[klibc] initrd / initramfs future

[H. Peter Anvin]

Dave Dodge wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 15, 2004 at 08:04:52AM +0600, Alexander E. Patrakov wrote:
> 
>>Initrd has the following advantage for distros: you can replace it 
>>without kernel recompilation.
> 
> 
> Is this still unique to initrd?  I thought somewhere along the way the
> kernel acquired the ability to load an external initramfs.  The
> populate_rootfs code in 2.6.8.1 seems to imply that it can recognize and
> unpack an initramfs if you pass it in through the initrd area.
> 

Yes, newer 2.6 kernels can load an initramfs using the initrd mechanism 
just fine.  They look for /init (why not /sbin/init or /linuxrc is 
antoher issue...) and invoke it if present.

	-hpa