Re: dracut-ng

[Stefan Schantl <stefan.schantl@ipfire.org>]

Hi Adolf,
> Hi Stefan,
> 
> On 07/09/2025 19:09, Stefan Schantl wrote:
> > Hi Adolf,
> > > Hi Stefan,
> > > 
> > > On 07/09/2025 14:29, Stefan Schantl wrote:
> > > > Hello Adolf,
> > > > > Hi Michael & all,
> > > > > 
> > > > > On 02/09/2025 16:00, Michael Tremer wrote:
> > > > > > Hello Adolf,
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Yes, I would be happy for you to give this a try.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Since Harald Hoyer has left RedHat, it seems that dracut
> > > > > > has
> > > > > > effectively been abandoned and dracut-ng is the successor
> > > > > > with
> > > > > > pretty much the same people contributing to it.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > I did not find any breaking changes in the change log
> > > > > > (although
> > > > > > it
> > > > > > seems quite extensive), so we might have a very good chance
> > > > > > to
> > > > > > indeed ship it as a drop-in.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Let us know what you find out during testing it :)
> > > > > 
> > > > > So I tested dracut-ng using the newest version 108. When I
> > > > > installed
> > > > > IPFire, it built my raid system, it partitioned the disk,
> > > > > created
> > > > > the
> > > > > filesystem, mounted them and installed the system.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Then it failed with the message Unable to install the
> > > > > language
> > > > > cache.
> > > > > 
> > > > > So I then built version 100 and it did exactly the same.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Then I thought, maybe I had commented out something in the
> > > > > rootfile
> > > > > that was needed so I did a build with all the rootfile lines
> > > > > uncommented.
> > > > > 
> > > > > It still failed exactly the same.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Any help or suggestions on how I can debug this would be
> > > > > gratefully
> > > > > accepted.
> > > > 
> > > > This happens because the setup utils tries to launch the
> > > > "chroot"
> > > > binary and ties to execute the the required command to generate
> > > > the
> > > > update cache within the changed root directory.
> > > > 
> > > > https://git.ipfire.org/?p=ipfire-2.x.git;a=blob;f=src/installer/main.c;h=9b9c630c35fa44ecb372f58cccad64806c198af4;hb=HEAD#l763
> > > > 
> > > > In our current used version of dracut the "chroot" binary is
> > > > part
> > > > of
> > > > the base and always is present in a generated initramdisk.
> > > > 
> > > > During development of dracut and dracut-ng the developers
> > > > decided,
> > > > that
> > > > "chroot" does not have to be packed as default into an
> > > > initramdisk.
> > > > 
> > > > https://github.com/dracut-ng/dracut-ng/commit/518133714b769160448a51c512d5e152ea6332da
> > > 
> > > Yes, so I see it was already in the old dracut version 058. If I
> > > had
> > > tried updating from our current version 054 to 058, I would have
> > > had
> > > the same problem.
> > > 
> > > > 
> > > > So the chroot binary now manually must be specified to be part
> > > > of
> > > > the
> > > > initramdisk.
> > > > 
> > > > Something like "dracut --install "/usr/sbin/chroot" <xyz> "
> > > > should
> > > > to
> > > > the trick.
> > > 
> > > Giving it a try currently in a build.
> > > 
> > > Thanks very much for your help on this.
> > 
> > I think the following line in "lfs/cdrom" needs to be extended with
> > the
> > "--install" from abouve.
> > 
> > https://git.ipfire.org/?p=ipfire-2.x.git;a=blob;f=lfs/cdrom;h=a25141fc20d82b68a0f10c2a40bfe3831ae1a713;hb=HEAD#l170
> 
> With your suggestion and a bit of searching that was where I made the
> change. However I am also sure that without your suggestion I would
> still have been looking for how to fix this for a month of Sundays.
> 
> 
> My build is nearly finished so I will see if that fixes the install.
> 
> One question I have will I also need to apply the same change to the
> dracut command in linux-initrd for the image generation?

I'm sorry, I'm unable to answer this question because I never used such
an image installation. So the best option would be to just test and see
what happened or somebody which is more familiar with the images can
bring us some light into the dark.

Best regards,

-Stefan

> 
> Regards,
> 
> Adolf.
> 
> > 
> > -Stefan
> > > 
> > > Regards,
> > > 
> > > Adolf.
> > > 
> > > > 
> > > > Best regards,
> > > > 
> > > > -Stefan
> > > > > 
> > > > > Regards,
> > > > > 
> > > > > Adolf.
> > > > > 
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Best,
> > > > > > -Michael
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > > On 2 Sep 2025, at 13:13, Adolf Belka
> > > > > > > <adolf.belka@ipfire.org>
> > > > > > > wrote:
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > Hi All,
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > I was looking at packages that needed updating. I noticed
> > > > > > > that
> > > > > > > dracut was at version 056. The source for that had
> > > > > > > version
> > > > > > > 059
> > > > > > > but that was from Dec 2022 and the last commit in that
> > > > > > > repo
> > > > > > > was
> > > > > > > Mar 2024.
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > There is a new repo providing dracut-ng. Their version
> > > > > > > 100
> > > > > > > (Apr
> > > > > > > 2024) is said to be a drop-in replacement for the
> > > > > > > original
> > > > > > > dracut. They are now at version 108 and it is being
> > > > > > > actively
> > > > > > > maintained.
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > With it being said to be a drop-in replacement I thought
> > > > > > > dracut-
> > > > > > > ng looked a good candidate to test out but as dracut
> > > > > > > plays a
> > > > > > > critical role in the booting process I thought I would
> > > > > > > ask if
> > > > > > > anyone has any information to indicate that it is not
> > > > > > > worth
> > > > > > > trying it.
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > Regards,
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > Adolf.
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > 
> > > > > 
> > > > 
> > > 
> > 
>