Hi

according to this thread
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...51#post3043051

there is the suggestion that grub will fail if you are using an initrd images that lack UUID.

I tested my grub with Mdv and of course it works.

I am now looking at the unpack of my initrd and here is how I did it that may help others test their own unpack.

My main question is at the end

----------------------------------------------------
Old initial ram disk images may have used loopback devices, mine is cpio archive that is gunzipped.

pwd....response is /home/gordy
cp /boot/initrd.img /home/gordy/ (or whatever the real initrd is, not a symbolic file)
mkdir /home/gordy/unpack
su (or use sudo )
cd /home/gordy/unpack/
gzip -dc /home/gordy/initrd.img | cpio -id

---------short explain...ref man gzip and man cpio---------------
gzip -dc
-d = decompress
c = to standard out

/home/gordy/initrd.img = our copied initrd image that is not a symbolic link

| = pipe the output you just achieved to cpio

cpio
-i = extract using copy-in mode = copy files out of archive
d = create any relevant directories
---------------------------------------------------------------
our new unpack has some new folders : bin/ dev/ etc/ lib/ proc/ sbin@ sys/ sysroot/
and files /bootsplash /init
with folder sbin/ a symbolic link to bin/

empty folders are....proc/ sys/ sysroot/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

contents of /home/gordy/unpack/lib
libata.ko
sata_via.ko
scsi_mod.ko
scsi_wait_scan.ko
sd_mod.ko
xfs.ko


content of nash

#!/bin/nash

echo "Loading scsi_mod.ko module"
insmod /lib/scsi_mod.ko
echo "Loading libata.ko module"
insmod /lib/libata.ko
echo "Loading sata_via.ko module"
insmod /lib/sata_via.ko
echo "Loading sd_mod.ko module"
insmod /lib/sd_mod.ko
echo "Loading scsi_wait_scan.ko module"
insmod /lib/scsi_wait_scan.ko
echo "Loading xfs.ko module"
insmod /lib/xfs.ko
echo Mounting /proc filesystem
mount -t proc /proc /proc
echo Mounting sysfs
mount -t sysfs none /sys
echo Creating device files
mountdev size=32M,mode=0755
mkdevices /dev
echo Creating root device
mkrootdev /dev/root
resume
echo 1 > /sys/power/suspend2/do_resume
echo 1 > /sys/power/tuxonice/do_resume
echo Mounting root filesystem /dev/root with flags relatime
mount -o relatime --ro -t xfs /dev/root /sysroot
echo Switching to new root
switchroot --movedev /sysroot
echo Initrd finished

---------------------------------------------------------
Credit
the gzip and cpio command I grabbed from
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9452
Tech Tips with Gnull and Voyd
-----------------------------------------------------------

Comment

AFAIK there is no UUID support in the initrd.
Can not find uuid in my /boot/config

Questions

1) what is the correct search term for UUID in the kernel?

2) Do you agree that grub can boot with a kernel line that has a root UUID line...with an initrd that does not have UUID support?

many thanks and any feedback is appreciated.

-----
If I solve this I hope to update my howto on grub which is a outdated.

It would appear to me that things like UUID, partition ID or partition path have nothing to do with initrd or the kernel. After all, the initrd or the kernel don't kick in until GRUB has run its course. I'm not an expert but it seems more likely that these things are recorded in the MBR and in your /dev directory so your kernel can use them while it is mounting your system.

What about that mkrootdev ???.
Have a read of this thread. LABEL and UUID can be considered similar in this regard.

I Need Linux Software

syg00

wow thanks for the quick reply

man nash appears to have mkrootdev and it says is:

mkrootdev path
Makes path a block inode for the device which should be mounted as root. To determine this device nash uses the device suggested by the root= kernel command line argument (if root=LABEL=XXXXXX or root=UUID=XXXXXX is used devices are probed to find one with that label or uuid). If no root= argument is available, /proc/sys/kernel/real-root-dev provides the device number.

Without your assistance on mkrootdev I would not have thought of running man nash.

I will be forced (heh heh) to update my howto for sure in a couple of weeks...credit to you of course.

manjunath_v76

I am not sure if you mean live cds or install cds or add on software but a good place to startd for any distro is

www.distrowatch.com

and LQ...this site also has iso images you can d/load

bugger, its only partially resolved.

re-looking at that man page...above...why would Fedora fail?

syg00

here is the reason for my whining.

I do not quite like mount changes. mkrootdev already supports UUID. Just let
rootdev=/dev/root if fstabrootdev=(LABEL|UUID) for all cases; nash will
handle it automatically already. Actually this will allow you to remove the
LABEL block in mountCommand.

taken from this page......
http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/co...1/msg00184.php

Ignore that bit from the other thread - I was hypothesizing as I haven't seen the initrd Fedora (or anyone else) uses. As I said, I never use them, so I haven't looked.

syg00

ok can we start afresh?

Do you agree with post 5 from man nash...that IF the distro uses nash, then the modern nash supports UUID already?

However, Fedoras more recent than FC3 now appears to use nash, but this link suggests the possibility of ash

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/li.../l-initrd.html

Others Please note I like this new link ...recommended