Filesystem type of initrd-2.6.9-42.0.3.EL.img

veeruk101 · 07-18-2007, 03:13 PM

What's the filesystem type of the initrd-2.6.9-42.0.3.EL.img that's in the /boot folder of a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 installation? When I try to mount it with the following command to poke around inside, it gives an error saying wrong filesystem type.

mount -o loop /boot/initrd-2.6.9-42.0.3.EL.img /loop -t ext3

Is there any real difference between that file and the similarly named initrd-2.6.9-42.EL.img, apart from minor version numbers?

Thanks.

Lenard · 07-19-2007, 09:38 AM

It is a gzip file type which has a cpio archive of a file by the same name. Yes, there is a real difference just as there is a real difference between the two kernels. Both .img files hold the specific drivers required to start booting the system into the kernel with the same version number.

veeruk101 · 07-19-2007, 02:11 PM

What commands could I use to mount the file successfully as a loopback device so I can see what's inside? What commands would I have to run? First I'd have to unzip the file, after which...? I'm a newbie

Lenard · 07-19-2007, 08:29 PM

One does not mount the compressed cpio archive file.

As root type something like;
mkdir test
cd test
cp /boot/initrd-2.6.9-42.0.3.EL.img initrd-2.6.9-42.0.3.EL.img
gunzip -S .img initrd-2.6.9-42.0.3.EL.img
cpio -i -d < initrd-2.6.9-42.0.3.EL