[Fedora-livecd-list] experimental unionfs and initramfs code

[Jane Dogalt]

Jane Dogalt's soliloqy goes as follows-
 
> 
> > Well, I managed to get my first proof-of-concept fedora core 5 based livecd
> > iso
> > generated, which utilizes unionfs+squashfs via initramfs.
...
> > So the nash I hacked on was the stock fedora core 5 one.  And my
> modifcations
> > started from the truly elegant linux-from-scratch livecd init.c/init.h. 
> > Though
... 
> Apparently I was so sleep deprived I forgot that the issue is still squashfs
> not supporting xattrs, and that it was unionfs+ext2image that _might_ work
> with
> selinux.  But going to an ext2 image instead of a squashfs image is trivial. 
...

So apparently the authors of that elegent linux from scratch init.c/init.h have
been some busy little beavers since I grabbed a snap of the files from their
trunk less than a week ago.

http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/livecd/browser/trunk/initramfs/init.h?rev=1495

They are now apparently doing some funky stuff with devicemapper, and it
_appears_ they have migrated *away* from squashfs, to a sparse ext2 file image.

This is very curious.  I suppose they probably have mailinglists I should be
following.  Maybe they did it for selinux xattr support.  Or perhaps
uncompressed (but seems odd they wouldn't leave squashfs support in as an
option).

Or perhaps they are doing the funky trick that someone on fedora-devel
mentioned, using devicemapper to create a broken mirror, which can optionally
be  'fixed' and 'rebroken' at runtime allowing the install image to be migrated
to the hardisk, without having to remount the root fs.

Or maybe they are playing devicemapper tricks that I've never even suspected...

Very interesting, and very worth watching...

-jdog


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