Quote:
Originally Posted by catkin
AFAIK (not sure) the kernel root option tells the kernel where to find the file system containing the files it needs during boot including /etc/inittab, the mount command and /etc/fstab. Normally the same as define in /etc/fstab but may not need to be?
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No. The kernel will run no other program than init at boot time. The
root= option has two purposes:
1. Tell the kernel were to find
init (in fact it seeks on several places in the specified filesystem for init or initrc). This is not needed when using an initrd.
2. Tell init which is the root partition. Without that info
init wouldn't either be able to find /etc/inittab nor to mount the partitions specified in /etc/fstab, since it wouldn't find those files. This is at least needed when using an initrd, I am not sure if it is needed when running without it.
SInce you are running Slackware, just have a look at the init-script in /boot/init-tree after making a initrd for your generic kernel. This will give you a basic idea what actually happens before the / partition and all others are mounted and the init-script invokes the "real" init from the harddisk to do the stuff like starting services, etc.