Re: initrd problems

[Ian Bruce <ian.b.nospam@myrealbox.com>]

Herbert Xu wrote:

>>  boot hda1:/vmlinuz initrd=hda1:/initrd.img root=/dev/rd/0 ramdisk_size=8192
>
>Specify your real root device instead of rd/0.

Thanks for your help. I tried that, and it still fails to boot; the
error message is something like this:

  VFS: unable to mount device "hda1" or 3:01
  Please append a correct "root=" option to the boot string.

My understanding of the point of the initrd is that the kernel uses it
to load modular drivers so that it can access the physical
hardware. In this regard, I notice the following items in the
/boot/config-2.4.18-generic file installed by the package:

CONFIG_IDE=m
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE=m
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_HD_IDE is not set
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDISK=m

If I understand correctly, this means that the kernel will not be able
to access IDE devices until after it loads these modules off the
initrd. So it's not entirely surprising that it can't mount /dev/hda1
if it can't read the ramdisk. Or is this not how it actually works?

One thing I don't understand is how the kernel knows which modules to
load from the initrd. What is the relationship of
/etc/mkinitrd/{mkinitrd.conf,modules} to this question?

Again, thanks for your help with this issue. If you respond directly,
please note the antispam in my email address.


Ian Bruce
ian.b.nospam@myrealbox.com


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