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<A NAME="CHILD_LINKS"><STRONG>Subsections</STRONG></A>

<UL>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html2409"
  HREF="#SECTION003410000000000000000">31.1 Usage</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html2410"
  HREF="#SECTION003420000000000000000">31.2 Theory</A>
<UL>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html2411"
  HREF="#SECTION003421000000000000000">31.2.1 Kernel boot sequence</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html2412"
  HREF="#SECTION003422000000000000000">31.2.2 Master boot record</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html2413"
  HREF="#SECTION003423000000000000000">31.2.3 Booting partitions</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html2414"
  HREF="#SECTION003424000000000000000">31.2.4 Limitations</A>
</UL>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html2415"
  HREF="#SECTION003430000000000000000">31.3 <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo.conf</FONT></TT> and the <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo</FONT></TT> Command</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html2416"
  HREF="#SECTION003440000000000000000">31.4 Creating Boot Floppy Disks</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html2417"
  HREF="#SECTION003450000000000000000">31.5 SCSI Installation Complications and <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">initrd</FONT></TT></A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html2418"
  HREF="#SECTION003460000000000000000">31.6 Creating an <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">initrd</FONT></TT> Image</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html2419"
  HREF="#SECTION003470000000000000000">31.7 Modifying <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo.conf</FONT></TT> for <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">initrd</FONT></TT></A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html2420"
  HREF="#SECTION003480000000000000000">31.8 Using <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">mkinitrd</FONT></TT></A>
</UL>
<!--End of Table of Child-Links-->
<HR>

<H1><A NAME="SECTION003400000000000000000">
31. <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo</FONT></TT>, <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">initrd</FONT></TT>, and Booting</A>
</H1>

<P>
<A NAME="chap:lilo"></A>
<P>

<TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo</FONT></TT> stands for <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">li</FONT></TT><I>nux</I> <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lo</FONT></TT><I>ader</I>. <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">LILO:</FONT></TT>
is the prompt you first see after boot up, from which you can usually
choose the OS you would like to boot and give certain
boot options to the kernel. This chapter explains how to configure
<TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo</FONT></TT> and kernel boot options, and to get otherwise
non-booting systems to boot.

<P>
The <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo</FONT></TT> package itself contains the files

<P><TABLE nowrap="1" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<TR>
<TD valign="top" class="source" width="2%"><FONT color=red>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
</FONT></TD><TD valign="top" class="source" bgcolor="#FFE0C0"><FONT color=blue>
<code>/boot/boot.b&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;/boot/message&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;/sbin/lilo</code><br>
<code>/boot/chain.b&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;/boot/os2_d.b&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;/usr/bin/keytab-lilo</code><br>
<code>/usr/share/doc/lilo-&#060;version&#062;</code><br>
</FONT></TD></TR></TABLE><P>
which is not that interesting, except to know that
the technical and user documentation is there if hard-core details
are needed.

<P>

<H1><A NAME="SECTION003410000000000000000">
31.1 Usage</A>
</H1>

<P>
When you first start your L<SMALL>INUX</SMALL> system, the <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">LILO:</FONT></TT> prompt, at which you
can enter boot options, is displayed. Pressing <IMG ALIGN=ABSMIDDLE BORDER=0 SRC="key-tab.png" ALT="Tab"> displays a list of
things to type. The purpose is to allow the booting of different
L<SMALL>INUX</SMALL> installations on the same machine, or different operating
systems stored in
different partitions on the same disk. Later, you
can actually view the file <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/proc/cmdline</FONT></TT>
to see what boot options (including default boot options) were used.

