[Mageia-dev] mkinitrd and Mageia2

Fri Jan 27 11:02:25 CET 2012

'Twas brillig, and Charles A Edwards at 27/01/12 01:06 did gyre and gimble:
+> It was my understanding that mkinitrd would continue to be supported in
+> Mageia2 and then be phased out during the Mageia3 development.
+> 
+> If this is the case, why is it that all 'current' kernels now
+> require dracut?
+
+Basically, if you want to use mkinitrd in mga2, you'll also have to use
+sysvinit. I will not be supporting a systemd system with an mkinitrd initrd.
+
+This is because systemd is fully hotplug, and thus does not just "try
+and do things" and hope for the best. It waits until it knows devices
+are available before using them. It does this via udev. If anything
+mildly exotic is used (e.g. LVM, RAID etc.) then it is the initrd's job
+to start these. If it's done in an mkinitrd, the metadata generated from
+activating these devices is lost as udev is not running at the time. In
+dracut, udev is running and critical metadata is saved and preserved for
+systemd to use later.
+
+So, with the background of why I will not support systemd+mkinitrd out
+of the way, we have to look at the kernels themselves. We require dracut
+now, but it's still perfectly possible to install mkinitrd and set the
+alternatives up correctly such that it is used (update-alternatives
+--display mkinitrd). If you do this, you are on your own - you need to
+remember to install sysvinit and not let systemd be your init.
+
+
+
+The original question is "why does the kernel require dracut?" Well,
+it's our preferred initrd but, as mentioned above, you can still use
+mkinitrd if you absolutely must, but you have to know the consequences
+and repercussions. I originally made dracut fully obsolete mkinitrd,
+giving no choice in the matter. This is still my preferred option for
+mga2 if at all possible, but as I believe others want to keep it for
+now, I'm fine with it. The kernel requires dracut to make sure that the
+default init system (systemd) and the kernel initrd (made with dracut)
+are paired.
+
+Hope that answers your question.
+
+Col
+
+
+
+-- 
+
+Colin Guthrie
+colin(at)mageia.org
+http://colin.guthr.ie/
+
+Day Job:
+  Tribalogic Limited http://www.tribalogic.net/
+Open Source:
+  Mageia Contributor http://www.mageia.org/
+  PulseAudio Hacker http://www.pulseaudio.org/
+  Trac Hacker http://trac.edgewall.org/
+