At Fri, 10 Oct 2025 19:54:06 +0200 (CEST), Jarle Greipsland <[email protected]> wrote: Subject: Re: Shared-root diskless netboot, critical local/remote mounts, and rc.conf > > The message I replied to presented the idea that the information > in /etc/fstab could be combined with information from a directory > service (networked, presumably). In order for this to happen, > the OS must already be running from a NFS-mounted root (since it > is a diskless system), and thus the kernel must already have > established some basic net connectivity.
Indeed -- and so why invent yet another complex maze of things to add on
to what's already got to be done to get there in the first place?!?!?!?
It's literally a trivial cut&paste&subst (albeit in several files) to
add an /etc mount to be done in "parallel" with mounting the root device
that has to be fetched from some boot parameter service anyway. Note
that the boot program doesn't need extra support for mounting /etc --
only the kernel. I've tested it. It works.
If/when there's another type of filesystem that supports "diskless"
systems then there's a lot more that could/should be refactored, but
until then the NFS support for BOOTP or DHCP or Sun RPC BOOTPARAMS
should more than suffice to find an extra "/etc/" mount point. It is
simple, elegant, and covers all the bases and gets a diskless system
running up to the point where it can do the rest of its configuration in
the "normal" (i.e. init running /etc/rc) way using a private set of
configuration files.
--
Greg A. Woods <[email protected]>
Kelowna, BC +1 250 762-7675 RoboHack <[email protected]>
Planix, Inc. <[email protected]> Avoncote Farms <[email protected]>
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