On Tue, 4 Jul 2017 at 12:44:34 +0100
KatolaZ <katolaz@???> wrote:

> On Tue, Jul 04, 2017 at 01:08:24PM +0200, Alessandro Selli wrote:
>
> [cut]
>
>>
>> Right, which brings up the issue that you cannot produce a distibution
>> without an initramfs because, among the other problems, some of the
>> drivers it comes with, some of which are needed to mount the root
>> filesystem, do need a proprietary firmware. What one can do on his own
>> PC does not constitute a solution for the distribution.
>>
>
> Uh? Which are those proprietary drivers needed to mount the root
> filesystem?

Filesystems that reside on units handled by a controller that needs to be
fed a proprietary firmware in order for the driver to be able to send it
commands. They are advanced, mostly SAS and FC controllers, maybe some iSCSI
device too. Mostly Enterprise hardware, not consumer-PC.

> AFAICT, Linux-libre is able to mount almost any
> filesystem, from almost any existing storage device,

*Almost*, you're right.

> The only problem here is supporting some wifi devices and some video
> cards.

This too is a problem if you're performing a network boot over such a WiFi
device.

> The only non-free binary blob I have installed is iwlwifi,
> which is not at all needed at boot.

I know, but, again, when you're designing an OS you must keep in mind more
things than those that so far have happened to you. I do run Devuan on a
pretty customized setup:

[alessandro@draco ~]$ lsb_release -d
Description:    Devuan GNU/Linux 1.0 (jessie)
[alessandro@draco ~]$ uname -r
4.9.35.draco0
[alessandro@graco ~]$ 

But I'm not saying any of the solutions I adopted is the way to solve
problems distyribution-wise, like those that were addressed in this thread
(/ and /usr merge, initramfs).


Greetings,


--
Alessandro Selli http://alessandro.route-add.net
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