How to load initramfs only on-demand?

[Woody Wu <narkewoody@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I will be using initramfs to do some special task on my system, such as, format a nand flash and burn in the real root file system.  But these tasks will be rarely needed and I dont want to pay for loading an initramfs-embedded kernel image every time, since it takes time loading bigger mage from flash by boot loader. So I hope thing could be somewhat looks like that, if user press a key in the boot loader stage, the boot loader could load an initramfs cpio.gz from a special nand partition into a fixed memory location. Then via a kernel parameter, the memory address of the initramfs could be recognized by the kernel, and only at this time the kernel goes the initramfs booting stage, otherwise kernel will do the normal booting and mounting the real root file system.

My question is, is there such a kernel parameter to do the job? Probably there is a non-parameter solution like passing the initramfs address in a register when a boot loader transfer control to the kernel, but this is not an option to me since my boot loader (u-boot) does not support doing this. Thanks.

BR,

-wood

-- 
Life is the only flaw in an otherwise perfect nonexistence
    -- Schopenhauer

woody
public key at http://subkeys.pgp.net:11371 (narkewoody@xxxxxxxxx)


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