# 5.10.1 The Bootstrap Problem

_Peios / Advanced Peios / PKM / LCS / Bootstrap and Self-Configuration_

> The registry has to configure itself — the three circular dependencies, and the three rules that break them.

The registry is the configuration store for the whole system, and it
has to configure itself. Three circular dependencies have to be broken
before it can serve anyone.

**peinit needs the registry to start services, but the registry source
is a service.** Service definitions live in the registry, and the
process that would serve them has not started.

**LCS needs operational parameters from the registry, but the registry
needs LCS.** Timeouts, caps and limits live under
`Machine\System\Registry\`, in a hive LCS itself routes.

**A fresh install has no data at all.** The source's database is empty;
there is nothing to read.

Three rules break all three.

## 5.10.1.1 Rule 1: compiled-in defaults

Every operational parameter has a compiled-in default, and LCS runs on
those defaults from the moment PKM initialises. There is no "waiting
for configuration" state, no flag, and no wait queue: the limits
structure is statically initialised at load, the source char device is
registered without consulting configuration, and the first attempt to
read configuration happens on a workqueue after a source has already
registered.

Before any source registers, the routing table is empty, so every
operation that names a hive returns `ENOENT`. That is the only sense in
which LCS is not yet useful, and it is not a distinct state — it is
just an empty table.

## 5.10.1.2 Rule 2: the base layer exists unconditionally

The base layer is a static constant in the kernel: name `base`,
precedence 0, enabled. It is handed out whenever the dynamic layer
table is empty and is always written first into every layer snapshot.

A source that registers with an entirely empty database is fully
functional, because the one layer that writes need is not in the
database. Persisted metadata under
`Machine\System\Registry\Layers\base\` may exist and may decorate the
base layer, but it is not required and cannot contradict it (§5.3.2).

## 5.10.1.3 Rule 3: hot-swap, not restart

When configuration becomes available, LCS reads it, validates it, and
swaps the values in place. It does not restart, re-initialise, or
block. The whole transition from compiled-in defaults to registry-backed
configuration is driven by the internal self-watch (§5.10.4).

## 5.10.1.4 Source dependencies are the source's problem

LCS neither knows nor cares what a source depends on. A source that
needs the root filesystem, a SYSTEM token, or a particular kernel
feature arranges that for itself. LCS's only requirement is that the
process can open `/dev/pkm_registry` and speak RSI.