Mark Knecht posted <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, excerpted below, on Fri, 28 Oct 2005 07:54:17 -0700:
> On 10/28/05, DR GM SEDDON <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> Dear list, >> I have just started using Gentoo and up-to-now am impressed. I have >> generated a kernel using 'genkernel' and the kernel is in /boot. >> However, I do not have 'initrd' but 'initramfs'. is this a problem or >> should I modify grub appropriately? >> Gavin. > > Possibly. I don't use an initrd at all and boot just fine, so it's > possible that you can skip the whole issue if you want to. initrd/initramfs isn't normally needed for boot sequences where the kernel has the drivers required to mount / builtin. It's there, for cases such as / on RAID, where some initial setup is required before the normal / partition can be loaded. Another case where initrd/initramfs is used, is for mainly binary distributions, where all the various file system and disk drive interface chipset drivers are compiled as kernel modules, rather than built-in. Obviously, if a module needed to load / is stored in /lib/modules on the / partition, it won't be reachable, thus an initrd (the old solution) or initramfs (the newer one) is configured, containing the modules and configuration needed to mount the normal /. (I say normal /, because an initrd/initramfs functions as a temporary / file system while these things are loaded, then a pivot_root is used to transfer to the normal / partition, once it is mounted.) Gentoo's genkernel creates an initrd/initramfs because it bases its initial configuration on that of the liveCD, after the LiveCD has detected your hardware and loaded the appropriate modules. The LiveCD uses an initrd so it can load modules as necessary, and also so it can pivot-root off of the read-only temporary CD root, to a read/write ramdisk root created and loaded with the necessary goodies uncompressed off the CD. Because genkernel bases its default setup on the one off the CD, it too defaults to an initrd/initramfs, even tho most folks don't actually need one, once they have a kernel with the drivers necessary to mount root compiled in. So, answering the original question, initramfs is the new version of initrd, so no, you don't have to worry about it. However, chances are, unless you are running your / on RAID or something similarly exotic, you don't need an initramfs either, if you have at minimum, the drivers necessary to mount your / filesystem, compiled directly into the kernel, not as modules. -- Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. "Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman in http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/12/22/rms_interview.html -- [email protected] mailing list
