Datasheet

“main” (Installation and Administration) — 2004/6/25 — 13:29 — page 253 — #279
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10
Special Features of SUSE LINUX
initrd (hd0,0)/initrd
As the loading address of the initrd is written to the loaded kernel
image, the initrd command must follow the kernel command.
LILO Enter the following line in /etc/lilo.conf:
initrd=/boot/initrd
syslinux Enter the following line in syslinux.cfg:
append initrd=initrd
Further parameters can be appended to the line.
10.3.4 Using initrd in SUSE
Installing the System
The initrd has been used for some time for the installation: the user can
load modules and make the entries necessary for installation. linuxrc then
starts YaST, which carries out the installation. When YaST has finished,
it tells linuxrc where the root file system of the newly installed system is
located. linuxrc writes this value to /proc and reboots the system. Then
YaST starts again and installs the remaining packages in the system.
Booting the Installed System
In the past, YaST offered more than forty kernels for installing in the sys-
tem. The main difference between the kernels was that each of them con-
tained a specific SCSI driver. This was necessary to be able to mount the
root file system after booting. Further drivers could then be loaded after-
wards as modules. As optimized kernels are now available, this concept is
no longer feasible — by now, over one hundred kernel images would be
needed.
This is why an initrd is now used to start the system normally. The way
it is used is similar to the method for installation. The linuxrc used here,
however, is simply a shell script with the task of loading a given module.
Typically, this is just one single module — the very SCSI driver needed to
access the root file system.
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SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server