Re: 2.4.18 --> 2.4.19. Ramdisk requires floppy?

[jakob@southpole.se (Jakob Sandgren)]

On Tue, Sep 03, 2002 at 07:16:38PM -0700, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> Followup to:  <20020903165133.GA8726@southpole.se>
> By author:    jakob@southpole.se (Jakob Sandgren)
> In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel
> >
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I've noticed that the 2.4.19 version of "prepare_namespace"
> > (init/do_mounts.c) not allows you to mount a non floppy as a
> > ramdisk(?). This has changed since 2.4.18 (split of main.c ->
> > {do_mounts,main}.c).
> > 


> > 
> > however, in 2.4.19 it just tries to load a ramdisk if it's on a
> > floppy. Why? There may still be a ramdisk on an other device, NOT
> > using initrd. 
> > 
> 
> You can't search every device hunting for a ramdisk.  rd_load() is
> ancient cruft that should be nuked, and will be pushed into userspace
> as part of the initramfs/early userspace work.


I agree, but why is there such a check for mounting the root file 
system during startup. After removing the check from
prepare_namespace(), rd_load_image() will still get called with
"/dev/root" as argument and "/dev/root" should allready be pointing to
ROOT_DEV.  The target I'm working on is using a ramdisk for it's root
file system, however, it's not using initrd.



--- do_mounts.c-orig	Wed Sep  4 11:01:15 2002
+++ do_mounts.c	Wed Sep  4 11:02:11 2002
@@ -828,7 +828,6 @@
  */
 void prepare_namespace(void)
 {
-	int is_floppy = MAJOR(ROOT_DEV) == FLOPPY_MAJOR;
 #ifdef CONFIG_ALL_PPC
 	extern void arch_discover_root(void);
 	arch_discover_root();
@@ -852,7 +851,7 @@
 			handle_initrd();
 			goto out;
 		}
-	} else if (is_floppy && rd_doload && rd_load_disk(0))
+	} else if (rd_doload && rd_load_disk(0))
 		ROOT_DEV = MKDEV(RAMDISK_MAJOR, 0);
 	mount_root();
 out:





Best Regards,
Jakob Sandgren
South Pole AB

-- 
Jakob Sandgren                  South Pole AB
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