<P>

<H1><A NAME="SECTION003420000000000000000">
31.2 Theory</A>
</H1>

<P>
<A NAME="sec:bootuptheory"></A>
<P>

<H2><A NAME="SECTION003421000000000000000">
31.2.1 Kernel boot sequence</A>
</H2>

<P>
A U<SMALL>NIX</SMALL> kernel, to be booted, must be loaded into memory from
disk and be executed. The execution of the kernel causes it to
uncompress itself and then run. <FONT COLOR="#ffa500">[The word <I>boot</I> itself
comes from the concept that a computer cannot begin executing
without program code, and program code cannot get into memory
without other program code--like trying to lift yourself up by your
bootstraps, and hence the name.]</FONT> The first thing the kernel does
after it runs is initialize various hardware devices.
It then mounts the root file system on a specified partition. Once the root
file system is mounted, the kernel executes
<TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/sbin/init</FONT></TT> to begin
the U<SMALL>NIX</SMALL> operating system. This is how all U<SMALL>NIX</SMALL> systems begin
life.

<P>

<H2><A NAME="SECTION003422000000000000000">
31.2.2 Master boot record</A>
</H2>

<P>
PCs begin life with a small program in the ROM BIOS that loads the
very first sector of the disk into memory, called the <I>boot sector</I>
of the <I>master boot record</I> or <I>MBR</I>. This piece
of code is up to 512 bytes long and is expected to start the
operating system. In the case of L<SMALL>INUX</SMALL>, the boot sector loads the
file <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/boot/map</FONT></TT>, which contains a list of the precise
location of the disk sectors that the L<SMALL>INUX</SMALL> <I>kernel image</I>
(usually the file <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/boot/vmlinuz</FONT></TT>) spans. It loads each
of these sectors, thus
reconstructing the kernel image in memory. Then it jumps to the kernel
to execute it.

<P>
You may ask how it is possible to load a file from a file system when
the file system is not mounted. Further, the boot partition is a small
and simple program and certainly does not support the
many types of file systems and devices that the kernel image may reside
in. Actually, <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo</FONT></TT> doesn't have to support a file system to
access a file, as long as it has a list of the sectors that the file
spans and is prepared to use the BIOS
<I>interrupts</I> <FONT COLOR="#ffa500">[Nothing to do with ``interrupting'' or
hardware interrupts, but refers to BIOS functions that are available
for use by the operating system. Hardware devices may insert custom
BIOS functions to provided rudimentary support needed for themselves
at startup. This support is distinct from
that provided by the hardware device drivers
of the booted kernel.]</FONT> to read those sectors. If the file is never
modified, that sector list will never change; this is how the
<TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/boot/map</FONT></TT> and <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/boot/vmlinuz</FONT></TT> files are loaded.

<P>

<H2><A NAME="SECTION003423000000000000000">
31.2.3 Booting partitions</A>
</H2>

<P>
In addition to the MBR, each primary
partition has a boot sector that
can boot the operating system in that partition.
MS-DOS (Windows)
partitions have this, and hence <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo</FONT></TT> can optionally load and
execute these <I>partition boot sectors</I>
to start a Windows installation in another partition.

<P>

<H2><A NAME="SECTION003424000000000000000">
31.2.4 Limitations</A>
</H2>

<P>
<A NAME="sec:bioslimits"></A>
<P>
BIOSs have inherited several limitations because of lack
of foresight of their designers.

<P>
First, some BIOSs do not support more than one
IDE. <FONT COLOR="#ffa500">[At least according to the <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo</FONT></TT>
documentation.]</FONT> I myself have not come across this as a problem.

<P>
The second limitation is most important to note. As explained,
<TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo</FONT></TT> uses BIOS functions to access the IDE drive, <I>but
the BIOS of a PC is often limited to accessing the
first 1024 cylinders of
the disk</I>. Hence, whatever LILO reads <I>must</I> reside within
the first 1024 cylinders (the first 500 megabytes of disk space). Here
is the list of things whose sectors are required to be within this
space:
<DL COMPACT>
<DT>1.</DT>
<DD><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/boot/vmlinuz</FONT></TT>
</DD>
<DT>2.</DT>
<DD>Various <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo</FONT></TT> files <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/boot/*.b</FONT></TT>
</DD>
<DT>3.</DT>
<DD>Any non-L<SMALL>INUX</SMALL> partition boot sector you would like to
          boot
</DD>
</DL>
However a L<SMALL>INUX</SMALL> root partition can reside anywhere
because the boot sector program never reads this partition except
for the abovementioned files. A scenario where the <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/boot/</FONT></TT>
directory is a small partition below the 500 megabyte boundary and
the <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/</FONT></TT> partition is above the 500 megabyte boundary, is quite
common. See page <A HREF="node22.html#sec:partnewdisk"><IMG  ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="1" ALT="[*]" SRC="crossref.png"></A>.

