From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751291AbVKFXfv (ORCPT ); Sun, 6 Nov 2005 18:35:51 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751286AbVKFXfv (ORCPT ); Sun, 6 Nov 2005 18:35:51 -0500 Received: from mail.metronet.co.uk ([213.162.97.75]:59317 "EHLO mail.metronet.co.uk") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751291AbVKFXfu (ORCPT ); Sun, 6 Nov 2005 18:35:50 -0500 From: Alistair John Strachan To: grfgguvf@gmail.com Subject: Re: Whys and hows of initrds Date: Sun, 6 Nov 2005 23:35:34 +0000 User-Agent: KMail/1.8.92 Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org References: <8413367b0511060924s550024b8w1113564cd6bb9340@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <8413367b0511060924s550024b8w1113564cd6bb9340@mail.gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200511062335.34520.s0348365@sms.ed.ac.uk> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Sunday 06 November 2005 17:24, grfgguvf@gmail.com wrote: > Hi, > I don't know if the LKML is a technical kernel development list or a > newbie support list (or both?) so maybe I'm posting to the wrong > place. > > Questions: > * Why is an initrd needed? > * What does it do? Though there are reasons beyond this, ultimately an initrd is useful primarily to distributors, who provide too many drivers to build them all in (the resulting kernel image would be too large to boot). In particular, filesystem, RAID and SCSI drivers (required for rootfs to exist before calling onto init), are put into such an image. > * What are the differences between an initrd and an initramdisk (if > any)? And an initramfs? > * Why cannot the task of initrds be done more easily? > * Why don't other operating systems need an equivalent? Or do they? > > Opinions and technical explanations welcome. Please, no excessive flames! -- Cheers, Alistair. 'No sense being pessimistic, it probably wouldn't work anyway.' Third year Computer Science undergraduate. 1F2 55 South Clerk Street, Edinburgh, UK.