[Fedora-livecd-list] [PATCH 6/7] anaconda: liveinst.sh: support turboLiveInst/genMinInstDelta

[Jeremy Katz]

On Tue, 2007-09-18 at 19:12 -0500, Douglas McClendon wrote:
> Jeremy Katz wrote:
> > On Tue, 2007-09-18 at 15:48 -0500, Douglas McClendon wrote:
> >> Jeremy Katz wrote:
> >>> Although then the other question is what to do when we're not squashed.
> >>> Do we just then want to put it on the ext3fs?
> >> Here is the heart of something I think I mentioned that was wrong a long 
> >> time ago.  I mentioned something like "osmin can't live on the squashfs 
> >> for obvious reasons".  Actually, the truth is "osmin can't live on the 
> >> ext3 for obvious reasons".  And the subtle error there kept the idea out 
> >> of my mind.
> > 
> > The simple answer is just don't do the osmin bits if you're not using
> > squashfs.  Given that it's a debug option only, that's probably not
> > crazy
> 
> Thats the answer to...?  to not having the --ignore-deleted and 
> --turbo-liveinst options?  I agree.

To where to put the osmin image in the case of not having a squashfs.  

> One big problem with skip-compression as is, is that when the ext3 image 
> lives natively on the iso9660

Yeah, I don't see --skip-compression as something that's ever that
interesting for "real" uses.

> >> But...
> >>
> >> It occurs to me that because of what anaconda is doing, I.e. a big 2G 
> >> dd, it may actually be problematic that squashfs pages out(?) the osmin 
> >> data, and needs to reread it from cdrom often, thus screwing up a nice 
> >> big linear seek-free read.
> > 
> > Famous last words are "it shouldn't really make a difference" ;)
> 
> Ok, now I think I've _really_ got it figured out-
> 
> 1) at livecd creator time, put the osmin in it's own squashfs.  I just 
> tried this, and it produces a 12kb squashfs image.
> 
> 2) now, at initramfs time, copy the squashfs image to tmpfs, loop mount 
> it, associate the loop118 device with the file inside that squashfs, and 
> then build the devicemapper minimized device
> 
> *NOW*, osmin once again only lives in tmpfs, *AND* ram is only used for 
> its 1.2M of data during anaconda install time.

Could work too -- I'm not sure it's better or worse than just sticking
it in the squashfs, though.

Jeremy