Question about initramfs

Question about initramfs

[Jim Gifford]

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?

-- 
----
Jim Gifford
maillist@jg555.com

Re: Question about initramfs

[Alexander E. Patrakov]

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

question about initramfs

[bott]

Hi,

I'm facing a weird problem with initramfs on TI dm6446. I use  
initramfs to hold the binary the device has to execute, so that I can  
store it a flash memory and boot it with uboot without having to use a  
disk.

My problem is that I can boot images of 2.4M but 2.6M sized images  
hang the boot process and kernel is never booted, it just hangs.

I'm trying to identify where the problem is, whether it is related to  
the bootloader or the build mechanism.

So I'm asking you if there is any limitation in terms of size to  
initramfs. If not, where do you think the problem might reside?

Thanks.

----------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.