On Fri, Feb 20, 2015 at 04:30:17PM +0000, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 20, 2015 at 3:57 PM, Isaac Dunham <ibid.ag@???> wrote:
> > On Sun, Feb 15, 2015 at 04:27:55PM +0000, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
> >> http://lkcl.net/reports/removing_systemd_from_debian/
> >
> > Somehow, this inspired me to poke at packaging mdev.
> > I don't have a website or apt repository atm, so I can't provide a deb.
>
> http://hands.com/~lkcl/mdev/
>
> unsigned.

Thanks!

> > But here's the source in git:
> >
> > https://github.com/idunham/mdev
> >
> > To build it, use "dpkg-buildpackage -b".
> >
> > STATUS:
> > This provides hooks for mkinitramfs, and *can* create a working initrd.
> > There's an init script that's shipped along with it, and a fairly close
> > to standard Debian layout for /dev.
>
> great!
>
> > It provides udev, because that was the only way to defeat the dependency
> > chain and make it work.
>
> i have no idea how to do that properly but... yeah "Provides: udev"
> sounds about right.
>
> the only thing i spotted is that the package built has "_all" in it -
> my understanding is that that's reserved for things that are
> architecture-independent. is mdev _definitely_
> architecture-independent?

This is along the same lines as udhcpc: it is a configuration package
for code that comes in busybox.
So this package is architecture-independent.

>>isaac i get "cannot stat /etc/modprobe.d/*" when doing
>>the update-initramfs -u, hope that's ok...
>>
>>SPLAT :) dozens of "unknown user/group root:root on line 20 ... about
>>100 of those...

Thanks for mentioning that error in update-initramfs, otherwise I'd have
no idea what's going on.
Obviously I need to include /etc/modprobe.d/something.conf, and change
move the "don't run with udev" logic from mdev-hook to mdev-{top,bottom}.

For those who want to try with the existing deb:
* remove not purge udev, or touch /etc/modprobe.d/empty.conf before
running update-initramfs.

Evidently, /etc/group and /etc/passwd did not get created.
This means that mdev-hook never finished, which means that udev was
still installed. In turn, that means that purging udev breaks
update-initramfs, presumably because /etc/modprobe.d/* goes away.

I should have a fix soon.

Thanks,
Isaac Dunham