Systemd 242 Gearing Up For Release With XBOOTLDR Support, Other New Features

[starshipeleven]

Hu? How is this a step to a "linux system administrators only OS"? Most users would not even notice as long as the graphical configuration tools recognize this and have the ability to write back changes to the underlying root partition. As it is, it will most likely only be used by embedded people and enthusiasts.

Having a read-only root with all changes sent to a tmpfs and lost on reboot is mostly for embedded and other types of custom setups where you want a stateless system that is "wiped" on reboot.

OverlayFS (the Kernel feature this functionality is relying on) is just a layering system. OpenWrt for example layers a writable root partition over a read-only root partition, this allows easy "reset to defaults" or "reboot in recovery mode", as you always have a default root partition you can fallback to.

[starshipeleven]

One step closer to a "linux system administrators only OS". How much?

It's just making it easier to do what embedded devices commonly do already.

Can't wait to try this on GNU / Systemdux 19.04 Disco Dingo.

Can't wait to try this on GNU / Systemdux 19.04 Disco Nect.

[pininety]

Read only root was supported long before systemd existed. And with systemd as well. Just mount / on tmpfs and initialize from image. How else would bootable images work.

While this is true, I think this feature makes it way easier. No need to prepair images, easy switch between a system with an overlay and without by adding or removing a single option on the kernel command line. I just love to see work done getting such setups up more easily as I think they are very under utilized. Nearly every machine I have set up could have had a read only root where the only time you would need to write to it is package updates. If you now think about filesystems where you could have atomic switched from one state to the other (think you run an update and only then all updates are applied the filesystem atomically switched to the new state so you never have to worry about a partially updated system or the like), that would be very awesome in my eyes.

[reavertm]

That sounds amazing, one step closer to getting a read only root.

Read only root was supported long before systemd existed. And with systemd as well. Just mount / on tmpfs and initialize from image (initrd/initramfs for instance). How else would bootable images work.

I remember when "+s" was the simplest thing in the world.

[grumbert]

Didn't take long at all for the usual systemd troll posts to arrive.

rumour has it that if you say systemd 3 times in front of a mirror , Weasel and hreindl will turn up and call each other idiots.

[skeevy420]

Didn't take long at all for the usual systemd troll posts to arrive.

[pininety]

One step closer to a "linux system administrators only OS". How much?

Hu? How is this a step to a "linux system administrators only OS"? Most users would not even notice as long as the graphical configuration tools recognize this and have the ability to write back changes to the underlying root partition. As it is, it will most likely only be used by embedded people and enthusiasts.

[Britoid]

Nice.

Really looking forward to the bootloader changes, would be nice to eventually have a better-supported replacement for grub.