Bug 275251 – app-benchmarks/bootchart needs real_init=/sbin/bootchart with genkernel

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED FIXED

[Description Roman v. Gemmeren 2009-06-24 08:23:40 UTC]

hi,

i have almost gone crazy about this problem. When you have build your kernel/initrd with genkernel (which ist almost anywhere the case with lvm/raid/...), you need to add real_init=/sbin/botchartd to the kernel cmdline instead of init=/sbin/bootchartd. This seems not to be docomented anywhere, so maybe it should be added/changed to the pkg_postinst?


Reproducible: Always

Actual Results:  
no bootchart being created

Expected Results:  
bootchart in /var/log

[Comment 1 Wormo (RETIRED) 2009-06-27 22:35:48 UTC]

Thanks for posting your hard-won solution, and your suggestion of an info message to prevent others the same pain sounds like a good one. Assigning to bootchart maintainers.

[Comment 2 Alistair Bush (RETIRED) 2009-06-28 02:33:42 UTC]

Firstly thank you for the bug report.

After looking at the genkernel [1] documentation I was unable to find any reference to the real_init parameter.  Therefore genkernel/doc teams what do you think about adding an explaination of this variable to the documentation.

After writing most of this, I noticed that [1] in not maintained anymore.  Is there someone else where this could go?

I would much prefer to point genkernel users to [1] instead of attempting to explain something, which I no nothing about, in pkg_postinst.

[1] http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/genkernel.xml

[Comment 3 Roman v. Gemmeren 2009-06-28 08:44:11 UTC]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Firstly thank you for the bug report.
> 
> After looking at the genkernel [1] documentation I was unable to find any
> reference to the real_init parameter.  Therefore genkernel/doc teams what do
> you think about adding an explaination of this variable to the documentation.
> 
> After writing most of this, I noticed that [1] in not maintained anymore.  Is
> there someone else where this could go?
> 
> I would much prefer to point genkernel users to [1] instead of attempting to
> explain something, which I no nothing about, in pkg_postinst.
> 
> [1] http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/genkernel.xml
> 
Might be a good idea. I don't know if this is specific to genkernel, but all i could find at this early hour was:
http://www.gentoo-wiki.info/Initramfs

Nevertheless, i think pkg_postinst still should be changed, because it advises to add "init=/sbin/initng" to the kernel line. Just sth. like "genkernel users might have to replace init with real_init".

[Comment 4 Andrew Gaffney (RETIRED) 2009-06-28 19:46:46 UTC]

The file pointed to by real_init= is what's called after the switch_root. By default, this is /sbin/init.

That genkernel doc is a bit out of date, and yes, it's not really being maintained. Docs team, feel free to update (I can answer any questions).

[Comment 5 nm (RETIRED) 2009-06-29 03:10:32 UTC]

Naw, the doc needs a thorough overhaul, which no one has the time for. That's why I marked it as obsolete in the first place. Anything other than a complete rewrite is a lost cause, especially for documenting things that are not actually part of genkernel's function in the first place.

Such a quick one-liner about real_init is best served by putting a message into bootchart's postinstall output. genkernel users don't need to be bothered with random info about a package few people use, so I don't recommend putting it into genkernel's postinstall.

Nothing on the GDP's end to do, back to the genkernel and java teams.

[Comment 6 Vlastimil Babka (Caster) (RETIRED) 2010-04-27 13:12:57 UTC]

Postinst message added. I agree that putting this to genkernel docs would be an overkill, so marking FIXED.

Also any dev feel free to take the package as primary maintainer, java is only optional here. Updated metadata.xml accordingly.