[klibc] curious unpacking issue

[H. Peter Anvin]

Aaron Griffin wrote:
> On 4/9/06, H. Peter Anvin <hpa at zytor.com> wrote:
>> Aaron Griffin wrote:
>>> I'm not sure when exactly this started, but currently when I specify a
>>> ramfs image via the initrd line in grub, kinit picks it up as an
>>> initrd and tries (and fails) to unpack it and run linuxrc from it.
>> Are you sure it's kinit that's picking it up as such?
> 
> yeah, lots of:
> kinit: unpacking to /initrd
> type messages (exact wording escapes me right now)
> 
>>> I'm assuming this is not the intended behavior.  Can anyone point me
>>> into the proper direction for unpacking an initramfs image ontop of
>>> the in-kernel image?
>>>
>>> Currently, I am using kernel 2.6.16.2 with klibc 1.3.2 (1.3.4 failed
>>> to build last I tried, so I rolled back).
>> If you're using a kernel with kinit, you really want to get it from my
>> git tree:
>>
>> git://git.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/git/hpa/linux-2.6-klibc.git
> 
> Yeah, I did that for a while - however, I'd like to get this sort of
> stuff done as soon as possible, so I was trying to get it compatible
> with the current tree.  Also, the whole git pull is huge compared to
> the kernel.org tarballs - though it's not huge issue, I'm running a
> tad low on diskspace, heh.

Yes, but you also are trying a combination of things that has never been 
tested, and thus, you're completely on your own.  I'm not sure what you 
mean with "getting this sort of things done as soon as possible"; I'm 
currently iterating pretty tightly with Andrew Morton trying to get 
klibc into -mm.

>> ... instead of mixing the standalone klibc with it.  If you're building
>> your own initramfs, make sure you use "cpio -H newc" to create the
>> initramfs.
> 
> Hmm, is that important? I was using gen_init_cpio to build both, as it
> made it easier to work with filelists.  Is there something I can do to
> force/change gen_init_cpio to work in both cases?  (I am assuming that
> this is my problem, as I was using cpio in the past).

gen_init_cpio should work.

	-hpa