Re: make-kpkg

[Mike M <linux-support@earthlink.net>]

On Saturday 17 May 2003 22:17, Kevin McKinley wrote:
> On Sat, 17 May 2003 16:03:15 -0400
>
> Mike M <linux-support@earthlink.net> wrote:
> > The kernel made The Hard Way (tm) is _not_ using initrd.  Therefore
> > make-pkpg should work with no problems using the "magic" config.
>
> Then why, oh why would you want to complicate things by adding an initrd to
> the boot sequence? Just make-kpkg without it.
>
> I guess it's time I asked -- do you know the reason for initrd? It's to
> allow the kernel to access modules before it can read the root filesystem.
> Modules needed for booting are put in the initrd image, which is read into
> memory along with the kernel.
>
> The reason for doing this is that commercial kernel packagers have no way
> to know what combination of hardware/filesystems will be necessary for
> booting. Will it be IDE/ext2? SCSI/Reiserfs? Some other combination? To
> build all the possible options directly into the kernel would make it too
> big, and including them all as modules would mean the kernel couldn't see
> any of them to start. Initrd is the compromise, and it adds an additional
> level of complexity in exchange for flexibility.
>
> IMO there is no reason whatsoever to build your own kernel to use initrd.
> That's part of the reason I left it out of the newbiedoc.
>
> > I am going to run through the entire manual again with the stock config -
> > adding only the --initrd option.
>
> If by the stock config you mean the one for the kernel installed with
> Woody, don't bother -- the stock Woody kernel doesn't use initrd.

Your comment above gives me a clue about what happened.  I brought in 
kernel-image-2.4.18-k7 which _does_ use initrd.  I used the config from that 
package when I did the make-kpkg.  I copied the config in /boot for 
kernel-image-2.4.18-k7 to /usr/src/linux and then ran make oldconfig as 
described in section 8.1.  In this case the --initrd option is most likely 
needed.

If I had used the kernel config that came in with the kernel-source-2.4.18 
package, then things would probably have worked out just fine.
>
> > That would be a great document for LDP: GIYF  Then the comment could also
> > be a link to document that explains why Google is your friend.  Maybe a
> > Wiki instead of a document?  Maybe the Zope or Python folks would host
> > it?
>
> Guess who I'm going to suggest get it started? <evil grin>

I'm googling on this to make sure it's not been done already.  If 
www.giyf.com is any indication of what's available, then it might be a worthy 
effort.
>
> Kevin

-- 
Mike M.