<P>
Note that newer ``LBA'' BIOS's support more than the first
512 megabytes--even up to 8 Gigabytes. I personally do
not count on this.

<P>

<H1><A NAME="SECTION003430000000000000000">
31.3 <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo.conf</FONT></TT> and the <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo</FONT></TT> Command</A>
</H1>

<P>
To ``do a <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo</FONT></TT>'' means running the <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo</FONT></TT> command as
<TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">root</FONT></TT>, with a correct <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/etc/lilo.conf</FONT></TT> file. The
<TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo.conf</FONT></TT> file will doubtless have been set up by your
distribution (check yours). A typical <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo.conf</FONT></TT> file that allows
booting of a Windows partition and two L<SMALL>INUX</SMALL> partitions is as follows:

<P><TABLE nowrap="1" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<TR>
<TD valign="top" class="source" width="2%"><FONT color=red>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<font size="-1"><code>5</code></font><code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<font size="-1"><code>10</code></font><code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<font size="-1"><code>15</code></font><code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<font size="-1"><code>20</code></font><code>&nbsp;</code><br>
</FONT></TD><TD valign="top" class="source" bgcolor="#FFE0C0"><FONT color=blue>
<code>boot=/dev/hda</code><br>
<code>prompt</code><br>
<code>timeout&nbsp;=&nbsp;50</code><br>
<code>compact</code><br>
<code>vga&nbsp;=&nbsp;extended</code><br>
<code>lock</code><br>
<code>password&nbsp;=&nbsp;jAN]")Wo</code><br>
<code>restricted</code><br>
<code>append&nbsp;=&nbsp;"ether=9,0x300,0xd0000,0xd4000,eth0&nbsp;hisax=1,3,5,0xd8000,0xd80,HiSax"</code><br>
<code>image&nbsp;=&nbsp;/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.17</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;label&nbsp;=&nbsp;linux</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;root&nbsp;=&nbsp;/dev/hda5</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;read-only</code><br>
<code>image&nbsp;=&nbsp;/boot/vmlinuz-2.0.38</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;label&nbsp;=&nbsp;linux-old</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;root&nbsp;=&nbsp;/dev/hda6</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;read-only</code><br>
<code>other&nbsp;=&nbsp;/dev/hda2</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;label&nbsp;=&nbsp;win</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;table&nbsp;=&nbsp;/dev/hda</code><br>
</FONT></TD></TR></TABLE><P>

<P>
Running <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo</FONT></TT> will install into the MBR a boot loader that
understands where to get the <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/boot/map</FONT></TT> file, which in turn
understands where to get the <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.12-20</FONT></TT> file. It
gives output like:

<P><TABLE nowrap="1" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<TR>
<TD valign="top" class="source" width="2%"><FONT color=red>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
</FONT></TD><TD valign="top" class="source" bgcolor="#FFE0C0"><FONT color=blue>
<code>[root@cericon]#&nbsp;<font color="navy"><B>lilo</B></font></code><br>
<code>Added&nbsp;linux&nbsp;*</code><br>
<code>Added&nbsp;linux-old</code><br>
<code>Added&nbsp;win</code><br>
</FONT></TD></TR></TABLE><P>
It also backs up your existing MBR, if this has not previously been
done, into a file <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/boot/boot.0300</FONT></TT> (where <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">0300</FONT></TT> refers to
the device's major and minor number).

