On 2013-09-30 08:45, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> That is over-simplifying the problem and trivializing it. No-one ever
> said the *everythign* in /usr is criticial for boot.
Is it really over-simplyfying it? How am I supposed to know whatever
comes next? Someone ("upstream") *may* find it boot-critical to have
'Space Invaders' operational during boot. Yes, I say that somewhat
*tounge-in-cheek* but the way things are going I'm not so sure anymore...
> This is the problem:
>
> a. There exists code used at boot and early-user space time. It is
> critical that this code is available when needed.
I fully understand this and *if* I ever were to install code that I
*knew* had this dependency I would take a serious look if I really
*need* it and only then install it. But it would be up to me to make
that decision and take the necessary steps.
> b. One cannot predict with absolute certainty 100% of the time what
> exactly that critical code is.
In a general manner, no, you are correct... Also, see above
("Invaders")... (And if you don't understand what I'm trying to say, I'm
saying this is as *arbitrary* as it gets - which you, like me, seem to
be opposed to["arbitrariness"])
> c. many reasonable setups turn out to have such critical code in /usr,
> and this cannot be reliably predicted in advance
So I avoid things like Gnome, pulseaudio, systemd and similar stuff like
the plague but I *still* shall be forced to use whatever is dictated by
these things[1]? Don't get me wrong, if anyone wants to install Gnome or
whatever then they should have the restrictions required by it.
> Your second paragraph reveals that you beleive you already know
> everything you need to have to boot your system. Now do the same for
> every possible Gentoo user out there and have it work 100% of the time
> in ALL valid cases.
I *do* know everything I need to have to boot my system. I carefully
select my hardware and I take particular care of how I set up my system
thank you very much. But apparently my system is no longer deemed a
"valid case"... so I'm obviously not a "possible Gentoo user" anymore.
> Do you now see the problem and the fulls cope and impact of it?
I've seen it since *long* before this thread started. The main problem
is lack of resources (because of stupid decisions upstream which puts a
burden on Gentoo devs) and I can't (currently) help much with that other
than through monetary means (donations) but since Gentoo seems to go the
way of the dodo for me (or "assimilated" if you will) then I will take
my leave. For a while now it has only been inertia keeping me here. Or
maybe a hope that things will get better...
[1] And no, I'm not blaming systemd, Gnome or any of the other "pests"
in particular for this...
Best regards
Peter K
