6.1. Analysis
The root disk from the last chapter is looking pretty good. It has
about seventy percent of the commands that the Filesystem Hierarchy
Standard (FHS) document requires for the root filesystem. Plus it has
commands for checking and mounting filesystems. But even with all of this
the root disk is far from perfect. The list below outlines three things
that could use some improvement if the Pocket Linux system is to stand up
next to the more professional looking distributions.
The system currently requires the kernel parameters to be typed
at the grub> prompt in order to start properly. On
any other GNU/Linux system this is only done in an emergency situation
when the system is corrupted.
Checking and mounting the root filesystem has to be done
manually by running a script at a shell prompt. On most modern
operating systems this function is handled automatically as part of
the system start-up process.
Using
CTRL-ALT-DELETE for
system shutdown is not very graceful. Filesystems should be unmounted
and cached information should be flushed prior to shutdown. Again,
this is something that most operating systems handle
automatically.
Taking the above list into consideration, the goals for this phase
are defined as follows:
Kernel loads without manual intervention.
Automated system start-up sequence.
Graceful shutdown capability.