<P>
Let's go through the options:
<DL>
<DT><STRONG><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">boot</FONT></TT></STRONG></DT>
<DD>Device to boot. It will most always be <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/dev/hda</FONT></TT> or <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/dev/sda</FONT></TT>.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">prompt</FONT></TT></STRONG></DT>
<DD>Display a prompt where the user can enter the OS to boot.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">timeout</FONT></TT></STRONG></DT>
<DD>How many tenths of a seconds to display the prompt (after which the first image is booted).
</DD>
<DT><STRONG><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">compact</FONT></TT></STRONG></DT>
<DD>String together adjacent sector reads. This makes the kernel load <I>much</I> faster.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">vga</FONT></TT></STRONG></DT>
<DD>We would like 80<FONT face=helvetica>x</FONT>50 text mode. Your startup scripts may reset this to
	80<FONT face=helvetica>x</FONT>25--search <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/etc/rc.d</FONT></TT> recursively for any file containing ``<TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">textmode</FONT></TT>''.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lock</FONT></TT></STRONG></DT>
<DD>Always default to boot the last OS booted <FONT COLOR="#ffa500">[A very useful feature which is seldom used.]</FONT>.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">password</FONT></TT></STRONG></DT>
<DD>Require a password to boot.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">restricted</FONT></TT></STRONG></DT>
<DD>Require a password only if someone attempts to enter
	special options at the <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">LILO:</FONT></TT> prompt.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">append</FONT></TT></STRONG></DT>
<DD><A NAME="page:appendequ"></A> A <I>kernel boot option</I>.
	Kernel boot options are central to <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo</FONT></TT>
        and kernel modules and are discussed in
	Chapter <A HREF="node45.html#sec:moduleoptions">42.5</A>. They are mostly
        not needed in simple installations.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">image</FONT></TT></STRONG></DT>
<DD>A L<SMALL>INUX</SMALL> kernel to boot.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">label</FONT></TT></STRONG></DT>
<DD>The text to type at the boot prompt to cause this kernel/partition to boot.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">root</FONT></TT></STRONG></DT>
<DD>The root file system that the kernel must mount.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">read-only</FONT></TT></STRONG></DT>
<DD>Flag to specify that the root file system must initially be mounted read-only.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">other</FONT></TT></STRONG></DT>
<DD>Some other operating system to boot: in this case, a Windows partition.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">table</FONT></TT></STRONG></DT>
<DD>Partition table info to be passed to the partition boot sector.
</DD>
</DL>

<P>
Further <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">other&nbsp;=</FONT></TT> partitions can follow, and many <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">image&nbsp;=</FONT></TT> kernel
images are allowed.

<P>
The preceding <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo.conf</FONT></TT> file assumed a partition scheme as follows:
<DL>
<DT><STRONG><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/dev/hda1</FONT></TT></STRONG></DT>
<DD>10-megabyte <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">ext2</FONT></TT> partition to be mounted on <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/boot</FONT></TT>.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/dev/hda2</FONT></TT></STRONG></DT>
<DD>Windows 98 partition over 500 megabytes in size.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/dev/hda3</FONT></TT></STRONG></DT>
<DD>Extended partition.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/dev/hda4</FONT></TT></STRONG></DT>
<DD>Unused primary partition.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/dev/hda5</FONT></TT></STRONG></DT>
<DD><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">ext2</FONT></TT> root file system.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/dev/hda6</FONT></TT></STRONG></DT>
<DD>Second <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">ext2</FONT></TT> root file system containing an older distribution.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/dev/hda</FONT></TT><I>?</I></STRONG></DT>
<DD>L<SMALL>INUX</SMALL> swap, <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/home</FONT></TT>, and other partitions.
</DD>
</DL>

<P>

<H1><A NAME="SECTION003440000000000000000">
31.4 Creating Boot Floppy Disks</A>
</H1>

<P>
<A NAME="sec:bootfloppy"></A>
If LILO is broken or absent, we require an alternative boot method.
A floppy disk capable of booting our system must contain a kernel
image, the means to load the image into memory, and the means to
mount <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/dev/hda5</FONT></TT> as the root file system. To create such a
floppy, insert a <I>new</I> floppy disk into a running L<SMALL>INUX</SMALL>
system, and overwrite it with the following commands:

