From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Sat, 19 May 2001 15:28:36 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Sat, 19 May 2001 15:28:26 -0400 Received: from adsl-216-102-214-42.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net ([216.102.214.42]:30726 "HELO marcus.pants.nu") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id ; Sat, 19 May 2001 15:28:16 -0400 Subject: Re: [RFD w/info-PATCH] device arguments from lookup, partion code inuserspace To: aaronl@vitelus.com (Aaron Lehmann) Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 12:50:10 -0700 (PDT) Cc: Andries.Brouwer@cwi.nl, andrewm@uow.edu.au, bcrl@redhat.com, clausen@gnu.org, linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, torvalds@transmeta.com, viro@math.psu.edu In-Reply-To: <20010519110720.D2648@vitelus.com> from "Aaron Lehmann" at May 19, 2001 11:07:20 AM X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL0pre8] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <20010519195010.4C11A2B54A@marcus.pants.nu> From: flar@pants.nu (Brad Boyer) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Aaron Lehmann wrote: > On Sat, May 19, 2001 at 08:05:02PM +0200, Andries.Brouwer@cwi.nl wrote: > > > initrd is an unnecessary pain in the ass for most people. > > > It had better not become mandatory. > > > > You would not notice the difference, only your kernel would be > > a bit smaller and the RRPART ioctl disappears. > > Would I not notice the difference as a user, as a sysadmin, as a > kernel builder, as a kernel hacker, or all of the above? If I understand the status of stuff correctly, I think this would make it a lot more painful to admin if it became a requirement to use initrd on everything just to be able to boot. If you've ever seen the way some of the bootloaders for alterate platforms (like ppc and 68k) handle booting, you'd see what a pain it can be to have anything more than a simple string of options getting passed to the kernel. It's particularly bad on some of the embedded ppc platforms. I suspect that if this happened, it would never be allowed into many people's trees, because it would be worth their effort to maintain different code so they don't have to squeeze an initrd on flash along with their kernel and root filesystem. If I'm missing the boat here, please tell me, but it sure seems like a bad idea to me. Brad Boyer