Why systemd/uselessd will warn you during boot if /usr is on a different file system than /?
Issue #4
resolved
Can someone please explain the rationale behind this? In the initcpio on Arch Linux, I have a hook that enables this functionality. What is the rationale behind a warning, which should be needless.
If uselessd requires programs on the /usr, then why should it not fsck and mount it?
Another question is to understand why have /usr on a separate partition? The reason I do it is because: 1) it is one of the largest directories and I would prefer the filesystem be fsck'ed if needed. In earlier systems where I could boot my minimal system, i could use the installed tools to do this and other repairs, but unfortunately no more. 2) I use /usr with LVM2. Can do online resizing of that. Would want to avoid online resizing of / 3) I can use "experimental" filesystems like BTRFS etc. on /usr, while keeping / on something like ext2 which can be read by any other linux distro, allowing me to patch config files if needed.
I would like to use "uselessd" if only for the fact that it keeps text logs. But, can it continue to capture early bootup and obviate the need to keep on looking at dmesg?
Comments (2)
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- changed status to resolved
Well, that's that, it seems. Closed.
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Simply put, this warning originated from systemd, and we decided to preserve it for the reason that most of the modern Linux software stack expects a pre-mounted /usr in an initramfs. systemd (and also uselessd) will work fine, regardless, but it's just a heads-up. You can read the details here: http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/separate-usr-is-broken/
So, systemd doesn't require this. Everything else does, unless you're using a minimal/non-mainstream setup. Go ahead.
At the moment, uselessd has no logging facilities and expects you to install your own. We might provide a simple tool similar to bootlogd for capturing early boot to a text file, but that seems gratuitous. You could configure a one-shot service that launches a shell script which will capture all uselessd[1] stdout messages (e.g. with grep) and redirect them to a text file, and have it run after a predetermined target, synchronization point or after getty starting /bin/login.