From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: <gentoo-dev+bounces-75200-garchives=archives.gentoo.org@lists.gentoo.org> Received: from lists.gentoo.org (pigeon.gentoo.org [208.92.234.80]) by finch.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9870F59CAF for <garchives@archives.gentoo.org>; Sat, 9 Apr 2016 16:09:42 +0000 (UTC) Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id AE04921C036; Sat, 9 Apr 2016 16:09:36 +0000 (UTC) Received: from ironport2-out.teksavvy.com (ironport2-out.teksavvy.com [206.248.154.181]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BF08921C007 for <gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org>; Sat, 9 Apr 2016 16:09:35 +0000 (UTC) X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: A0BhDQA731xV/54Mr7hcgxCBMsNlh0sEAgKBPDsSAQEBAQEBAYEKQQWDXQEBAwE6HBgQCwshExIPBSU3iCQIzyMBAQEHAgEfizqFDBaDAYEWAQSdb4EohlAZiyuCFIFFI4QUIjGCRwEBAQ X-IPAS-Result: A0BhDQA731xV/54Mr7hcgxCBMsNlh0sEAgKBPDsSAQEBAQEBAYEKQQWDXQEBAwE6HBgQCwshExIPBSU3iCQIzyMBAQEHAgEfizqFDBaDAYEWAQSdb4EohlAZiyuCFIFFI4QUIjGCRwEBAQ X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="5.13,465,1427774400"; d="scan'208";a="205673920" Received: from 184-175-12-158.dsl.teksavvy.com (HELO waltdnes.org) ([184.175.12.158]) by ironport2-out.teksavvy.com with SMTP; 09 Apr 2016 12:09:33 -0400 Received: by waltdnes.org (sSMTP sendmail emulation); Sat, 09 Apr 2016 12:09:38 -0400 From: waltdnes@waltdnes.org Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2016 12:09:38 -0400 To: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] usr merge Message-ID: <20160409160938.GA17530@waltdnes.org> References: <57087E0D.3090502@gmail.com> <20160409053230.GA16529@waltdnes.org> <CAGfcS_miZ1mx7JuyEYpXpM1Ttf-BGYes4=a-F0YnB6rrx823mA@mail.gmail.com> Precedence: bulk List-Post: <mailto:gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org> List-Help: <mailto:gentoo-dev+help@lists.gentoo.org> List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:gentoo-dev+unsubscribe@lists.gentoo.org> List-Subscribe: <mailto:gentoo-dev+subscribe@lists.gentoo.org> List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail <gentoo-dev.gentoo.org> X-BeenThere: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <CAGfcS_miZ1mx7JuyEYpXpM1Ttf-BGYes4=a-F0YnB6rrx823mA@mail.gmail.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.24 (2015-08-30) X-Archives-Salt: 5188db2c-8ece-4abe-8ed2-0482821452ce X-Archives-Hash: 158fe5747d5ac8a327ce285d108b3374 On Sat, Apr 09, 2016 at 07:11:31AM -0400, Rich Freeman wrote > It was simply a recognition that we were already in a state where > booting a system without /usr mounted early can cause problems. For certain edge cases... yes. But they were already using initramfs or merging /usr into /. I'm talking about the 95% who don't really need it. > I never really got the mentality that using an initramfs is a burden. One more piece of software that can go wrong. You have to maintain+configure it; e.g. sync software and library versions with what's on the rest of the system. > An initramfs is just a secondary bootloader for userspace. I almost > always use them even if I'm just booting a VM with a single partition > on it. If something goes wrong you can fall back to a shell in the > initramfs and it is like having a rescue disk built into your system > disk. There is single-user mode for rescue. > For a more complex setup it is much more robust than relying on > the kernel to find your root, and it also lets you build with a more > module-based kernel, which has some benefits as well even if you build > kernels tailored to each host. I have "Production" and "Experimental" entries in my LILO menu. A new kernel is always set up as the "Experimental" entry. After running several days without problems, I run a script which copies the data from the "Experimental" portion to "Production". The only time my system had problems "finding root" was years ago when the switch from /dev/hd* to /dev/sd* took place. The "Experimental" boot with the new kernel died. I booted "Production", read the mailing list, changed "hd" to "sd" for the "Experimental" entry, and rebooted. After several days without problems, I made the same change to the "Production" entry, and copied the "Experimental" portion to "Production". -- Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org> I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications