9
10 > > >> > As you move more and more software off of /usr into / you start to
11 > > >> > realize that the idea of "tiny partition that contains just what I
12 > > >> > need to boot and mount /usr" is becoming "not so tiny" anymore. The
13 > > >> > distinction between what is "boot" software versus "user" software
14 > > >> > gets less clear.
15
16 > > >> Again, isn't this the same for an initramfs?
17
18 > > > No, because an initramfs only needs enough to mount / and /usr, then
19 > > > everything else comes from the usual source. If you're not using and
20 > > > fancy block devices, the initramfs only needs busybox and an init
21 > script.
22 > > > Even adding LVM, RAID and encryption only requires three more binaries
23 > > > - and those are all disposed of once switch_root is run and the tmpfs
24 > > > released.
25
26 > > The question remains. If it's possible to do that from an initramfs, then
27 > > shouldn't it be possible to put the same tools and binarias on /, and
28 > mount
29 > > /usr early?
30
31
32 I don't think you've understood the question - you certainly haven't
33 answered it.
34
35 > Yes , of course it's /possible/, it's just not /practical/.
36
37 Why not?
38
39 > Changing the contents of your initramfs is a decision you, as an admin, make
40 > that affects your system(s).
41
42 s%initramfs%/sbin%, then how does the sentence not apply?
43
44 > Changing the installed location of, say, udevd and bluetoothd and whatever
45 > other tools need to get pulled out of /usr is a decision that affects
46 > everyone who is using those packages. Changing the order of init scripts is
47 > an even bigger mess, but mostly because of the software requirements to make
48 > it function.
49
50 That is precisely what the question was NOT about. The idea was to copy
51 (not move) booting software to /sbin instead of an initramfs - the exact
52 same programs, modulo noise - to have the SW in /sbin necessary to mount
53 /usr.
54
55 Our loveable upstream suppliers are making us mount /usr early in the
56 boot process. Why can't this be done as well from /sbin as from
57 initramfs?
58
59 [ .... ]
60
61 > --Mike
62
63 --
64 Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).

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