getting linux to mount a FAT16 part at boot time so I can give itan initrd path?

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I'm trying to boot from a compact flash using an embedded bootloader.
I want to make the kernel mount the compact flash FAT16 partition and
find an initial ramdisk.

The bootloader can already load linux of the compact flash into RAM,
and then jump to it, passing any arguments I like.  Here is an example
of how I invoke the kernel:

  go -e 0x8010046c devfs=only root=302 rw max_scsi_luns=3 idebus=33 ide=nodma hdb=none ip=10.0.1.3

Note that "root=302" argument.  I want to get rid of it, and replace
it with "initrd=<something>".

The way the system boots now is like this: the compact flash card has
two partitions, one FAT16, one ext2.  The first partition has the
linux kernel, the second partition is the ext2 root filesystem.  The
bootloader loads the kernel from the FAT16 partition, then jumps to
it.  The compact flash is on the ide bus, and partition two of the
first disk on the ide bus is device "30:2".  So when the linux kernel
sees "root=302" it mounts the second partition of the compact flash
card.  This works fine.

But what I really want is to use an ext2 *image* (not a partition) as
an initrd file stored on the FAT16 partition of the compact flash.
That way I won't have to create an ext2 partition on the flash, and I
can just copy the image files onto a store-bought flash card (which is
always preformatted FAT16).

How do I specify a path to a file on the first partition of the flash
card?  Does it look something like this:

  go -e 0x8010046c devfs=only initrd=C:\my_initrd_file.bin rw max_scsi_luns=3 idebus=33 ide=nodma hdb=none ip=10.0.1.3

Does "C:\" mean something magical to the linux kernel?  I don't think
so.  How do I tell it to mount the first partition as dos and find the
path I specify?

Thanks,
Dave

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