Hubert Mantel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >> Installation time is after boot time. Use a Unix-style file system. Go >> for minix, that's small and will not get in the way. > > So the modules floppy would need to be minix also. We had that in the > past.
No need, you can load fat.o + vfat.o from initrd or romfs or something. > People don't need to mount these floppies. Agreed. But guess what: They do > it nevertheless. At least they try to do so. Go work in the support > department of some Linux distributor for some weeks. This might change > your view of some things drastically. That particular person asked in de.comp.os.unix.linux.moderated rather than bothering your installation support team -- so much as to changed view. >> 3. the kernel fails to keep "rootfstype" over an initrd. There should >> be an additional parameter like initrdfstype or something to let >> users override autodetection. Or use *BSD-style, support a file >> system tag in the root= bootparam): root=reiserfs:/dev/hda13 would >> specify mounting hda13 as root and try reiserfs first, and >> initrd=vfat:/some/braindead/location whatever. > > Ok, so you are no longer requesting a distributor fixing his bugs, but now > you want distributors to provide a workaround for some kernel > shortcomming. > > Quite different for me. I was skiing for a week, that helps sometimes. :-) Still, I think the distributor should first modprobe reiserfs and only after that modprobe vfat. That way, reiserfs is tried BEFORE vfat and all is fine. Robustness of a boot procedure is not a luxury, but a requirement. >> 1. bootloader loads kernel with ext2/minix driver and corrsponding initrd >> 2. kernel bootstraps its initrd >> 3. initrd does modprobe reiserfs jfs xfs (whatever native) > > Where do you get those modules from? They don't fit onto one single > floppy; there is already the kernel and initrd on the first floppy, so we > need some filesystem in order to access the second floppy. Is there no room left for vfat.o inside the initrd when the initrd is minix? I think it does not matter if you link vfat into the kernel or drop it into the initrd, either is gzipped. I feel very uncomfortable with a crippled file system (no devices!) to bootstrap Linux. It seems to me like a dead end. Maybe there's a better way than initrd (initramfs had been suggested, cramfs also), I didn't look (and I usually boot my boxen without initrd, no RAID here). > Since you don't have to deal with customers, it is very convenient for you > to demand we just use minix and answer all the newbies that report > defective floppies shipped by us. In fact, I've yet to see a broken floppy shipped by SuSE. The worst thing I came across was a CD of some 6.x version which the CD-ROM drive read at 8x speed (and I didn't bother to have that exchanged) -- Matthias Andree "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin
