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More Linux Legalese


Kernel Options Needed to Build/Read initrd.gz files

RamDisk and Loop Howto Examples

Creating a Loop Device ( ramdisk )

  • Use a variable size /dev/loop device when /dev/ram is too small

  • First create an empty 8MB loopback device in memory
      dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/initrd.img bs=1k count=8192
        count=1024 --> 1MB device
        count=4096 --> 4MB device
        count=8192 --> 8MB device
        count=16384 --> 16MB device

  • Create a formattable loop device
      losetup /dev/loop0 /tmp/initrd.img

  • Format it as usual ( ext2, ext3, reiserfs, vfat etc )
      mke2fs -b 1024 -j -m 1 -F /tmp/initrd.img 8192 ( ext3 )

  • Mount the loopback device ( allows larger ramdisks )
      insmod loop ( modprobe loop )
      mount -t ext3 -o loop /tmp/file.img /mnt/loop

  • Add/modify the contents as needed
      rm -f /mnt/loop/lost+found
      ls -la /mnt/loop
        [ create/edit/delete the files ]

  • Umount the loopback device
      losetup -d /dev/loop0 ( not needed if was mountedw with: "mount -o loop" )
      umount /mnt/loop

  • Create initrd.gz
      gzip -c -9 /tmp/file.img > /boot/initrd.gz

  • Free up the memory

Loop Howto Examples
    fedanken.demo.co.uk Loopback Root Filesystem HOWTO
      mkdir /tmp/initrd
      dd if=/dev/zero of=initrd.img bs=1k count=1024
      mke2fs -i 1024 -b 1024 -m 5 -F -v initrd.img
      mount initrd.img /tmp/initrd -t ext2 -o loop
      cd /tmp/initrd
      [create the files]
      cd ..
      umount /tmp/initrd
      gzip -c -9 initrd.img > initrdgz.img

    Linux-Universe.com loop
      dd if=/dev/zero of=~/file-inird count=2500 bs=1024
      losetup /dev/loop0 ~/file-inird
      mke2fs /dev/loop0
      mkdir ~/mnt
      mount /dev/loop0 ~/mnt
      cp -a initrd/* ~/mnt
      umount ~/mnt
      losetup -d /dev/loop0


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Linux-Consulting
All Rights Reserved.
Updated: Mon Aug 22 15:37:10 2005 PDT