<P><TABLE nowrap="1" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<TR>
<TD valign="top" class="source" width="2%"><FONT color=red>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
</FONT></TD><TD valign="top" class="source" bgcolor="#FFE0C0"><FONT color=blue>
<code>dd&nbsp;if=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.17&nbsp;of=/dev/fd0</code><br>
<code>rdev&nbsp;/dev/fd0&nbsp;/dev/hda5</code><br>
</FONT></TD></TR></TABLE><P>

<P>
Then simply boot the floppy. This procedure requires a second
L<SMALL>INUX</SMALL> installation at least. If you only have an MS-DOS or Windows
system at your disposal then you will have to download the
<TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">RAWRITE.EXE</FONT></TT> utility as well as a raw boot disk image.
Many of these are available and will enable you to create
a boot floppy from a DOS prompt. I will not go into detail
about this here.

<P>

<H1><A NAME="SECTION003450000000000000000">
31.5 SCSI Installation Complications and <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">initrd</FONT></TT></A>
</H1>

<P>
<A NAME="sec:scsiinitrd"></A>
<P>
Some of the following descriptions may be difficult to understand
without knowledge of kernel modules explained in Chapter
<A HREF="node45.html#chap:kernelsource">42</A>. You may want to come back to it later.

<P>
Consider a system with zero IDE disks and one SCSI disk
containing a L<SMALL>INUX</SMALL> installation. There are BIOS interrupts to read
the SCSI disk, just as there were for the IDE, so LILO can happily
access a kernel image somewhere inside the SCSI partition.
However, the kernel is going to be lost without a <I>kernel
module</I> <FONT COLOR="#ffa500">[See Chapter <A HREF="node45.html#chap:kernelsource">42</A>. The kernel
doesn't support every possible kind of hardware out there all by
itself. It is actually divided into a main part (the kernel image
discussed in this chapter) and hundreds of modules (loadable parts
that reside in <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/lib/modules/</FONT></TT>)
that support the many type of SCSI,
network, sound etc., peripheral devices.]</FONT> that understands the
particular SCSI driver. So although the kernel can load and execute, it
won't be able to mount its root file system without loading a SCSI module
first. But the module itself resides in the root file system in
<TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/lib/modules/</FONT></TT>. This is a tricky situation to solve and is done
in one of two ways: either (a) using a kernel with preenabled
SCSI support or (b) using what is known as an <I><TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">initrd</FONT></TT>
preliminary root file system image</I>.

<P>
The first method is what I recommend. It's a straightforward (though
time-consuming) procedure to create a kernel with SCSI support
for your SCSI card built-in (and not in a separate module). Built-in
SCSI and network drivers will also autodetect cards most of the
time, allowing immediate access to the <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">dev</FONT></TT>ice--they will
work without being given any options <FONT COLOR="#ffa500">[Discussed in Chapter
<A HREF="node45.html#chap:modules">42</A>.]</FONT> and, most importantly, without your having to read
up on how to configure them. This setup is known as <I>compiled-in</I>
support for a hardware driver (as opposed to <I>module</I> support
for the driver). The resulting kernel image will be larger by an
amount equal to the size of module. Chapter <A HREF="node45.html#chap:kernelsource">42</A>
discusses such kernel compiles.

<P>
The second method is faster but trickier. L<SMALL>INUX</SMALL> supports
what is known as an <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">initrd</FONT></TT> image (<TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">init</FONT></TT>ial <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">r</FONT></TT>AM
<TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">d</FONT></TT>isk image). This is a small, <U>+</U>1.5 megabyte file system that
is loaded by LILO and mounted by the kernel instead of the real
file system. The kernel mounts this file system as a RAM disk,
executes the file <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/linuxrc</FONT></TT>, and then only mounts the real
file system.

<P>

<H1><A NAME="SECTION003460000000000000000">
31.6 Creating an <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">initrd</FONT></TT> Image</A>
</H1>

<P>
Start by creating a small file system. Make a
directory <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">~/initrd</FONT></TT> and copy the following files into it.

