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Message-ID: <1328879437.80871.YahooMailClassic@web29006.mail.ird.yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:10:37 +0000 (GMT)
From: Paul Parsons <lost.distance@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: No /dev/root with devtmpfs?
To: Kirill Smelkov <kirr@mns.spb.ru>
Cc: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>, Kay Sievers <kay.sievers@vrfy.org>,
        linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
In-Reply-To: <20120210090425.GA3997@tugrik.mns.mnsspb.ru>
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--- On Fri, 10/2/12, Kirill Smelkov <kirr@mns.spb.ru> wrote:
> > Could you simply use /etc/fstab to identify the root
> partition?
> 
> Unfortunately no, because /etc/fstab can't know where the
> card will be
> inserted to boot this time - i.e. either in compactflash
> slot on
> motherboard, or through usb via cardreader. So root has to
> be determined
> at runtime.
> 
> Personally I'm ok with no /dev/root symlink as long as there
> is another
> way to detect root blkdev reliably. And I'm still confised
> what's the
> rationale about why this can't be done for modern
> filesysems.

Here's another suggestion: /proc/cmdline

The bootloader might pass the root partition to the kernel via the
"root=" kernel parameter; these can be read at /proc/cmdline.
For example, on an HP iPAQ hx4700: root=/dev/mtdblock2

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