> Date: Fri, 14 Jun 1996 16:35:53 -0400
> From: Chris G Demetriou <Chris_G_Demetriou@ux2.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
> 
> > I understand the desire to have all kernels be able to set the
> > root to whatever you booted from, however, I also find it useful
> > to be able to turn that off, at least for the particular case of
> > a kernel designed to use a built-in ramdisk root.  In that case,
> > there is little point in keeping the setroot() code in there.
> > (The root should always be the ramdisk, otherwise you should
> > boot some other kernel without the built-in ramdisk.)
> 
> unless you happen to only have that kernel (say, maybe because it's
> what's on your tape, and you blew away your kernel on /), so you want
> to boot with RB_ASKNAME and tell it do the right thing...

You loose nothing with this situation.  You boot the tape,
then use the RAMDISK kernel to load a miniroot into the swap,
then boot a GENERIC kernel from swap.  At least, that's how
"recovery from alternate media" works on the sun3.

> to my mind, the only time you'd want to remove that code is if you're
> Really Really Really short on space.

It's true that you don't save much space by removing the option,
so I guess its more of a philosophical thing...

Gordon