Re: Why initrd ?

[Goswin von Brederlow <brederlo@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de>]

Walter Hofmann <debian-laptop@bulk.walter-hofmann.de> writes:

> On Sun, Aug 20, 2006 at 04:31:43PM +0200, Evgeni Golov wrote:
>> On Sun, 20 Aug 2006 16:07:41 +0200 marlin9@gmx.ch wrote:
>>  
>> > But when i'm going to configure a custom kernel, on known hardware,
>> > why should i use initrd at all ? I mean, what is the advantage of
>> > initrd over non-initrd in this case ? Really, any argument ?
>> 
>> There is just none.
>> If you have a customized kernel, you do not need an initrd.
>
> There are reasons to use initrd (or the newer initramfs) for custon 
> kernels. You need it whenever your root filesystem needs prepartion 
> before you can mount it. Examples are encrypted root fs and root on nfs.
>
> Walter

Root on nfs needs no preparations the kernel can't do automaticaly in
the normal case. There is bootp, rarp and dhcp suport that you can
activate.

But besides encrypted root there is also root on lvm and root on nbd
that need an initrd.

If none of those apply to you then don't use an initrd. It is just one
more source of failures then.

MfG
        Goswin