Re: [gentoo-dev] rfc: locations of binaries and separate /usr

["Olivier Crête" <tester@gentoo.org>]

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Hi,

On Sat, 2011-12-31 at 19:59 -0600, William Hubbs wrote:
> I have been working with robbat2 on solutions to the separate /usr issue
> (That is why I have specifically cc'd him on this email)
> which will allow people to not use an initramfs. If we migrate
> everything off of the root fs to /usr, all of those solutions become
> moot. On the other hand, if we don't migrate, we run the risk of
> eventually having our default configuration not supported by upstream.

I think the general consensus among other distros is that initramfs is
the new /. Many core elements of the Linux system will start installing
themselves in /usr, starting with udev, so we won't have a choice
anyway. Also, I doubt it's currently possible to boot a Gentoo system
without /usr mounted anyway.

> 1) Start migrating packages along with upstream and have everyone who
> has a separate /usr (including me by the way) start using an initramfs
> of some kind, either dracut or one that we generate specifically for
> gentoo. The reason I suggest the initramfs, is, unfortunately if we
> migrate everything, nothing else would work.

I also don't see a good reason to not adopt dracut, re-implementing
something that already works and is maintained by a competent upstream
seems wasteful to me. I really don't see why people resist using an
initramfs so much.

The udev/kmod/systemd/dracut effort to standardise the base userspace of
Linux is probably scary for quite a few Gentoo-ers as it means that the
end result of an installed Gentoo system will be less differentiated
than it was before. But it still is a step in the right direction as
most of these standardized pieces are much better than what we currently
have. The OpenRC/baselayout-2 fiasco, not much better than baselayout-1
and unmaintained upstream shows that even a relatively large
distribution like us can't maintain a competitive base system solution,
adopting the udev/kmod/systemd way will allow us to use all the work
that they are doing and instead concentrate on making a better system.

-- 
Olivier Crête
tester@gentoo.org
Gentoo Developer

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