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Bug#864777: initramfs-tools: Please support a tmpfs boot mode

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  Bug#864777: initramfs-tools: Please support a tmpfs boot mode Benjamin Drung <benjamin.drung@profitbricks.com> - 2017-06-14 18:00 +0200
    Bug#864777: initramfs-tools: Please support a tmpfs boot mode Peter Colberg <peter@colberg.org> - 2017-06-29 22:00 +0200
      Bug#864777: initramfs-tools: Please support a tmpfs boot mode Benjamin Drung <benjamin.drung@profitbricks.com> - 2017-12-14 13:30 +0100

#58032 — Bug#864777: initramfs-tools: Please support a tmpfs boot mode

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Package: initramfs-tools
Version: 0.130
Severity: normal
Tags: patch

Hi,

The tmpfs boot mode allows one to operate a disk-less live system by
downloading a root tarball (that can be created with debootstrap) and
extracting it to a tmpfs root partition.

The tmpfs boot mode is similar to the nfs boot mode, but it does not
rely on any external service (after booting). We use this boot mode for
our compute nodes. I have attached a patch to support this boot mode and
tested it with qemu and on real hardware.

I am willing to maintain this boot mode and fix bugs in this part.

-- 
Benjamin Drung
System Developer
Debian & Ubuntu Developer

ProfitBricks GmbH
Greifswalder Str. 207
D - 10405 Berlin

Email: benjamin.drung@profitbricks.com
Web: https://www.profitbricks.com

Sitz der Gesellschaft: Berlin.
Registergericht: Amtsgericht Charlottenburg, HRB 125506B.
Geschäftsführer: Achim Weiss.

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#58212

Hi Benjamin,

On Wed, Jun 14, 2017 at 05:47:54PM +0200, Benjamin Drung wrote:
> Package: initramfs-tools
> Version: 0.130
> Severity: normal
> Tags: patch
> 
> Hi,
> 
> The tmpfs boot mode allows one to operate a disk-less live system by
> downloading a root tarball (that can be created with debootstrap) and
> extracting it to a tmpfs root partition.
> 
> The tmpfs boot mode is similar to the nfs boot mode, but it does not
> rely on any external service (after booting). We use this boot mode for
> our compute nodes. I have attached a patch to support this boot mode and
> tested it with qemu and on real hardware.

Please take a look at the package live-boot (and the man page of the
same name in live-boot-doc). Specifically, the parameter fetch=URL
should satisfy your requirements and consume less resources.

live-boot creates an overlay filesystem backed by a squashfs image,
which means it likely uses much less RAM than copying root to tmpfs.
(For my system, squashfs reduces the required memory to a third.)

Regards,
Peter

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#59656

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Hi Peter,

Am Donnerstag, den 29.06.2017, 15:55 -0400 schrieb Peter Colberg:
> Hi Benjamin,
> 
> On Wed, Jun 14, 2017 at 05:47:54PM +0200, Benjamin Drung wrote:
> > Package: initramfs-tools
> > Version: 0.130
> > Severity: normal
> > Tags: patch
> > 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > The tmpfs boot mode allows one to operate a disk-less live system
> > by
> > downloading a root tarball (that can be created with debootstrap)
> > and
> > extracting it to a tmpfs root partition.
> > 
> > The tmpfs boot mode is similar to the nfs boot mode, but it does
> > not
> > rely on any external service (after booting). We use this boot mode
> > for
> > our compute nodes. I have attached a patch to support this boot
> > mode and
> > tested it with qemu and on real hardware.
> 
> Please take a look at the package live-boot (and the man page of the
> same name in live-boot-doc). Specifically, the parameter fetch=URL
> should satisfy your requirements and consume less resources.
> 
> live-boot creates an overlay filesystem backed by a squashfs image,
> which means it likely uses much less RAM than copying root to tmpfs.
> (For my system, squashfs reduces the required memory to a third.)

I took a look at the live-boot package and we will evaluate the RAM
savings and performance penalty. Expect a patch for live-boot to
support live-{top,premount,bottom} hooks.

Some statistics: Our xz compressed root tarball is around 180 MB in
size and consumes 690 MB extracted. Our initrd uses 9 MB. The initrd
from live-boot uses 17 MB. Let's see if the live-boot initrd can be
stripped down as well.

For now, I updated my patch to add an option to enable/disable support
for the tmpfs boot mode. Updated patch is attached.

-- 
Benjamin Drung
System Developer
Debian & Ubuntu Developer

ProfitBricks GmbH
Greifswalder Str. 207
D - 10405 Berlin

Email: benjamin.drung@profitbricks.com
URL: https://www.profitbricks.de

Sitz der Gesellschaft: Berlin
Registergericht: Amtsgericht Charlottenburg, HRB 125506 B
Geschäftsführer: Achim Weiss, Matthias Steinberg

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