Re: initrd problem

[Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>]

On Thu, Mar 10, 2005 at 03:42:04PM -0800, Ed Martini wrote:

> I'm trying to get 2.6.11 to run on a MIPS Malta board with Yamon.  The 
> kernel that comes with the board is 2.4.18 with an embedded ramdisk that 
> runs some scripts to install RPMS via NFS or CD-ROM.  The kernel is 
> converted to s-records via objcopy(1), and loaded into memory via tftp.  
> I want to do something similar with 2.6.latest.
> 
> Problem:
> 
> On or about Nov 21 of last year, the CONFIG_EMBEDDED_RAMDISK disappeared.
> 
> http://www.linux-mips.org/archives/linux-mips/2004-11/msg00135.html
> 
> In it's place it is suggested to use the tools in arch/mips/boot, so I 
> tried it.  I can cross-compile the kernel, and I get an ELF vmlinux.  I 
> can convert it to ecoff with elf2ecoff, and attach an initrd image with 
> addinitrd.  The problem begins here.  I end up with an ecoff format 
> kernel which is not recognized by objcopy(1), and therefore no s-records.

I guess that was an act of desperation - YAMON needs SRECs to be happy
but doesn't know anything about SRECs.

> It seems there is a program called gensrec that would do the job, but 
> google doesn't want to tell me where to get it.  Some IRIX binary perhaps?

make vmlinux.srec; the resulting file will be in arch/mips/boot/vmlinux.srec.

> Should I put CONFIG_EMBEDDED_RAMDISK and its ilk back into my kernel, or 
> write an ELF version of addinitrd?  Other ideas?

Things vanish for a reason ...  Try CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE instead.

  Ralf