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Re: [Xen-devel] [Fwd: Installing from distribution CDs]

On Wed, Feb 02, 2005 at 10:52:45PM -0600, Anthony Liguori wrote:
> Here's how the initrd behaves:
> 
> 1) If an initrd exists, load it into a ramdisk.
> 2) If the root device is /dev/ram0, then assume that this is not an 
> initrd and instead just a ram-based rootfs.
> 3) Otherwise, execute /linuxrc as a kernel thread, and then pivot the 
> initrd and remount the real root when /linuxrc exits.
> 
> So what's happening is that with no explicit root device set, the kernel 
> thinks that the initrd is just a ram-based rootfs and does not call the 
> routines to execute the initrd-specific features (like executing 
> /linuxrc).  This /linuxrc style of booting is widely used in 
> distribution installers and apparently, linux-based LiveCDs.

Ok thanks for the description.  Would setting it to /dev/ram1 work for you?
I think this would still work for the original problem and there's already
some codepath which sets it to /dev/ram1 (just change the ,0 in MAKDEV to ,1).

What's a small linux-based LiveCD I could try this with?  I've only used
install initrds and always used the same root= option which would get used
on plain i386 (i.e. root=LABEL=/ for RHEL/FC installs).

    christian



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