Re: [Fwd: Installing from distribution CDs]

[Anthony Liguori <anthony@codemonkey.ws>]

This patch was not meant for inclusion but I still should have put this 
for good measure:

Signed-off-by: Anthony Liguori

Anthony Liguori wrote:

>On Wed, 2005-02-02 at 12:39, Jared Rhine wrote:
>  
>
>>I don't think so; the bottom of my /linuxrc execs /sbin/init.  This
>>marks the end of the standard initrd process of doing a pivot-root and
>>getting on with life.  It doesn't have to be an either/or between
>>linuxrc and init.
>>    
>>
>
>This is likely to support older kernels as initrd does a pivot for you.
>
>  
>
>>As mentioned, I can't speak to the innards, but I can offer solid
>>proof that I need an init=/linuxrc on my boot line, and that this
>>snippet would not be needed if I wasn't using a Xen'ed kernel.  On a
>>regular kernel, the /linuxrc is found and used automatically in
>>preference to /sbin/init, if it is present.
>>    
>>
>
>Now here's something for you to do which should be confusing as the
>solution.  Add a root=/dev/hdc or whatever to your command line and I
>bet it will work without the init=/linuxrc.
>
>Apparently what's happening is that at some point during the domain boot
>process, Xen decides that the root device is /dev/ram0 if there is no
>root= command line on the kernel.  In
>init/do_mounts_rd.c:rd_load_image() if the ramdisk loads to what it
>thinks is the root device, the initrd actions are never taken.
>
>Of course, patching that function to remove that check results in the
>same behavior.  I've not yet tracked down what's going on but that's the
>problem.
>
>I've also included a new patch against a recent xen-unstable.  It's
>another proof-of-concept one.  This time, I can actually start a rescue
>CD properly (which means initrd is working with SLES-9).  The distro
>install doesn't work though.  However, another 2.6-based distro might
>have more luck.
>
>Regards,
>
>  
>

-- 
Anthony Liguori
anthony@codemonkey.ws



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