On Tue, 2013-01-29 at 10:07 -0500, Stephen Gallagher wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > On Tue 29 Jan 2013 09:45:34 AM EST, Jaroslav Reznik wrote: > > = Features/DracutHostOnly = > > https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/DracutHostOnly > > > > Feature owner(s): Harald Hoyer <harald@xxxxxxxxxx> > > > > Only create "host-only" initramfs images. A generic fallback image should be > > installed by anaconda on installation/update and never ever be removed. > > > > == Detailed description == > > Current initramfs images contain most of the kernel drivers to boot from any > > hardware. This results in a very big initramfs, which takes a long time to > > load on system start and a long time to create on kernel updates. Switching to > > host-only will improve the situation. To cope with hardware change, a boot > > entry "Rescue System" should be installed with a full fledged initramfs also > > containing debug tools. This boot entry can then be used to recover from > > hardware changes and also from unforseen software failure after updates. > > > This makes me nervous. Can we get some details on what comprises a > "hardware change" necessitating that the user use the Rescue System > mode? > > - From the Feature page: > This Fedora release ships with an initramfs tailored especially for > your computer hardware. If you change your machine or significant > hardware, you might have to boot with the "Rescue System" boot entry > and execute "dracut --regenerate-all". If you want your initramfs to be > hardware independent, execute "ln -s /dev/null > /etc/dracut.conf.d/01-hostonly.conf". > > > Can we do anything to detect such hardware changes and run the > regeneration automatically? I'm wary of making changes that may result > in unbootable systems if someone doesn't remember to plug their > external hard drive in, for example. > > Frankly, I'm not sure the faster boot is necessarily worth the > increased likelihood of boot failure. I think I might prefer that this > be available-but-not-default. Please convince me :) Wow this brings me back to Windows 95/XP antifeatures where changing hardware even a little bit strands you to not be able to boot and having to go to rescue mode. This is really a step back and is really bad to do it by default IMO. Why are we doing this ? Is this just to boot a little bit faster ? Certainly generating the ramfs is not a big deal, it is done rarely anyway. And every time you need to remove a kernel you have to regenerate the full rescue system anyway, so every now and again you'll need to do this. I rebuilding is an issue, wouldn't it make sense to pre-generate the rescue initramfs at kernel build time ? Does it really need to be regenerated at install time ? So in summary, can we rather keep the current behavior by default and give the option to boot faster only to people that are interested in it ? Simo. -- Simo Sorce * Red Hat, Inc * New York -- devel mailing list devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/devel
