Public SourceMage Discussion List

["David Brown" <dmlb2000 AT gmail.com>]

> Something I really don't want to break is being able to boot the iso in
> xen. From what I understand, correct me if I'm wrong, We cannot load an
> initrd. This would make it no longer boot in xen. If this isn't the
> case, then I don't have any complaints. Except one: I'm far in favor of
> KISS. This doesn't really make it any simpler.

Yeah you can boot the iso from xen easy enough, initramfs is built
into the kernel so its one file. Also xen can boot with initrd's as
well so I'm not sure what your concerns are with xen.

If the iso creates its own custom kernel/initrd that would have to
have the capability to create lvm partitions in the initrd so that the
kernel/initrd could be used as a rescue. Also, the iso team could work
with me to generate the initrd by use of the kernel methods and we
wouldn't need to have the extra script laying around.

I'm also in favor of KISS but lvm is additions, which make it
inherently more complex because you have to handle situations with and
without (depends on what your definition of complex is, I don't want
to get into a symantic argument about that "is isn't is anymore").

So from the installer's perspective the only additions would be
installing smgl-initramfs klibc lvm before the users kernel. Then add
the listing file provided by the smgl-initramfs spell to the kernels
configuration and build the kernel. Of course the user could be stupid
and remove this from their configuration but that's something they
would have to do intentionally. In which case that's unsupported (it'd
be like removing all ide and scsi support from your desktop) since
they would need a little bit of userspace before root is mounted. The
initramfs also acts as a pass through if there isn't an lvm partition
so using this setup on a normal system without root/lvm would also
work.

Side Note: Lots of distros install an initrd that's capable of lvm
(and many other things) by default on the install, they provide
support for removing the initrd if you know what you are doing and
building your own kernel. Doesn't mean this is reason for doing things
that way, but saying that things are done that way and they've worked
for other people that way.

> This interacts fine with udev?

I also run udev just fine... works great. I've actually modularized
all ide/scsi support and have the initramfs modprobe those initially
to get to the disk then setup lvm and go. I'll make a wiki how-to on
what to do.

- David Brown