* Mark Maule <mark_maule at yahoo.com> [2009-12-14 22:07]:
> This is probably the wrong discussion group, but since smf would be a
> component, I'm starting here ...
>
> I'm attempting to build a custom boot archive for an appliance which
> has no disk. As such I will be running everything out of a writeable
> ram-fs and running custom code in addition to code built from os-nv.
> I would like to leverage smf to get my code running rather than
> hacking inittab to just start the things I need.
>
> What I need minimally is:
>
> console login
> dhcp client
> ssh
> syslogd
>
> One of the things I'm struggling with is finding the minimal set of
> bits to stuff in the boot archive such that smf will come up to the
> single-user milestone.
>
> Is there precedent for building such a minimal boot archive? I
> realize this is an open-ended question - I can supply more details as
> needed.
pkg(5) will help you with the package dependencies, but getting
service dependencies is harder--less automated--than I would like.
Right now, you have to use "svcs -d _instance_fmri_" to get the
dependencies of _instance_fmri_. Then you have to search for that
FMRI pattern in the manifests in /var/svc/manifest. Finally, you can
search for the appropriate files in one of the pkg(5) repositories.
As an example, let's follow console login from your list above.
$ svcs -d console-login:default
STATE STIME FMRI
disabled 11:18:05 svc:/system/auditd:default
online 11:18:06 svc:/system/identity:node
online 11:18:09 svc:/system/filesystem/minimal:default
online 11:18:23 svc:/milestone/sysconfig:default
online 11:18:23 svc:/system/utmp:default
$ ggrep -R identity /var/svc/manifest
...
/var/svc/manifest/system/identity.xml:<service_bundle type='manifest'
name='SUNWcsr:identity'>
/var/svc/manifest/system/identity.xml: name='system/identity'
/var/svc/manifest/system/identity.xml:
exec='/lib/svc/method/identity-node'
/var/svc/manifest/system/identity.xml: system
identity (nodename)
/var/svc/manifest/system/identity.xml:
exec='/lib/svc/method/identity-domain'
/var/svc/manifest/system/identity.xml: system
identity (domainname)
...
$ pkg search -l identity.xml
INDEX ACTION VALUE PACKAGE
basename file var/svc/manifest/system/identity.xml pkg:/SUNWcs at
0.5.11-0.129
Then follow our new service down...
$ svcs -d identity:node
~
STATE STIME FMRI
disabled 11:18:05 svc:/network/physical:default
online 11:18:06 svc:/network/loopback:default
online 11:18:06 svc:/network/physical:nwam
until we have no further dependencies from "svcs -d".
Now repeat for the other four services from console-login. Tedious.
My goal in this area is to make the service dependency tracking part
of the package dependencies, so that, by installing a package
delivering one or more services, you get all the service dependencies
automatically.
As Bernd says, it may be easier to start with one of the smaller
distros, like MiLaX; in particular, searching through application
dependencies probably won't get you a correct set of hardware device
drivers.
Cheers
Stephen
--
sch at sun.com http://blogs.sun.com/sch/
