Unable to boot 2.4.17 via initrd

From: Richard B. Johnson (root@chaos.analogic.com)
Date: Fri Jan 11 2002 - 15:28:44 EST


I have tried for several days to boot 2.4.17 (The last "stable"
kernel) off initrd.

/linuxrc never executes, therefore I am not able to load modules
to start SCSI disks, etc.

I have appended /linux-2.4.17/.config for review. The required SCSI
modules are made and the kernel has, or was configured to have,
initrd support.

This is the tail-end of my existing 'make_initrd' boot script.
I have snipped off all the stuff necessary to make the ram-disk,
etc. This works and has been working before pivot-root changes
were made in the kernel.

#
lilo -C - <<EOF
#
# Lilo boot-configuration script.
#
boot = /dev/sda
message = /boot/message
compact
delay = 15 # optional, for systems that boot very quickly
vga = normal # force sane state

image = /boot/vmlinuz-${VER}
  initrd = /boot/initrd-${VER}
  root = current
  label = new
  append = "nmi_watchdog=0"

image = /vmlinuz
 root = current
 label = linux

image = /boot/vmlinuz-${VER}
  initrd = /boot/initrd-${VER}
  root = /dev/sdc3
  label = maint

image = /boot/vmlinuz-${VER}
  initrd = /boot/initrd-${VER}
  root = /dev/sdc1
  label = maint-su
  append="init=/bin/bash"

image = /vmlinuz.old
  root = current
  label = linux_old

other = /dev/sda1
  table = /dev/sda
  label = dos
EOF

>From the documentation in linux-2.4.17/Documentation/initrd.txt, I
have deduced that all I have to do is add/change "append="
New stuff.....

#
lilo -C - <<EOF
#
# Lilo boot-configuration script.
#
boot = /dev/sda
message = /boot/message
compact
delay = 15 # optional, for systems that boot very quickly
vga = normal # force sane state

image = /boot/vmlinuz-${VER}
  initrd = /boot/initrd-${VER}
  root = current
  label = new
  append = "root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc rw"

[REST SNIPPED]

EOF

The boot messages show:
RAMDISK driver initialized: (with some numbers)

However, I never see the usual,
"RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0"

-- nor do I see anything that would have been executed from /linuxrc

Cheers,
Dick Johnson

Penguin : Linux version 2.4.1 on an i686 machine (797.90 BogoMips).

    I was going to compile a list of innovations that could be
    attributed to Microsoft. Once I realized that Ctrl-Alt-Del
    was handled in the BIOS, I found that there aren't any.



-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jan 15 2002 - 21:00:36 EST