Re: [OE-core] [PATCH v3 05/11] core-image-initramfs-boot: don't install RRECOMMENDS to reduce size

[Richard Purdie <richard.purdie@linuxfoundation.org>]

On Fri, 2025-04-04 at 19:29 +0300, Mikko Rapeli via
lists.openembedded.org wrote:
> Disables recommends to only install important packages.
> Disable machine specific additions which are meant for
> full rootfs boot. For example on genericarm64, full
> set of kernel modules and WiFi related firmware is
> in the machine recommends and those are not needed when
> booting to rootfs from an initrd. These reduce systemd
> initrd size from 200Mb to 54Mb.
> 
> Since recommends are not automatically installed anymore,
> explicitly add initramfs-module-rootfs, busybox-udhcpc and libkmod
> to shell script based initrd. initramfs-module-rootfs is needed to
> mount the rootfs. Installing busybox-udhcpc and libkmod
> for backwards compatibility.
> 
> Not installing openssl-conf, openssl-ossl-module-legacy or
> ldconfig packages since they don't seem essential in initrd
> to mount the rootfs.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Mikko Rapeli <mikko.rapeli@linaro.org>
> ---
>  meta/recipes-core/images/core-image-initramfs-boot.bb | 11
> ++++++++++-
>  1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> diff --git a/meta/recipes-core/images/core-image-initramfs-boot.bb
> b/meta/recipes-core/images/core-image-initramfs-boot.bb
> index c66c28db76..99388476ac 100644
> --- a/meta/recipes-core/images/core-image-initramfs-boot.bb
> +++ b/meta/recipes-core/images/core-image-initramfs-boot.bb
> @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ SUMMARY = "Basic initramfs to boot a fully-featured
> rootfs"
>  DESCRIPTION = "Small initramfs that contains just udev and init, to
> find the real rootfs."
>  LICENSE = "MIT"
>  
> -INITRAMFS_SCRIPTS ?= "initramfs-framework-base initramfs-module-
> udev"
> +INITRAMFS_SCRIPTS ?= "initramfs-framework-base initramfs-module-udev
> initramfs-module-rootfs"
>  
>  inherit image
>  
> @@ -20,8 +20,17 @@ PACKAGE_INSTALL = " \
>          ${VIRTUAL-RUNTIME_dev_manager} \
>      ', '${INITRAMFS_SCRIPTS}', d)} \
>      base-passwd \
> +    busybox-udhcpc \
> +    libkmod \
>  "
>  
> +# reduce size
> +NO_RECOMMENDATIONS = "1"
> +
> +# don't install automatically, pick manually instead
> +MACHINE_EXTRA_RDEPENDS = ""

I'd probably accept that removing the rrecommends below is probably ok
for the initramfs but I'm not convinced removing rdepends is a good
move. If that works, are the things in question really rdepends for the
machine?

> +MACHINE_EXTRA_RRECOMMENDS = ""
> +
>  # Ensure the initramfs only contains the bare minimum
>  IMAGE_FEATURES = ""
>  IMAGE_LINGUAS = ""

Cheers,

Richard