[issue650] live-initramfs patch

[Tong Sun]

New submission from Tong Sun <suntong001 at gmail.com>:

[logging the request/messages in bts]

> Regarding the persistence solution, I think I would rather like to have
> a solution where the installed packages are not forced to be loaded into
> main memory - as I understand that the live-snapshot would do, or ...?
> Do grml have some toolchain that will allow me to either add stuff to an
> existing squashfs or have the system "union mount" additional squashfs
> files?

Yes, the "layered module architecture" feature is actually provided by
live-initramfs itself. Check out it man pages, it is trivial to add layered
module as you wish. 

So far, I have just been putting the modules that I build for slax on
top of grml, about 7 layered modules on top of grml. It works perfectly, but
they are all my home, text or script files though. I.e., no debian packages
involved in the layered modules yet.
Ref http://bts.grml.org/grml/issue523

Moreover, I've build a standalone script (by patching live-initramfs) to give
users the ability to insert modules into live system on the fly, and/or remove
them as well. I.e., anding/removing layered modules does not have to be on boot
only, but can happen any time. I've send the patches to mika, but hasn't get
around to check the latest availability status yet. 

On Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 5:32 AM, Michael Prokop <mika at grml.org> wrote:
>
>> As you may have known, I have patched live-initramfs (with a
>> standalone script) to give users the ability to insert modules into
>> live system on the fly, and/or remove them as well. . . .
>
>> What do you say?
>
> [x] Definitely interested.

Oh, thanks a lot, that's very encouraging. . .

I'll send you the patches right away. It's a standalone script and
working fine now. Here is the current usage help:

live-module - insert/remove live modules into root aufs

Usage: live-module [options] module

Options:

 -i, --ins      insert the module into root aufs
 -r, --rem      remove the module from root aufs
 -p, --plug     plug-in the module (synonym for insert)
 -u, --pull     pull-out the module (synonym for remove)

 -h, --help     Print usage information and exit

> I don't know how creating those additional modules works in regards
> to the workflow, but I'm definitely interested in such a feature and
> appreciate any help and work from you.

Ok, I'll elaborate more for my previous email, and more over, I'll add
an option to create squashfs live modules in live-module.

How about we use

 -c, --create-from=dir create squashfs live modules from the given dir

?

BTW, This is how I created the split modules manually.

 cd $os_mnt
 mksquashfs . ../001-base.squashfs -noappend -b 256K -lzmadic 256K -e var

 mksquashfs var tmp ../002-vars.squashfs -noappend -b 256K -lzmadic 256K

You can exclude more in base and include more in var as you wish.

cheers

----------
messages: 2035
nosy: suntong
priority: feature
status: unread
title: live-initramfs patch

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