[TriLUG] grub: where does initrd-<ver> .img come from

[Benjamin Reed]

H Brett Bolen [wingedlizard at nc.rr.com] wrote:
> I've switched from lilo to grub with rh72.
> 
> the grub.conf file lists initrd-*.img file.  how
> do i create this and what is it for?
> 
> I'm currently booting with out one.

If you can boot without one, you don't need it.  =)

initrd-*.img is needed if you are using a modular kernel (which
redhat does) and are using a driver that's not in the base kernel.
In the case of redhat, the SCSI drivers and other such things are
in modules, so you would need to make an initrd img to be able to
bootstrap.

If you need to make an initrd (for, say, kernel 2.4.9-13), you
would do:

  mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.4.9-13.img 2.4.9-13
           ^(filename)               ^(kernel version)

Then add it to your grub or lilo conf.

-- 
Ben Reed a.k.a. Ranger Rick (ranger at befunk.com)
http://defiance.dyndns.org/ / http://radio.scenespot.org/
Frankenstein was the creator -- not the monster.  It's a common
misconception, held by all truly stupid people. -- Kryten