On Nov 04 2003, at 16:12, Alan Dayley was caught saying:
> Is it possible to boot Linux without writing to media?
>
> Let me explain. Knoppix and the like boot from a CD but they create a
> RAM drive to write the boot log and other information. What if I didn't
> want to make a boot log for whatever reason? Like, the RAM size was
> limited and I didn't want to use it up with log data.
>
> Another way to ask it is: Can the log and ALL other writes at boot time
> be piped to /dev/null? I assume in would be a pain simply because each
> service started in the boot would have to be redirected or have the log
> disabled.
Shouldn't be a problem. Once you're out of the kernel and into userland,
you are free to do anything you want. I'm not sure about specific
daemons supporting no logging or /dev/null for logs, but you can
always grab the source and rebuild them as such if needed. My guess
though is that most daemons can have logging disabled. Or at the least
have them log to stderr and reroute that to /dev/null. Apps that use
syslog() can be dealt with by having syslogd just discard everything.
> In answering the question, it would be safe to assume that this is a
> specialized environment, like an embedded application.
Boot from flash? :)
~Deepak
--
Deepak Saxena -
dsaxena@plexity.net
"To eliminate the concept of waste means to design things - products,
packaging, and systems - from the very beggining on the understanding
that waste does not exist" - William McDonough & Michael Braungart,
From Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
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