In linux.gentoo.user, Tanstaafl wrote: > On 2013-09-29 4:09 PM, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckin...@gmail.com> wrote: >> On 29/09/2013 19:59, Tanstaafl wrote: >>> I've been told that this shouldn't be a big deal... while I am a >>> (barely) passable linux sys admin >> >> Allow me to forward an opinion. The above is not true, not even close. >> >> Don't knock yourself, you don't deserve it :-) > > Lol!!! At first I thought you were saying that it wasn't true that > merging /usr into / shouldn't be a big deal - and I was about to start > gnashing my teeth (again). > > Thanks Alan, your words are very kind... and I'll just leave it at > that... ;)
I've just changed one of my machines so that /usr is now part of the root filesystem. Like you, I had a separate /usr filesystem. Unlike you I've been running an initramfs for many years because: a) I'm running laptops and like them to have pretty graphical boot screens and no "ugly writing" appearing during the boot sequence. It's silly, I know, but it still looks pretty. The initramfs will start up "bootsplash" 8-) b) The important reason I need an initramfs is that I have my root filesystems on LVM partitions (except for my ARM servers). I've never has a scrap of trouble with the genkernel initramfs builds, despite myriad updates over the years. I've had minor niggles with display but nothing critical. So while I've run an initramfs for many years, now it has had to mount /usr before the "pivot_root" command. This has led to the problem that /usr is no longer able to be fscked because it is already mounted, and I cannot for the life of me, get the genkernel initramfs to fsck the /usr filesystem before mounting. I've had to manually fsck the /usr filesystem by running my minimal install CD. There are probably ways to do this (like fscking /usr on shutdown, which I couldn't get working) but I'm sick of looking for them. I've bit the bullet and changed things over. It went without a hitch. Here's what I did: I added a new LVM volume group and added a "slash" filesystem (10Gb), a "usrsrc" filesystem for my kernels (10Gb), a "portage" filesystem (3Gb), a "distfiles" filesystem (15Gb) and a "packages" filesystem (10Gb). Because these are on LVM they can be adjusted upwards or downwards depending on usage. I updated /etc/default/grub so that the new kernel command line will find my new "slash" LVM volume, and ran the grub2 installer to make the change valid. I then shut down the machine, booted my minimal install CD, used LVM to find my filesystems. I then mounted my new "slash" and mounted the new filesystems. I also decided to move portage, distfiles and packages to the old /var partition but to do so I first had to mount them in their old positions on /usr/portage /usr/portage/distfiles etc... Once done, I mounted the old "slash" and the old "/usr" (with included distfiles and packages and portage) then did the "cp -av <old hierarchy> <new hierarchy>". It was then possible to unmount distfiles, packages and portage and then move them to /var (mount /var and mkdir /var/portage /var/distfiles and /var/packages) I altered the new "slash" fstab. I then rebooted without a hitch. Oh, I also had to update /etc/portage/make.conf and the "make.profile" symlink to reflect the change. It seems complicated but every step was logical. Having my root filesystem on LVM has made the change more complicated than it should have been, but it still was quite easy to do and downtime was minimal. I don't feel like I've been "forced" to do anything. I'm grateful for the Gentoo devs and their hard work over the years. This upstream change is just a small bump in the long Gentoo road. If I didn't agree with the change then it would be up to me to find a way to get my system to work without an initramfs, not the Gentoo Devs... after all, this IS open source. Be grateful that the Gentoo Devs are still willing to volunteer their time building this great distribution. -- Regards, Gregory.
