Re: PATCH to support dotted base directory names

Matthew Wilcox (Matthew.Wilcox@genedata.com)
Fri, 9 Jul 1999 23:14:06 +0200


On Fri, Jul 09, 1999 at 04:32:48PM -0400, Rick Hohensee wrote:
> My "distribution" can't because I don't use a bootloader at install time.

why not? You could just use LILO to boot the kernel with no timeouts
and all the parameters you want in the world.

> Install versions of the kernel I use may well not have the

> > > + panic("No init or shell found. Try passing
> init=</path/to/command>"
> > > + " to the kernel with your bootloader.");
>
>
> This is *much* simpler than using a bootloader. Are bootloaders
> multi-lingual?

if your users need a multilingual distribution, how do you expect them to
understand this error message?

> I don't think you're opposed to the code,
> though. Surely not. I think you're opposed to the choice.

but I am opposed to the code. I'm opposed to doing anything in the
kernel that can be done equally well in userspace. I think Linux is too
big, and I welcome anything which makes it smaller, cleaner or more
straightforward.

[snip 140-line advert for lame distribution]

-- 
Matthew Wilcox <willy@bofh.ai>
"Windows and MacOS are products, contrived by engineers in the service of
specific companies. Unix, by contrast, is not so much a product as it is a
painstakingly compiled oral history of the hacker subculture." - N Stephenson

- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/