<P><TABLE nowrap="1" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<TR>
<TD valign="top" class="source" width="2%"><FONT color=red>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<font size="-1"><code>5</code></font><code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<font size="-1"><code>10</code></font><code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<font size="-1"><code>15</code></font><code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
</FONT></TD><TD valign="top" class="source" bgcolor="#FFE0C0"><FONT color=blue>
<code>drwxr-xr-x&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;7&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1024&nbsp;Sep&nbsp;14&nbsp;20:12&nbsp;initrd/</code><br>
<code>drwxr-xr-x&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1024&nbsp;Sep&nbsp;14&nbsp;20:12&nbsp;initrd/bin/</code><br>
<code>-rwxr-xr-x&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;436328&nbsp;Sep&nbsp;14&nbsp;20:12&nbsp;initrd/bin/insmod</code><br>
<code>-rwxr-xr-x&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;424680&nbsp;Sep&nbsp;14&nbsp;20:12&nbsp;initrd/bin/sash</code><br>
<code>drwxr-xr-x&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1024&nbsp;Sep&nbsp;14&nbsp;20:12&nbsp;initrd/dev/</code><br>
<code>crw-r--r--&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;5,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1&nbsp;Sep&nbsp;14&nbsp;20:12&nbsp;initrd/dev/console</code><br>
<code>crw-r--r--&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3&nbsp;Sep&nbsp;14&nbsp;20:12&nbsp;initrd/dev/null</code><br>
<code>brw-r--r--&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1&nbsp;Sep&nbsp;14&nbsp;20:12&nbsp;initrd/dev/ram</code><br>
<code>crw-r--r--&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;4,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;0&nbsp;Sep&nbsp;14&nbsp;20:12&nbsp;initrd/dev/systty</code><br>
<code>crw-r--r--&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;4,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1&nbsp;Sep&nbsp;14&nbsp;20:12&nbsp;initrd/dev/tty1</code><br>
<code>crw-r--r--&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;4,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1&nbsp;Sep&nbsp;14&nbsp;20:12&nbsp;initrd/dev/tty2</code><br>
<code>crw-r--r--&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;4,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1&nbsp;Sep&nbsp;14&nbsp;20:12&nbsp;initrd/dev/tty3</code><br>
<code>crw-r--r--&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;4,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1&nbsp;Sep&nbsp;14&nbsp;20:12&nbsp;initrd/dev/tty4</code><br>
<code>drwxr-xr-x&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1024&nbsp;Sep&nbsp;14&nbsp;20:12&nbsp;initrd/etc/</code><br>
<code>drwxr-xr-x&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1024&nbsp;Sep&nbsp;14&nbsp;20:12&nbsp;initrd/lib/</code><br>
<code>-rwxr-xr-x&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;76&nbsp;Sep&nbsp;14&nbsp;20:12&nbsp;initrd/linuxrc</code><br>
<code>drwxr-xr-x&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1024&nbsp;Sep&nbsp;14&nbsp;20:12&nbsp;initrd/loopfs/</code><br>
</FONT></TD></TR></TABLE><P>

<P>
On my system, the file <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">initrd/bin/insmod</FONT></TT> is the
<I>statically linked</I> <FONT COLOR="#ffa500">[meaning it does not require shared
libraries.]</FONT> version copied from <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/sbin/insmod.static</FONT></TT>--a member of
the <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">modutils-2.3.13</FONT></TT> package.
<TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">initrd/bin/sash</FONT></TT> is a statically
linked shell from the <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">sash-3.4</FONT></TT> package. You can recompile
<TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">insmod</FONT></TT> from source if you don't have a statically linked version.
Alternatively, copy the needed DLLs from <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/lib/</FONT></TT> to <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">initrd/lib/</FONT></TT>. (You can
get the list of required DLLs by running <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">ldd /sbin/insmod</FONT></TT>. Don't forget
to also copy symlinks and run <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">strip -s &lt;lib&gt;</FONT></TT> to
reduce the size of the DLLs.)

<P>
Now copy into the <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">initrd/lib/</FONT></TT> directory the SCSI modules
you require. For example, if we have an Adaptec AIC-7850 SCSI
adapter, we would require the <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">aic7xxx.o</FONT></TT> module
from <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">/lib/modules/&lt;version&gt;/scsi/aic7xxx.o</FONT></TT>. Then, place it in the
<TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">initrd/lib/</FONT></TT> directory.

