[Fedora-livecd-list] Kadischi - Xen - patch

[J. Hartline]

Jeremy Katz wrote:

>You shouldn't have to specify this.  xend is configured to auto-balloon
>dom0 out to something reasonable (256M, iirc) as needed to avoid the
>need for specifying this
>
>  
>
I see. I wasn't aware that xend could dynamically change this in such a way.
I will look more into it, and probably send a modified patch to the list 
to reflect the changes.

>>2) The ramdisk_size= values specified at 10000
>>    
>>
>
>This also shouldn't be needed as the "initrd" is actually an initramfs
>and thus doesn't use the ramdisk code in the kernel at all.
>  
>
It isn't actually. It is a small gzipped ext2 filesystem.
I would like to see Kadischi move to more standard, and base procedures like
using the same format as Fedora Core does, with what I understand as an 
initramfs
being the gzipped cpio archive. I may be way off base, but to the best 
of my knowledge it isn't.

I had been fiddling with the provided mkinitrd from Fedora Core stock 
and generated a few patches already
that _could possibly_ make this happen. I'll provide the bugzilla 
reference here:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=183566
A brief explanation shows that:
1) The initrd for the Live discs would fall in organization with the 
existing Fedora Core style.
2) A hacked up livecd-mkinitrd.sh could be deprecated in favor of using 
/sbin/mkinitrd from the host system.
2a) This would bring the Kadischi package down a few KB.
3) The patches allow for what is neccessary to be inserted to the initrd.
3a) --init= for the linuxrc (Which could, or may not be using /bin/ash 
(busybox.anaconda or nash, anything is possible)
3b) --root= would be specified to build an initrd for a kernel that is 
not on / (/lib/modules/$(uname -r) on the host) for example.
3c) --bin= for installation of any binary needed, whether statically 
compiled or not (such as busybox.anaconda).
This same patch set I think could use --lib= also, though I have not 
written that up and attached it to that report.

As I said, and to not make this mail too lengthy, these were ideas and 
sound plausible.
If this were to become reality and put forward to deployment the 
groundwork for it is laid.
Even if modifications are neccessary. If not, no big deal.

In any case, if these were folded into mkinitrd even just for Kadischi, 
it would benefit Kadischi and any other
project that needs an initrd with some modifications.
Otherwise we always make an initrd for Live media duplicating the 
efforts of the existing Fedora Core mkinitrd.

J. Hartline
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