On 3/23/2021 07:31, Rich Freeman wrote: > On Mon, Mar 22, 2021 at 6:54 PM Andreas K. Huettel <dilfri...@gentoo.org> > wrote: >> >>>> Council decided years ago that we don't support separate /usr without >>>> an initramfs, but we haven't completed that transition yet. >>> >>> Which doesn't imply that we deliberately break things. >> >> That's right. Though we should at some point start thinking about an end of >> support for separate usr without initramfs. >> > > Just to clarify - it is already unsupported at a distro level. It is > just that some individual packages still work with it. > > The current Council decisions on the issue are (just providing for > general reference): > > - "Since that particular setup may already be subtly broken today > depending on the installed software, Council recommends using an > early boot mount mechanism, e.g. initramfs, to mount /usr if /usr > is on a separate partition." > Accepted unanimously. [1] > > - "The intention is to eventually not require maintainers to support > a separate /usr without an early boot mechanism once the Council > agrees that the necessary docs/migration path is in place." > Accepted with 4 yes votes, 1 no vote, 2 abstentions. [1] > > - "The Council agrees that all preparations for dropping support for > separate /usr without an initramfs or similar boot mechanism are > complete. A news item will be prepared, and users will be given one > month to switch after the news item has been sent." > Accepted with 5 yes votes, 1 no vote, 1 abstention. [2] > > Current policy documentation: > Developers are not required to support using separate /usr filesystem > without an initramfs. [3] > > 1 - https://projects.gentoo.org/council/meeting-logs/20130813-summary.txt > 2 - https://projects.gentoo.org/council/meeting-logs/20130924-summary.txt > 3 - https://projects.gentoo.org/qa/policy-guide/filesystem.html#pg0202
Is there a list of software/ebuilds that currently do this "subtle" handling of separate /usr w/o initramfs? I've got just my MIPS systems left that use a separate /usr and do not boot with initramfs because I build fully monolithic kernels and that makes the resulting vmlinux images run up against hard size limits in the SGI PROM (firmware, BIOS, etc) on these machines if I try to pack too large of an initramfs in. I can check for any software that may be switched over soon to a hard initramfs requirement and look at my options. I kinda wish the Linux kernel had an ability to partially boot, init the networking subsystem, then fetch an initramfs image over TFTP like it can do with NFS Root. That would solve the problem on my MIPS system(s) (and make install netboots better). I've dug around, but this does not seem to be a capability currently in the kernel, unless I have over looked something. Otherwise in the future, I may just have to setup an initramfs into an NFS Root and teach the SGI's to somehow deal with it. Which all still seems unnecessarily complicated because some other distro thinks it knows what's best for everyone else (but I digress...). -- Joshua Kinard Gentoo/MIPS ku...@gentoo.org rsa6144/5C63F4E3F5C6C943 2015-04-27 177C 1972 1FB8 F254 BAD0 3E72 5C63 F4E3 F5C6 C943 "The past tempts us, the present confuses us, the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast, terrible in-between." --Emperor Turhan, Centauri Republic
