Re: [gentoo-user] InitRAMFS - boot expert sought

On 29/03/2012, at 20:01, David W Noon <dwnoon@××××××××.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:28:36 +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote about Re:
> [gentoo-user] InitRAMFS - boot expert sought:
>
>> On Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:20:04 +0100
>> David W Noon <dwnoon@××××××××.com> wrote:
> [snip]
>>> The Gentoo developers have been discussing just that.  The reason is
>>> that many of the daemons that can be started by udev scripts require
>>> work files on /var, so we could well need /var mounted too.
>>
>> Which begs the obvious question,
>>
>> Why on earth is udev launching daemons in EARLY BOOT?
>
> Your guess is as good as mine!
>
> At present, the first thing I see when udev starts is a failed attempt
> to run /usr/sbin/alsactl to restore the audio levels on my sound card.
> This occurs before localmount or any other services in the sysinit
> run-level have been started.  Just why anybody wants sound before the
> disk volumes have been mounted baffles me; I guess people are just
> desperate for the comforts of stereo.  Perhaps my mind simply lacks the
> sophistication to understand the design of udev.
>
> I guess I'll just stick to my 80-column Hollerith cards.  ... :-)
> --
> Regards,
>
> Dave  [RLU #314465]
> ======================================================================
> dwnoon@××××××××.com (David W Noon)
> ======================================================================

that error was what clued me up to genkernels initramfs failing to mount /usr - the mount failure wasnt on screen long enough to see ...

error reporting for the initramfs method needs fixing so users can faultfind problems more easily.  flashing something on screen for a second and immediately pushing it offscreen doesnt count when there is lo logging to dmesg etc.

par for the course - run an initramfs (complexity) means more WILL go wrong so ways to fix it for normal users need to be in place..

BillK