Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Beta test Gentoo with mdev instead of udev; version 3

[Pandu Poluan]

On Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 17:04, Walter Dnes <waltdnes@××××××××.org> wrote:
>  In the instructions here, I've set up a revised dev-manager ebuild in
> an overlay.  I've requested the changes to be incorporated into the
> official ebuild and it appears to have been accepted.  See...
>
> https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=395319
>
> It should be rolled out eventually, and the overlay won't be necessary.
>

Cool! :D

>  I think I've found one item so far that requires udev.  My laptop's
> graphics chip needs a binary blob from radeon-ucode.  That binary blob,
> in turn, requires the presence of /usr/lib/libudev.so.0 which is a
> symlink to /usr/lib/libudev.so.0.9.3 (which is also required).  I can
>
> emerge udev
> move or copy the 2 files over to /root
> unmerge udev
> move or copy the 2 files from /root to /usr/lib/
>
> and it still works. Note that /usr/lib/ is a symlink to /usr/lib64 on my
> 64-bit gentoo.
>

Well it doesn't need udev itself, just libudev.

But if the binary blob is hard-coded to search for
/usr/lib/libudev.so.0{,.9.3}, that means /usr must exist at
boot-time...

... or at least /usr/lib/libudev.so.0{,.9.3}

IMO, providing 1 file (+ 1 symlink) is still much better than having
to provide the *whole* /usr tree during boot-time.

Now, what's needed is to "catalog" (1) essential boot-time devs that
can't be handled by mdev, and (2) essential files that need to exist
under /usr during boot-time.

#1 should be interesting for busybox upstream, while #2 will be
necessary for those trying to wean themselves off udev :-)

We're one step closer to an udev-free Gentoo, yay!

(Come to think of it, has *any* distro ever attempted this...
'unconventional of going udev-free?)

Rgds,
-- 
FdS Pandu E Poluan
~ IT Optimizer ~

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