mirror of
git://slackware.nl/current.git
synced 2024-12-27 09:59:16 +01:00
590c390ae3
a/dcron-4.5-x86_64-17.txz: Rebuilt. run-parts.8: document skiping *.orig files. Thanks to metaed. a/etc-15.1-x86_64-6.txz: Rebuilt. Add support for nss-mdns to /etc/nsswitch.conf. a/kernel-firmware-20240220_97b693d-noarch-1.txz: Upgraded. a/kernel-generic-6.6.18-x86_64-1.txz: Upgraded. a/kernel-huge-6.6.18-x86_64-1.txz: Upgraded. a/kernel-modules-6.6.18-x86_64-1.txz: Upgraded. ap/cups-filters-1.28.17-x86_64-5.txz: Rebuilt. Don't specify --with-browseremoteprotocols=cups in order to get the default values of cups and dnssd, which should enable discovering shared printers on the network. We'll refrain from sharing your printer -- you'll need to change that setting yourself. ;-) Thanks to TurboBlaze. ap/hplip-3.23.12-x86_64-2.txz: Rebuilt. The new --disable-imageProcessor-build option doesn't do squat, so we'll hit it with the good old patch again. Thanks to Petri Kaukasoina and Stuart Winter. d/kernel-headers-6.6.18-x86-1.txz: Upgraded. k/kernel-source-6.6.18-noarch-1.txz: Upgraded. l/gvfs-1.52.2-x86_64-2.txz: Rebuilt. Added -Ddnssd=true option and recompiled against avahi. l/libsecret-0.21.4-x86_64-1.txz: Upgraded. n/c-ares-1.27.0-x86_64-1.txz: Upgraded. n/libgpg-error-1.48-x86_64-1.txz: Upgraded. n/nss-mdns-0.15.1-x86_64-1.txz: Added. Needed for .local lookups. Thanks to Lockywolf. xap/pidgin-2.14.13-x86_64-1.txz: Upgraded. isolinux/initrd.img: Rebuilt. kernels/*: Upgraded. usb-and-pxe-installers/usbboot.img: Rebuilt.
99 lines
3.5 KiB
Text
99 lines
3.5 KiB
Text
|
|
Slackware initrd mini HOWTO
|
|
by Patrick Volkerding, volkerdi@slackware.com
|
|
Fri Feb 23 20:27:48 UTC 2024
|
|
|
|
This document describes how to create and install an initrd, which may be
|
|
required to use the 4.x kernel. Also see "man mkinitrd".
|
|
|
|
1. What is an initrd?
|
|
2. Why to I need an initrd?
|
|
3. How do I build the initrd?
|
|
4. Now that I've built an initrd, how do I use it?
|
|
|
|
|
|
1. What is an initrd?
|
|
|
|
Initrd stands for "initial ramdisk". An initial ramdisk is a very small
|
|
Linux filesystem that is loaded into RAM and mounted as the kernel boots,
|
|
and before the main root filesystem is mounted.
|
|
|
|
2. Why do I need an initrd?
|
|
|
|
The usual reason to use an initrd is because you need to load kernel
|
|
modules before mounting the root partition. Usually these modules are
|
|
required to support the filesystem used by the root partition (ext3, ext4,
|
|
btrfs, xfs), or perhaps the controller that the hard drive is attached
|
|
to (SCSI, RAID, etc). Essentially, there are so many different options
|
|
available in modern Linux kernels that it isn't practical to try to ship
|
|
many different kernels to try to cover everyone's needs. It's a lot more
|
|
flexible to ship a generic kernel and a set of kernel modules for it.
|
|
|
|
3. How do I build the initrd?
|
|
|
|
The easiest way to make the initrd is to use the mkinitrd script included
|
|
in Slackware's mkinitrd package. We'll walk through the process of
|
|
upgrading to the generic 6.6.18 Linux kernel using the packages
|
|
found in Slackware's slackware/a/ directory.
|
|
|
|
First, make sure the kernel, kernel modules, and mkinitrd package are
|
|
installed (the current version numbers might be a little different, so
|
|
this is just an example):
|
|
|
|
installpkg kernel-generic-6.6.18-x86_64-1.txz
|
|
installpkg kernel-modules-6.6.18-x86_64-1.txz
|
|
installpkg mkinitrd-1.4.11-x86_64-34.txz
|
|
|
|
Change into the /boot directory:
|
|
|
|
cd /boot
|
|
|
|
Now you'll want to run "mkinitrd". I'm using ext4 for my root filesystem,
|
|
and since the disk controller requires no special support the ext4 module
|
|
will be the only one I need to load:
|
|
|
|
mkinitrd -c -k 6.6.18 -m ext4
|
|
|
|
This should do two things. First, it will create a directory
|
|
/boot/initrd-tree containing the initrd's filesystem. Then it will
|
|
create an initrd (/boot/initrd.gz) from this tree. If you wanted to,
|
|
you could make some additional changes in /boot/initrd-tree/ and
|
|
then run mkinitrd again without options to rebuild the image. That's
|
|
optional, though, and only advanced users will need to think about that.
|
|
|
|
Here's another example: Build an initrd image using Linux 6.6.18
|
|
kernel modules for a system with an ext4 root partition on /dev/sdb3:
|
|
|
|
mkinitrd -c -k 6.6.18 -m ext4 -f ext4 -r /dev/sdb3
|
|
|
|
|
|
4. Now that I've built an initrd, how do I use it?
|
|
|
|
Now that you've got an initrd (/boot/initrd.gz), you'll want to load
|
|
it along with the kernel at boot time. If you use LILO for your boot
|
|
loader you'll need to edit /etc/lilo.conf and add a line to load the
|
|
initrd. Here's an example section of lilo.conf showing how this is
|
|
done:
|
|
|
|
# Linux bootable partition config begins
|
|
image = /boot/vmlinuz-generic
|
|
initrd = /boot/initrd.gz
|
|
root = /dev/sda6
|
|
label = Slackware
|
|
read-only
|
|
# Linux bootable partition config ends
|
|
|
|
The initrd is loaded by the "initrd = /boot/initrd.gz" line.
|
|
Just add the line right below the line for the kernel image you use.
|
|
Save the file, and then run LILO again ('lilo' at the command line).
|
|
You'll need to run lilo every time you edit lilo.conf or rebuild the
|
|
initrd.
|
|
|
|
Other bootloaders such as syslinux also support the use of an initrd.
|
|
See the documentation for those programs for details on using an
|
|
initrd with them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
---------
|
|
|
|
Have fun!
|