Should installkernel be passing --dracut to new-kernel-pkg?

[Stephen Smalley]

Hi,

/sbin/installkernel doesn't pass --dracut to /sbin/new-kernel-pkg, so a
make install from a kernel.org kernel tree tries to
invoke /sbin/mkinitrd rather than dracut.  Is that intentional?

Also, any ideas on why a dracut-generated initramfs image generated for
a kernel.org kernel tree would be so much larger than the Fedora kernel
one (same .config)?

12M /boot/initramfs-2.6.31.1-56.fc12.x86_64.img
82M /boot/initramfs-2.6.32-rc2.img

-- 
Stephen Smalley
National Security Agency

[Rahul Sundaram]

On 10/22/2009 06:18 PM, Stephen Smalley wrote:
>  Hi,
>  
>  /sbin/installkernel doesn't pass --dracut to /sbin/new-kernel-pkg, so a
>  make install from a kernel.org kernel tree tries to
>  invoke /sbin/mkinitrd rather than dracut.  Is that intentional?
>  
>  Also, any ideas on why a dracut-generated initramfs image generated for
>  a kernel.org kernel tree would be so much larger than the Fedora kernel
>  one (same .config)?
>  
>  12M /boot/initramfs-2.6.31.1-56.fc12.x86_64.img
>  82M /boot/initramfs-2.6.32-rc2.img 
If you want to reduce the size, set hostonly in /etc/dracut.conf

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Dracut/Options#-H.2C_--hostonly

Rahul

[Matt Domsch]

On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 08:48:03AM -0400, Stephen Smalley wrote:
>  Hi,
>  
>  /sbin/installkernel doesn't pass --dracut to /sbin/new-kernel-pkg, so a
>  make install from a kernel.org kernel tree tries to
>  invoke /sbin/mkinitrd rather than dracut.  Is that intentional? 
Don't know if it's intentional, probably an oversite, but I did get
bitten by this last week myself.

-- 
Matt Domsch
Technology Strategist, Dell Office of the CTO
linux.dell.com & www.dell.com/linux

[Dave Jones]

On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 08:48:03AM -0400, Stephen Smalley wrote:
>  Hi,
>  
>  /sbin/installkernel doesn't pass --dracut to /sbin/new-kernel-pkg, so a
>  make install from a kernel.org kernel tree tries to
>  invoke /sbin/mkinitrd rather than dracut.  Is that intentional?
>  
>  Also, any ideas on why a dracut-generated initramfs image generated for
>  a kernel.org kernel tree would be so much larger than the Fedora kernel
>  one (same .config)?
>  
>  12M /boot/initramfs-2.6.31.1-56.fc12.x86_64.img
>  82M /boot/initramfs-2.6.32-rc2.img 
 
Do you have CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO set ? The kernel specfile strips the debug info
out to separate debuginfo packages.  If you build it by hand, that doesn't happen,
so you get all the symbols etc attached to every module in your initramfs.

	Dave

[Harald Hoyer]

On 10/22/2009 02:48 PM, Stephen Smalley wrote:
>  Hi,
>
>  /sbin/installkernel doesn't pass --dracut to /sbin/new-kernel-pkg, so a
>  make install from a kernel.org kernel tree tries to
>  invoke /sbin/mkinitrd rather than dracut.  Is that intentional?
>
>  Also, any ideas on why a dracut-generated initramfs image generated for
>  a kernel.org kernel tree would be so much larger than the Fedora kernel
>  one (same .config)?
>
>  12M /boot/initramfs-2.6.31.1-56.fc12.x86_64.img
>  82M /boot/initramfs-2.6.32-rc2.img
>  
Newer dracut versions will strip kernel modules automatically.
The old version only strips, if the executable bit is set.