Explain mdev

This commit is contained in:
Neale Pickett 2014-10-24 15:14:53 +00:00
parent 5ac906f5f1
commit 8b7b85b057
3 changed files with 32 additions and 12 deletions

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@ -363,20 +363,39 @@ You're an Arch Linux sysadmin,
you should know what you need,
and I can't help you past here.
Removing `udev`
---------------
The `mdev` utility of busybox can replace most of what `udev` does.
You just need to have the kernel run `mdev` as the hotplug userspace thingy.
Recent precompiled kernels have removed support for `/proc/sys/kernel/hotplug`,
so it's necessary to run a userspace program to get netlink events.
You can [use the one I wrote](http://woozle.org/neale/g.cgi/aur/runit-init/tree/src/hurtplurg.c) if you like.
You'll need to configure `mdev` to set up file permissions that work for you.
A reasonable set of defaults is available
[as another part of my AUR](http://woozle.org/neale/g.cgi/aur/runit-init/tree/mdev.conf).
Since X11 wants `udevd` for something or other,
you'll also need to tell it to use whatever the old method is.
I don't quite understand what they do,
but the files you need are [in my runit-desktop AUR](http://woozle.org/neale/g.cgi/aur/runit-desktop/tree/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d).
Getting rid of `systemd`
------------------------
Some readers might be disappointed that I didn't explain how to get rid of `systemd`.
Sorry, guys.
X11 requires `udevd`.
Until that dependency goes away,
or until Wayland is usable,
I don't see any way around having systemd installed.
When it *is* possbile to remove systemd,
you might be able to use the `mdev` program in busybox to replace `udevd`.
I played with this a little bit,
and it looked promising,
but I gave up when I saw that I wasn't going to get to run X.
At this point you are not running anything in `systemd`.
But you still need it installed,
because a lot of things depend on libraries it's taken over.
Don't panic about this.
It's going to be okay.
You have lots of things installed that you don't strictly need.
I chose Arch over Gentoo because I like precompiled packages,
even though that means they bring in a couple things I don't need.
`systemd` is one of those things.
Have fun!

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@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ Roller Derby Stuff
Computer Nerd Stuff
-------------------
* [The Setup](setup.html): the hardware and software I use
* [Writing formal letters with roff](roff-letters.html)
* [Runit on Arch Linux](arch-runit.html)
* [Reply-To Munging Still Considered Harmful](reply-to-still-harmful.html)

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@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ Who are you, and what do you do?
I write software.
Mostly I hack around the periphery of free software projects,
jumping in occasionally to things that interest me with patches.
occasionally tossing patches to projects that capture my interest.
A partial portfolio is on my [source code page](src/).
I also do computer security training for middle and high school kids,