On Fri, Aug 16, 2013 at 10:04 AM, Tanstaafl <tansta...@libertytrek.org> wrote: >> And really, maybe you could try an initramfs? It will be much more >> easy than any juggle of filesystems. > > > I always compile my kernels manually, by choice - so, no desire to use > genkernel or dracut. > > How would I then create one? I am *not* a programmer, just a reasonably > competent general sys admin. > > Is there a 'generic' one that I can use? Or is there a separate tool that > will create one based on my system profile (or whatever)?
I think dracut is actually exactly the tool you are looking for. It does not have anything to do with building your kernel, its sole job in life is to generate an initramfs built to your specifications. It contains sane defaults but you can tweak it to include or exclude things as you see fit. I build my kernel by hand and then run dracut afterward to generate the initramfs.img. I believe mounting /usr is enabled by default in dracut. I would recommend checking out the documentation and seeing all the different options and modules that are available so you can customize it to match your needs. For example you may want to have it import your LVM configuration, assemble a RAID, use the reiserfs or btrfs filesystem, etc. Once it generates the initramfs it's as simple as adding a line to your grub config and off you go. If it doesn't work right away you can just comment out that line and boot without it, for now, while your existing setup is still valid. (It took me a few reboots to find the right combination of options.) Then someday if separate /usr is no longer allowed without an initramfs, you'll be prepared for it. I always regenerate my initramfs using dracut after every time i build a new kernel, but I'm not sure if that's truly necessary. Honestly it's all still a bit of a black box to me.