What: The dist-kernel-bin provided relies on using the NVME driver as a module instead of compiled in. The current settings are: CONFIG_NVME_CORE=m CONFIG_BLK_DEV_NVME=m I would prefer these two config settings be changed to: CONFIG_NVME_CORE=y CONFIG_BLK_DEV_NVME=y (The rest of the NVME settings are not necessary to convert from =m to =y for this matter) Why: The current situation means it is impossible to boot a machine with an NVME drive with this kernel-bin and the "-initramfs" USE flag (no initial ramdisk) when using a stock kernel. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Use a default gentoo-kernel-bin on a system with an NVME drive and no initial ramdisk. 2. Try to Boot. 3. Fails to Mount the system disk; module for the NVME block device cannot be found; Fails to Boot. Actual Results: The system cannot boot with the root partition on an NVME system drive unless you also build an initrd containing the NVME modules. This is undesirable. Expected Results: This current "NVME as a module" configuration is the only limitation present for me, and otherwise I could completely negate using an initial ramdisk, and I expect many other people have a similar configuration, since NVME drives are common, and initial ramdisks are not actually a requirement to mount the / root partition and bootstrap the system enough to load more modules, unless you use special hardware, need firmware, or alternate (non-ext4) filesystems (which I am not). I have tested this theory by creating an elaborate manual minimal init script just to load the "nvme_core" and "nvme" modules (and not relying on dracut), and I am correct that everything else needed is in place for the kernel to boot. This workaround was not easy. I have also recompiled the kernel-bin using its .config as a starting point, and only making the aforementioned two NVME =m to =y changes, and confirmed that is enough. This negates the purpose of the kernel-bin entirely.
Disabling initramfs is not supported with the generic config. If you do that, you need to adjust the config for your system yourself.
