On Fri, 9 Sep 2011 07:24:06 PM pk wrote: > On 2011-09-09 10:53, Dale wrote: > > Can I slap whoever started this? The more I think on this, the worse it > > Yes Dale, you have my permission! And while you're at it, slap him from > me too! ;-) > > It _may_ be this guy that's responsible for this crap: > http://linuxplumbersconf.org/ocw/users/58 > > Also: > http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.hotplug.devel/16994
I've had a look at the stuff at those links, and some of what they link to in turn, and had a bit of a think about it. Looking at "initramfs" as a modern Linux replacement for the "bootable / partition" of traditional Unix systems does make some sense, even though I think it could be made simpler. Fot those opposed to initramfs, would you also object to /boot being 1) a manditory seperate partition 2) required to be ext2 (or one of a *very* short list) 3) having /boot/{bin,sbin,lib} containing local copies of the absolute minimum boot requirements (i.e. initramfs in a real fs) On the other hand, most of the problem seems to stem from software packages hooking into the early boot via udev rules, and not beiong careful where they put the executables and libraries that they reference. Is udev (as it currently stands) really the best place for them to hook into? Could udev be split into 2 passes, early-boot udev that only does system stuff (like mount filesystems out of /etc/fstab, setup keyboards & video), and late- boot udev where other applications can put in any hooks they like, since the full system would then be available. The late-boot udev may need to do a full rescan of everything that early-boot udev found, but didn't have the rules for yet, but I'm sure that the 2 passes could talk to each other and sort that out fairly simply. Or possibly just add a whole new service to use just for hooking software packages into system events. Although this would probably end upneeding to be a udev clone anyway. -- Reverend Paul Colquhoun, ULC. http://andor.dropbear.id.au/~paulcol Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. Then, when you do, you'll be a mile away, and you'll have their shoes.