initrd load from any block device

initrd load from any block device

[Vadim Yatsenko]

Hello!

May be it was discussed but I havn't answer.
So my question is: why only supported media to load
initial ramdisk is floppy?

In embedded systems it's more other suitable devices
such as mtdblock, etc. So why not to add some code
to support loading compressed initrd images from
any block device. It's can reduce boot up time.

I've tried to do this on my ARM machine and was
impressed how much faster my board was get alive.

It is usual practice in embedded world to use ramdisk
as a root.

Any comments?

With best regards. Vadim Yatsenko 

Re: initrd load from any block device

[Jan Engelhardt]

>May be it was discussed but I havn't answer.
>So my question is: why only supported media to load
>initial ramdisk is floppy?

Who said that? Linux LiveCDs all load it from CD, and since the kernel 
provides initramfs, the initrd can also be loaded from within the kernel 
itself.

>In embedded systems it's more other suitable devices
>such as mtdblock, etc. So why not to add some code
>to support loading compressed initrd images from
>any block device. It's can reduce boot up time.

Though, I am seeing your point. The initrd= option does not seem to take block 
devices, so this must be a bootloader feature - because the bootloader needs 
to load the initrd into some memory location so the kernel can play with 
afterwards.

>It is usual practice in embedded world to use ramdisk
>as a root.
>Any comments?

root=/dev/ram0 initrd=somefile_on_the_iso init=/my_favorite_file_in_the_initrd

Works wonders.


Jan Engelhardt
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