Stuck at "loading initial ramdisk"
 

Hi,

I run Arch Linux and I've compiled the mainline kernel (rc kernel), but when I try to boot it, it freezes:
I have used the configuration from the current Arch kernel (3.1.5). What is wrong, or how can I find out?

Thanks.

Did you make the initrd ? (Or if you don't need one, maybe there is a line about it in your bootloader conf)

It was compressed in a package, so pacman (Arch Linux package manager) seems to have made initramsfs-linux-mainline.img, initramsfs-linux-mainline-fallback.img and vmlinuz-linux-mainline.

Personally, I don't see the advantage of using initrd for custom kernel

I mean for a distro, ok because it has to provide the maximum options for many hardware...

Make every hard drive, cpu features for your hardware, vga, filesystem you use for /, as built-in
Make sound, evdev, network card, netfilter, anything you want as module

Why would you need initrd ? My striped down kernel file sizes 2.7MB and 25MB for modules directory

Before I strip down the kernel, I would like it to boot on my machine (MacBook Air 4,2). What could be wrong?

Make initrd for your compiled kernel, arch seems to provide an utility to do that " mkinitcpio "

see:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php..._Manual_Method

I have already created initrd, but it still freezes when, also when trying the fallback initrd.

I've tested the kernel packages on another laptop and they worked fine on that one :scratch:

The cause was i915 issues with the MBA screen, mainline kernel works.