Re: Question about initramfs

["Alexander E. Patrakov" <patrakov@ums.usu.ru>]

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