(PROTOTYPE) Comparison of the various replacements for initrd-tools
Architectures |
initramfs-tools |
yaird |
amd64 |
Works (?JeffBailey) |
Works (MarcoAmadori) |
arm |
Needs Test |
Needs Test |
alpha |
Needs Test |
Needs Test |
hppa |
segfault in run_init (?JeffBailey) |
Needs Test |
i386 |
Works (Jeff Bailey) |
Works (JonasSmedegaard) |
ia64 |
inflate code misreads magic number (?JeffBailey) |
Also fails, probably for the same reason (DannFrazier) |
m68k |
klibc not yet ported |
Needs Test |
mips |
linux-header missing |
Needs Test |
mipsel |
linux-header missing |
Needs Test |
powerpc |
Works (DannFrazier?) |
Works (?SvenLuther) |
s390 |
klibc untested? |
Needs Test |
sh |
klibc unstested? |
Needs Test |
sparc |
Works (?JeffBailey) |
Works (JurijSmakov) |
Root Devices |
initramfs-tools |
yaird |
fstab label and UUID |
Unknown |
Works but yuckilly. Needs to be rewritten to blkid, there are good ideas in http://bootutils.sourceforge.net/ -- ErikKonijnenburg |
md |
Works (maximilianattems) |
Works (JonasSmedegaard) |
LVM |
Works (maximilianattems) |
Works (MarcoAmadori) |
LVM-over-md |
Needs Test |
Works (MarcoAmadori) |
EVMS |
Works (Sesse) |
In progress see BTS #335230 |
EVMS-over-lvm |
Needs Test, probably some modules to add. |
Unknown |
Crypsetup |
Needs Test |
Works (?ManojSrivasta) |
Crypsetup-luks |
Unknown |
Tested round 0.0.8 (ErikKonijnenburg) |
loopaes |
Unknown |
No |
NFS |
Needs Test |
Requires manual editing config file (JonasSmedegaard) |
SCSI |
Unknown |
Needs test |
SATA |
Needs Test |
Works (MarcoAmadori) |
USB-stick |
Needs Test |
Needs Test |
IEEE1394 |
Needs Test |
No |
Compaq Smart Arrays |
Unknown |
Needs test |
dmraid |
Unknown |
No |
swsusp |
Needs Test |
No |
swsusp2 |
Unknown |
Not in mainline kernel, but so far I've seen two notes from people who got swsusp2 running with yaird, vs nobody for swsusp plain. This seems like a good one for me to work on (ErikKonijnenburg) |
Comparable notes |
initramfs-tools |
yaird |
Coding style |
Written in shell - mkinitramfs has backward compatible initrd-tools invocations. update-initramfs for enduser. |
Written in perl |
Dependencies w/ risk of delay |
Depends on klibc, recent busybox, udev, mklibs-copy (which pulls in python2.4-minimal). |
Arch: any (includes a few tiny C-based helper tools) |
libc used |
Both klibc and (externally pulled in) glibc |
glibc (supports compiling against klibc if needed) |
howto compose images |
Builds generic image with plenty of included modules, and probes at boot time what to load |
Builds specific image probing/resolving with sysfs at build time the modules to include and load at boot time |
Dealing with devices |
Activates (it seems) all possible md and/or LVM volumes |
Activates only md and/or LVM volume needed for mounting rootfs |
Supports USB keyboard |
Unknown |
Works (ErikKonijnenburg) |
Supports initrd (instead of initramfs) |
No. |
Removed in 0.0.12 -- any reason to put it back? (ErikKonijnenburg) |
Oldest supported kernel |
2.6.12 (?ManojSrivasta) |
2.6.8 (JonasSmedegaard) |
sysfs needed at build-time ?FootNote(sysfs needed at image build time means upgrade directly from 2.4.x+initrd-tools to 2.6.x+yaird is impossible) |
No |
Yes |
Hooks for external packages |
Yes |
requires manual editing config file |
Hooks for splash boot |
Yes (used by usblash an funky userspace bootsplash utility) |
requires manual editing config file |
Legend |
|
|
Works! |
|
Possibly works |
|
Doesn't work |
Hilites not directly comparable
initramfs-tools
- Used by Ubuntu Breezy
Maintained by ?JeffBailey, maximilianattems
yaird
Used/Maintained by JonasSmedegaard
Homepage (with details on (un)supported features and limitations): http://www.xs4all.nl/~ekonijn/yaird/yaird.html