[klibc] Status/future for klibc/initramfs

[H. Peter Anvin]

Thayne Harbaugh wrote:
> I'm wondering where things are on the roadmap for klibc and
> initramfs/early userspace.  When will everything be harmonized with the
> kernel and be the default?  What is left to do?
> 
> I'm in my own little world, but I have a pretty good
> klibc/hotplug/udev/kinit early userspace that just works (for me).  It's
> taken me a bit to get things to work because I just couldn't find all
> the details and there were a few bugs/lacking features.  Better/more
> documentation would have helped me (maybe I missed it?).
> 

The main thing missing -- and I have been working on it, but painfully 
slowly, it seems -- is a kinit which is fully compatible with the 
kernel.  It means replacing *everything* in and beyond 
prepare_namespace() -- all of which should be doable in user space. 
However, there is a ton of legacy crap in there (initrd, ramdisk 
loading, mounting root...) and key to getting it integrated with the 
kernel build is to put the backwards into backwards compatible.

It's not particularly hard work, but it's tedious.

	-hpa