Messages in this thread | | | From | (H. Peter Anvin) | Subject | Re: 2.3 wish: integrate pcmcia into mainstream kernel | Date | 3 Jun 1999 02:41:35 GMT |
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Followup to: <19990602163835.59964@lahmed.Stanford.EDU> By author: David Hinds <dhinds@lahmed.Stanford.EDU> In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel > > If you can boot from this PCMCIA device (which is a platform specific > feature, and not something you should necessarily expect to be able to > do), then you can load an initrd image from it. So the issue reverts > to the distribution maintainers' choice of supported installation > modes. I don't know whose CD you were using, but Red Hat has chosen, > and documented their choice, to support this type of installation > using boot diskettes. > > The *only* strong argument I've heard for putting PCMCIA in the kernel > from the standpoint of *functionality* is that in systems that are > severely memory constrained, the overhead of an initrd image can be > unacceptable. >
The initrd system is good (conceptually, it makes a helluva lot of things make sense), although it really could stand some improvements -- chiefly by using "mount" and be passed a path or a file descriptor for the root rather than passing a device number, since that doesn't apply to all filesystems. With initrd done properly, we should be able to nuke the in-kernel IP configuration and NFSroot support as well... mounting NFS as root would then simply be a matter of letting initrd set up your IP stack, mount the root, and switch. This is a *good thing*.
-hpa -- "The user's computer downloads the ActiveX code and simulates a 'Blue Screen' crash, a generally benign event most users are familiar with and that would not necessarily arouse suspicions." -- Security exploit description on http://www.zks.net/p3/how.asp
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