Heads up on initramfs-tools dev
MODULES=dep
------------
The size of the generated initramfs of initramfs-tools
in the case of MODULES=dep improved since 0.90a version.
i'd like to get more tester feedback on that setting.
-> /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf
WARNING:
The ide subsys has a funky /sys usage where the sysfs
modules string does not match the modules name. There the
sysfs walk is presumed to fail (PIIX_IDE != piix).
This will go away soon after the migration to pata.
For initramfs debugging see
http://wiki.debian.org/InitramfsDebug
BUSYBOX=n
---------
This setting boots fine since 0.90a and klibc 1.5.6
on /dev/sdaX root (UUID, LABEL usage included).
0.91 moves busybox from Depends to Recommends.
allowing package enforced BUSYBOX=n
keep in mind that in the case of a boot failure
your recovery tools in that situation will be
very limited to echo, cat, dmesg, uname, fstype
(see ls /usr/lib/klibc/bin/ ).
I'd ask the d-i folks to queue busybox before i-t
in the base install as it is needed for any but
unusual installations. also i'll send patches out
to different initramfs boot script to enforce
BUSYBOX=y as they might rely on busybox tools
(sed, awk, grep, tr, ..).
klibc
----
Next steps on a real small initramfs for embedded
usage is udev-klibc (compiles and boots fine) and
a m-i-t against klibc.
klibc got a stdio branch so if others want to play^W
compile against klibc that might be the better
start to hack on (lvm2, mdadm or even busybox comes
to the mind) just install libklic-dev and use
make CC=klcc
hpa is active, patches are quickly reviewed and
merged upstream.
git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/libs/klibc/klibc.git
Mailing list: http://www.zytor.com/mailman/listinfo/klibc
The klibc linux-libc-dev build-dep change went well
(quickly fixed mips+ia64), but gcc-4.2 seems to hit
on sparc. that will need attention by sparc porters
once the kernel sparc issues are solved. #440721
initramfs races
---------------
Push usage of scsi_wait_scan upstream (thanks a lot
willy for the work). already implemented in qlogic,
aic94xx, lpfc and fusion. The udev boot script just
needs to modprobe it. Patches for ata aka sata and
pata are in preparation.
The suse bootscripts wait up to some seconds for
/dev/mapper/control to appear. that seems sensible
and easy to do in the debian lvm2 boot script too.
dkt
---
Once dkt [1] is in place linux-images will ship
parts of the modules prebuild as initramfs in order
to reduce build time of the default initramfs.
Also grub2 allows multiple initramfs files usage.
The dkt will also allow to remove the corresponding
initramfs sha1sum's in /var/lib/initramfs-tools on
linux-image removal.
git repo
--------
initramfs repository moved some time ago to git [2]:
git clone git://git.debian.org/git/kernel/initramfs-tools.git
A special thanks goes to mika for test coverage [3]
on grml.
happy hacking
--
maks
[1] http://multibuild.org/documentation/dkt
[2] http://www.itp.tuwien.ac.at/~mattems/blog/2007/04/10#bzr_to_git
[3] http://www.mail-archive.com/grml@mur.at/msg01388.html
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