Messages in this thread | | | From | "Adam J. Richter" <> | Date | Sat, 11 Apr 1998 19:59:21 -0700 | Subject | Re: 2.1.95 freezes were my fault; kmod patch |
| |
>> switch to the new root by doing "exec chroot /mnt /sbin/init" rather >> than exiting to enable initial ramdisks that can select from more than >> one possibility for finding the actual root partition (e.g., bringing >> up a screen that says "boot from CDROM or boot from network?"). >> Please do not remove that functionality.
>Why? Shouldn't this be set by putting the proper values in the >relevant /proc/sys entries before exiting from linuxrc?
I must admit that the /proc/sys entries were news to me. However, simply specifying a root and exiting is much more limiting interface. For example, it is more difficult to have an arrangement where there are a bunch of diskless workstations that share a common read-only root, and each mount their own private /etc and /var as determined by their boot disks.
By the way, as far as I can tell, all of the special stuff for an initial ramdisk beyond the loading of the image as unnecessary kernel cruft. There is no need for kludges like change_root() and these special /proc/sys entries. Using "exec chroot..." is much more straightforward, portable to other unix variants, and useful for similar situations that do not necessarily even involve a ramdisk, such as restarting the system on a new root after an install (and I want kmod to follow under these circumstances too).
If there is interest, I would be happy to produce a patch to delete all of the unnecessary kernel code and adjust Documentation/initrd.txt to talk about "exec chroot /mnt /sbin/init" as the way from an initial ramdisk to exit.
Adam J. Richter __ ______________ 4880 Stevens Creek Blvd, Suite 205 adam@yggdrasil.com \ / San Jose, California 95129-1034 +1 408 261-6630 | g g d r a s i l United States of America fax +1 408 261-6631 "Free Software For The Rest Of Us."
- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu
| |