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On Tue, Jan 29, 2019 at 2:22 PM Grant Taylor |
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<gtaylor@×××××××××××××××××××××.net> wrote: |
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> |
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> On 01/29/2019 12:04 PM, Rich Freeman wrote: |
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> > I don't see the value in using a different configuration on a box simply |
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> > because it happens to work on that particular box. Dracut is a more |
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> > generic solution that allows me to keep hosts the same. |
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> |
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> And if all the boxes in the fleet can function without an initramfs? |
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> Then why have it? Why not apply Occam's Razor & Parsimony and use the |
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> simpler solution. Especially if more complex solutions introduce |
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> additional things that need to be updated. |
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If all my boxes could function reliably without an initramfs I |
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probably would do it that way. However, as soon as you throw so much |
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as a second hard drive in a system that becomes unreliable. |
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I'm not saying you can't use linux without an initramfs. I'm just |
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questioning why most normal people would want to. I bet that 98% of |
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people who use Linux run an initramfs, and there is a reason for |
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that... |
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> > Sure, and I wouldn't expect them to require rebuilding your initramfs |
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> > either. I was speaking generally. |
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> |
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> Modifying things like crypttab and / or adding / removing file systems |
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> from the kernel that are required for boot have caused me to need to |
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> rebuild an initramfs in the past. But that was not necessarily Gentoo, |
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> so it may not be a fair comparison. |
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A lot of that is situational. If you have a kernel without btrfs |
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support, and you build btrfs as a module and switch your root |
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filesystem to btrfs, then obviously you'll need to rebuild your |
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initramfs since the one you have can't do btrfs. But, most people |
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would just rebuild their initramfs anytime they rebuild a kernel just |
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to be safe. If you added btrfs support to the kernel (built-in) then |
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it is more of a toss-up, though in the case of btrfs specifically you |
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might still need to regenerate the initramfs to add the btrfs |
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userspace tools to it if you didn't already have them in /usr when you |
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generated it the first time. |
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But, if you're running btrfs you're probably forced to use an |
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initramfs in any case. |
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In any case, it isn't some kind of automatic thing. Just as some |
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things require rebuilding a kernel, some things require rebuilding an |
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initramfs. I just find it simplest to build an initramfs anytime I |
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build a kernel, and use the make install naming convention so that |
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grub-mkconfig just does its thing automatically. |
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IMO Dracut is one of the most robust solutions for these sorts of |
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situations. It is highly modular, easy to extend, and it really tries |
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hard to respect your existing config in /etc. In fact, not only does |
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it put a copy of fstab in the initramfs to help it find your root, but |
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after it mounts the root it checks that version of fstab to see if it |
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is different and then remounts things accordingly. |
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If you haven't guessed I'm a bit of a Dracut fan. :) |
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-- |
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Rich |
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