Re: Question about initramfs

From: Alexander E. Patrakov
Date: Mon Mar 14 2005 - 22:33:16 EST


Jim Gifford wrote:

> Question: Initramfs is going to replace initrd, but I haven't seen
> anyone explain how to copy modules that are built during the build
> process moved into the initramfs archive. Has somebody done, this or is
> this still a work in progress?

Easy.

1) Unpack a vanilla kernel and build and install it as you usually do for a
system that doesn't need initramfs.

make menuconfig
make
make modules_install
cp arch/i386/boot/bzimage /boot/linux-2.6

2) Make a temporary directory (say, "initramfs") and put all files that you
want to go to your initramfs there. Don't forget the "/init" file, it is
used as a starting point for initramfs.

3) Make the initramfs image:

cd initramfs
find . | cpio -o -H newc | gzip -9 >/boot/initramfs-2.6.cpio.gz

4) Add /boot/linux-2.6 and /boot/initramfs-2.6.cpio.gz to your LILO or GRUB
as you would normally do with a kernel image and the initrd:

image=/boot/linux-2.6
label="Linux"
initrd=/boot/initramfs-2.6.cpio.gz
root=/dev/hda1 # if your initramfs "/init" script understands this
read-only # if your initramfs "/init" script understands this

5) Upon reboot, the kernel will automatically determine that the image is
really an initramfs, not an initrd.

--
Alexander E. Patrakov

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