Bryan J Smith ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) said: > - Netboot/disklessrc > > The current approach in system-config-netboot for Diskless clients is > legacy (not even nash, so it looks like some re-use from circa-2003 or > even earlier), but the "disklessrc" approach with they way it loads in > the Diskless initrd "just works." Not only does it "just work," but it > works for RHEL 5 (possibly earlier).
This code is dead (long-term.) Note that mkinitrd itself has support for NFS boot, iSCSI, etc. > - LiveCD/mayflower > > I've looked at the LiveCD tools now, including the mayflower initrd > builder. I've also looked at the results. A lot of newer developments > make assumptions on newer Anaconda/PyKickstart releases of post-RHEL 5 > Fedora releases. I would definitely be interested in anyone who has > concise information on what features are being used, otherwise, I'm > looking at them as non-requirements (with my focus on RHEL 5). There is a livecd-tools branch for RHEL 5 - I believe Rahul maintains that. > I've noted a few things I really don't care for, like dumping all > modules in /lib/modules of the initrd, instead of maintaining some sort > of tree like netboot/disklessrc does/uses. Attempting to catalog a list of network/storage module is a long-term failure. We do a hack in anaconda by looking for modules that reference certain needed symbols (register_net_device, register_block, etc.), but it's still a hack. > - What I want (should force myself to do) > > What I want -- aka what I should force myself to do so I more than a fat > guy just eating up oxygen ;) -- is try to build a new, flexible initrd > creator (call it "snitrd" out of my frustration ;) and . I don't know > if there are other projects out there trying to do this, so please let > me know if someone already has been tackling this. > > The concept is basically this (putting the Anaconda install-to-disc to > the side for now) ... > > - Can generate a Diskless initrd (disklessrc init, various network) > - Can generate a ISO initrd (like mayflower's init, various fs/etc...) > - Can generate a Disk initrd (more than just squashfs? new init) > - Can generate a "Super" initrd (take various boot init= options) > > Additionally, I was going to add the following options in the new "Disk" > initrd init (think flash/embedded): > > - Option to compare image checksums to TFTP server, update if different > - Option to boot diskless if local boot fails (trap failures/set flag) > > Does anyone else think this is a good idea? I don't think the Diskless, > ISO and basic Disk initrd/init options are too difficult. The more > embedded options could come later, as could the RHEL 5 > Anaconda/PyKickstart v. newer Fedora differences/detections as well. > > Right now I could really use a single toolset to do at least some of the > above. And I'm having to choose between the limited/stagnant > Netboot/disklessrc and the more leading Fedora-centric LiveCD/mayflower. > > Anyone think I'm off my rocker? Over-complicating a simple issue? > Don't know the first thing of what I'm talking about? Etc...? ;) Honestly, I'm not sure what we really need right now is Yet Another initrd project. There's talk of a new upstream one that can hopefully be shared by multiple distros, but that's still a ways off from production. In the meantime, it's probably better to just fix what's there. Bill -- Fedora-livecd-list mailing list [email protected] https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-livecd-list
