Re: [gentoo-dev] openrc 0.12 - netifrc/newnet mix-up

[Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com>]

On 05/12/2013 01:45, Patrick Lauer wrote:
> On 12/05/2013 05:30 AM, Mike Gilbert wrote:
>> On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 4:25 PM, William Hubbs <williamh@gentoo.org> wrote:
>>> On Wed, Dec 04, 2013 at 06:46:36PM +0200, Samuli Suominen wrote:
>>>> seems like a virtual that wouldn't do anything useful except pull in
>>>> random package(s) a la binary-distribution style
>>>
>>> What about the stages? Don't we need some form of net support in
>>> stage 3?
>>>
>>
>> That's debatable. For a typical install, the user has to install other
>> basic stuff like a boot loader, kernel, etc. So having them also
>> select a network config framework seems logical.
>>
>> Is there a use case for a stage3 in which installing netifrc by hand
>> is impractical?
>>
> Well ...
> 
> I remember filing a bug quite a while ago because we didn't have a dhcp
> client included anymore. This made installs quite annoying because
> before it was stage3, kernel, bootloader, go!
> 
> And now it was go ... stop ... reboot ... install dhcp client ...
> grremblwrrxrmkrxtlmrrrg .... reboot
> 
> That extra step of whining was loud enough to have openrc fixed to be
> able to use busybox udhcp, so that "out of the box" most network worked.
> 
> ... and now people are trying to do the same again.
> 
> I would STRONGLY recommend having a working network setup included in
> stage3, so that compared to now nothing changes.


In this day and age not having a network-capable install out the box is
silly. The first major action after unpacking the tarball is going to be
adding new packages and doing updates, the source code for which is on
the network.

Network is only slightly less necessary than disk drivers - almost
everyone is going to need it. So just ship the thing that the majority
will need, for the few that have a valid case to not need networking
after install, it's a simple matter for them to disable it.

The default install doesn't need to have a network provider with all the
bells and whistles, netifrc is perfectly adequate (especially if dhcp is
enabled as it always was for years)


-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com