Subject: Re: [vserver] ramFS Host
From: "Michael S. Zick" <mszick@morethan.org>
Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2008 09:25:56 -0600

On Thu January 3 2008 09:06, Raoul Bhatia [IPAX] wrote:
> as it is possible to boot a whole linux system from network with no local
> harddisk (pxe should be the keyword), i see no issue with that besides
> being a little more complicated for updates :) (as you need to patch the
> file on the server and re-pack it - afairc)
> 

Actually, I want to make updates easier than the factory setup - -
The machine ships with unionFS overlaying / within the init script - -
Which protects their software install from inadvertent change - -
It also prevents the user from making intentional changes - -

I want to convert mine from a "tech toy" into a for-real, personal computer.

> please tell us about your progress!
> 

Progress can be followed here: http://eee-developers.com

Mike
> cheers,
> raoul
> 
> On Thu, 3 Jan 2008 08:30:42 -0600, "Michael S. Zick" <mszick@morethan.org>
> wrote:
> > Group,
> > 
> > A somewhat abstract question today ...
> > 
> > The usual protocol for a kernel booting with an initial ramFS (early
> > userspace);
> > is for the setup and whatever initialization be done in the ramFS image;
> > then switch_root (which removes the initial ramFS contents) to the "run
> > time"
> > storage media (yea, everyone here knows that) ...
> > 
> > But the size of a truly minimal VServer host image (logging, sshd, ntpd,
> > network tables)
> > is not very big (target system is a mini-laptop (EeePC) with at least
> > 0.5Gb ram) - -
> > Why "switch_root" for the host?
> > Why not just bring up the first (most likely only) user context as a
> > vserver on the
> > run-time media - let the host context continue to run in ramFS?
> > 
> > Technically, it looks like it should work - -
> > Anybody tried this sort of setup?  Any practical problems encountered?
> > Of course, this setup would hold a few Mbytes of disk buffers out of the
> > pool,
> > but the machine has a lot of ram, I don't think they would be missed.
> > 
> > Mike