Re: Bug#640418: Does not use an initrd on mipsel/loongson-2f systems
On Mon, Sep 05, 2011 at 08:58:16PM -0600, Javier Vasquez wrote:
> Hi, I'm an user, not a dev, but I own a lemote mini-pc, not the
> laptop, and the linux kernel for loongson-2f can be loaded through
> initrd.
Yep. Matt was more asking about other (non-Loongson) MIPS systems,
though.
> Actually that's the way archloong does it. This doesn't have
> anything to do to the ability to boot with grub.
True, PMON can do the same on this particular subarch. In general,
though, this property depends on the boot loader in use; it just happens
that in this case PMON and GRUB both support using an initrd.
> Even when gNewSense has been able to make grub work, not sure if only
> for laptops, or mini-pcs included, on debian this is broken for
> mini-pcs, when trying to load the initrd the machine just goes to
> limbo. So I'd suggest not to depend upon grub to make decisions about
> the kernel or initrd...
The situation on mini-PCs should be fixed upstream now, I believe, and
at some point I'll get round to dropping a new package into
experimental.
> That said, I think using an initrd should be no problem, given that
> other distros are using it. But this ability should not depend upont
> grub.
Sure, you can do it with PMON or in other ways. In the case of d-i,
though, we'll continue installing and configuring GRUB by default. This
gives us more flexibility and better harmony across architectures. My
experience suggests that the more similarly different architectures are
handled, the better the chance that the less common ones will keep
working.
--
Colin Watson [cjwatson@debian.org]
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