On Thu, 2006-07-20 at 10:52 +0000, Alex wrote:
> Andreas Rückert wrote:
> > Is it faster during the boot?
> 
> I think it is, because it need not to copy the read-write image contents 
> to tmpfs. I have never tested it, but that would make sense ;)

Incorrect.

Adding the unionfs package to the CD does exactly nothing but add the
binaries and modules.  It makes it only usable after the machine has
booted.

There is support for unionfs in genkernel, which means within the
initramfs, but it is not functional right now and we simply don't have
the time to look at it, since it's never been an advertised feature.
Basically, if someone files a bug against it (without a patch) we mark
it as INVALID and ask for a patch.  We have contemplated many times
simply removing the code altogether, since it is known to be broken, but
we always hoped that we would scrape together some time to fix it.

Using the in-genkernel code, it does boot faster.  It also has a smaller
memory footprint.

-- 
Chris Gianelloni
Release Engineering - Strategic Lead
x86 Architecture Team
Games - Developer
Gentoo Linux