Lennart Poettering mzerqung at 0pointer.de
Tue Jan 29 18:18:44 UTC 2013


On Tue, 29.01.13 10:07, Stephen Gallagher (sgallagh at redhat.com) wrote:

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> 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 at redhat.com>
> >
> > 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?

One shouldn't overestimate this really.

The kernel nowadays comes with built-in support for the vast majority of
all common storage hardware anyway, because AHCI is pretty universally
established. Outside of servers non-AHCI controllers practically don't
exist anymore.

This effectively means that it's really hard changing your laptop's or
deskop's hardware enough to make a host-only initrd not boot anymore. 

And even on servers, replacing the storage controllers so that they
require a completely different drivers is not really something that
happens very frequently.

So, yes, host-only initrd makes things a bit less universal, but to
actually run into problems with it, is really hard...

Lennart

-- 
Lennart Poettering - Red Hat, Inc.


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