Where as, /bin/bash said:
Which has one extra parameter - the kernel version, and some extra punctuation. /bin/bash's version is definitely what I would expect to do.

Because I haven't ever used SUSE, the following is speculation based on experience with Redhat. If SUSE has a /bin/installkernel or /sbin/installkernel, and you've done all the other steps in the kernel install process (make bzImage, make modules, make modules_install), then I think doing a "make install" in the kernel directory might do all the right things - such as making an initrd, and installing the kernel. But for all I know this might be a really bad thing to do on SUSE.

good point /bin/bash..... I tend to think rather linear when it comes to giving advice. I.E - I have no need for it so why should you? But honestly, what other practical use is there to using an initrd image besides having a "pretty" background to your bootloader? If that was a concern for me, I suppose I would be booting into a runlevel 5 with flowers and cute pictures of teddy bears as well insted of init3.... There are a few other uses for initrd that are on the tip of my mind, but again, are they really necessary? It just seems really silly to rely upon external modules when the middleman can be kicked to the curb completely.... Your just increasing the complexity of your boot process and increasing the risk of your system not booting.... I'm all for simplicity I guess.... I also like it when I can consistently boot into any new kernel that I compile without a hitch.... Well, good post. I might have to expierment with using initrd just to learn some new stuff.....

As was posted earlier mkinitrd is a script. And Suse may have their own version of that script. If you just type mkinitrd without parameters it should spit out some usage help, if you could do that and post it here. It looks to me like it is thinking /boot/initrd.2.6.3.img is the path to a /var/tmp directory instead of the name of the initrd file. Maybe Suse has the parameters in a different order. With Mandrake it is:
mkinitrd [options] <initrd.img> <kernel ver>


I'm sure there are hundreds or thousands of uses for initrd of which I'm not aware, I just said that bootsplash was one instance where an initrd image was required and not an option.
Since you asked...

1. Suppose you have a system with minimal ram and harddrive space. You can't even keep kernal sources on it so you build your kernel on another system and download it to this system. You build a modular kernel because of memory restraints and use initrd to pass modules needed for booting to the kernel. Then you can remove the modules when not needed and free up memory.
2. You are a wannabe kernel hacker designing a new foobar adapter module. You don't want to build a new kernel every time you modify the module but the module is required to boot. So you put it in initrd and when you modify it you just make a new module and a new initrd and you don't need to make a new kernel.
3. You have a scsi drive you use to transport large amounts of data to work and home. So sometimes you want to boot your kernel with scsi support and sometimes you don't (when you forget and leave the drive at work). You just modify /etc/lilo.conf and in the "Linux-scsi" section you put an initrd=/boot/initrd-scsi.img

Well thats just a couple instances I thought of off the top of my head, and probably there are many other. Using initrd is just another choice you have in Linux, it's there if you want to/need to use it.

Hey bin/bash, would u take a look at my post, for I need an initrd for custom dsdt so I can fine tune acpi!


Thanks...2.6.4 acpi patch in debian...

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=158824