Re: initrd or not

[Brian Nelson <nelson@bignachos.com>]

bob parker <bob_parker@dodo.com.au> writes:

> hi Debian-users,
>
> I installed Woody and got the default 2.2.20-idepci kernel.
> Later I updated that to 2.4.18-k7 kernel using apt-get.
> Then just for fun I compiled a 2.4.19 from tarball making the
> .config from what came  with the 2.4.18 kernel without any 
> changes. I did the make modules, make modules_install etc.

Why not use make-kpkg (from the kernel-package package) instead?

> I had to mkinitrd in order to get this new kernel to boot.
>
> What are the pros and cons of initrd?

Initrd is really only useful for building kernels that are used on a
variety of different hardware (like Debian's kernel-image-* packages),
so that virtually everything in the kernel can be compiled as a module.

For a single machine with a self-built kernel, there really isn't any
good reason to use initrd.  Just compile the important stuff like your
root filesystem driver into the kernel, not as a module.

> And also, if not use it, how to configure the kernel to
> do without it?

Don't pass the --initrd option to make-kpkg, if you use that.  You may
need to remove any initrd configuration stuff from your bootloader.

-- 
People said I was dumb, but I proved them!