Making a livecd without initrd or initramfs
 

Hi all,
I trying to make a livecd pretty much out of curiosity. I read online on wikipedia and some of the place through google that we need the initrd to provide the modules which we would need when the kernel boots up. But since putting those modules into the kernel image would have made the kernel too big , we put them together in the initrd. This initrd also provide the inital root file system to the kernel and therefore the kernel should have the support for the initrd's file system built into it.
So when the kernel bootloader hands over the control to the kernel along with the location of the initrd, the latter provides an initial root file system which is later mounted in a different location and later unmounted and the file system on the secondary media is mounted as the root file system.
However this brings two questions to my mind which seem to be interrelated :
1. Does the kernel really need a root file system?
2. Also, do we need to have the initrd file provide it ? Is it possible to have this support to be built right into the kernel?

If it is possible to boot linux without a root file system or without initrd then please also guide me on how we can do that.

Go to first new post Making a livecd without initrd or initramfs
 

I use the huge26.s kernel which is a bzimage. with lilo as my boot loader. no initrd image. slack has been doing this for years. when you make bzimage and install it copies the systems map over to the boot file the kernel loads and reads the map. that is why it is best to build your own kernel per system hardware.

bro can you guide me how I can do it or give me a link where I can research on it?

long time ago before burning dvd's we would take like mandrake 8.0 or redhat 7 and do a limited install keeping everything under 700mb on the harddrive. then make a iso image of it then burn it to cd this way you could boot your system up and do critical repairs. today I just use a live cd like linux puppy 3.01 build what ever i need and then do a remaster live cd with every thing i need then I make a copy of my saved file and now i just carry two disk instead of a computer where ever I go I use some one elses computers and use my rewiteable dvd.to keep my stuff. I like doing it this way because I do not like how slow the usb flash drives are. i do carry a usb flash drive for back ups if needed. If I get to a windows computer with low ram then I use the usb flash drive as a swap file so puppy will have room to work. good day.