On Sat, 3 May 2003, Robert P. J. Day wrote: > so why is initrd.img necessary for LVs even when it has > no modules? The initrd image is needed to run a few initial commands within the initrd image (filesystem). The system loads the "linuxrc" file from the initrd image. This file is a script which scans the disks for volume groups, etc. and mounts the root filesystem. For example, on my system linuxrc runs at the end the following command: mount -o defaults --ro -t ext3 /dev/Volume00/LogVol01 /sysroot You can find the script "linuxrc" in the root directory of the initrd image. You will also see that the linuxrc script uses the script interpreter nash(8). This is a very small interpreter which has some important built in commands like mount, umount, etc. See man nash(8). You can find the nash interpreter in the bin directory of the initrd image. So basically, you need the initrd image for finding and mounting the root fileystem. Here is a printout of my linuxrc script: #!/bin/nash echo "Loading lvm-mod module" insmod /lib/lvm-mod.o echo "Loading jbd module" insmod /lib/jbd.o echo "Loading ext3 module" insmod /lib/ext3.o echo Mounting /proc filesystem mount -t proc /proc /proc echo Creating block devices mkdevices /dev echo Scanning logical volumes vgscan echo Activating logical volumes vgchange -ay echo 0x0100 > /proc/sys/kernel/real-root-dev echo Mounting root filesystem mount -o defaults --ro -t ext3 /dev/Volume00/LogVol01 /sysroot pivot_root /sysroot /sysroot/initrd umount /initrd/proc Werner