<P><TABLE nowrap="1" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<TR>
<TD valign="top" class="source" width="2%"><FONT color=red>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
</FONT></TD><TD valign="top" class="source" bgcolor="#FFE0C0"><FONT color=blue>
<code>-rw-r--r--&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;129448&nbsp;Sep&nbsp;27&nbsp;&nbsp;1999&nbsp;initrd/lib/aic7xxx.o</code><br>
</FONT></TD></TR></TABLE><P>

<P>
The file <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">initrd/linuxrc</FONT></TT> should contain a script to load all
the modules needed for the kernel to access the SCSI partition. In this
case, just the <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">aic7xxx</FONT></TT> module <FONT COLOR="#ffa500">[<TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">insmod</FONT></TT> can take options
such as the IRQ and IO-port for the device. See Chapter <A HREF="node45.html#chap:modules">42</A>.]</FONT>:

<P><TABLE nowrap="1" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<TR>
<TD valign="top" class="source" width="2%"><FONT color=red>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<font size="-1"><code>5</code></font><code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
</FONT></TD><TD valign="top" class="source" bgcolor="#FFE0C0"><FONT color=blue>
<code>#!/bin/sash</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>aliasall</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>echo&nbsp;"Loading&nbsp;aic7xxx&nbsp;module"</code><br>
<code>insmod&nbsp;/lib/aic7xxx.o&nbsp;</code><br>
</FONT></TD></TR></TABLE><P>

<P>
Now double-check all your permissions and then <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">chroot</FONT></TT> to the
file system for testing.

<P><TABLE nowrap="1" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<TR>
<TD valign="top" class="source" width="2%"><FONT color=red>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
</FONT></TD><TD valign="top" class="source" bgcolor="#FFE0C0"><FONT color=blue>
<code>chroot&nbsp;~/initrd&nbsp;/bin/sash</code><br>
<code>/linuxrc</code><br>
</FONT></TD></TR></TABLE><P>
Now, create a file system image similar to that in
Section <A HREF="node22.html#sec:ramloop">19.9</A>:

<P><TABLE nowrap="1" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<TR>
<TD valign="top" class="source" width="2%"><FONT color=red>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<font size="-1"><code>5</code></font><code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
</FONT></TD><TD valign="top" class="source" bgcolor="#FFE0C0"><FONT color=blue>
<code>dd&nbsp;if=/dev/zero&nbsp;of=~/file-inird&nbsp;count=2500&nbsp;bs=1024</code><br>
<code>losetup&nbsp;/dev/loop0&nbsp;~/file-inird</code><br>
<code>mke2fs&nbsp;/dev/loop0</code><br>
<code>mkdir&nbsp;~/mnt</code><br>
<code>mount&nbsp;/dev/loop0&nbsp;~/mnt</code><br>
<code>cp&nbsp;-a&nbsp;initrd/*&nbsp;~/mnt/</code><br>
<code>umount&nbsp;~/mnt</code><br>
<code>losetup&nbsp;-d&nbsp;/dev/loop0</code><br>
</FONT></TD></TR></TABLE><P>
Finally, <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">gzip</FONT></TT> the file system to an appropriately named file:

<P><TABLE nowrap="1" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<TR>
<TD valign="top" class="source" width="2%"><FONT color=red>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
</FONT></TD><TD valign="top" class="source" bgcolor="#FFE0C0"><FONT color=blue>
<code>gzip&nbsp;-c&nbsp;~/file-inird&nbsp;&#062;&nbsp;initrd-&#060;kernel-version&#062;</code><br>
</FONT></TD></TR></TABLE><P>

<P>

<H1><A NAME="SECTION003470000000000000000">
31.7 Modifying <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo.conf</FONT></TT> for <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">initrd</FONT></TT></A>
</H1>

<P>
Your <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo.conf</FONT></TT> file can be changed slightly to force
use of an <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">initrd</FONT></TT> file system. Simply add the <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">initrd</FONT></TT>
option. For example:

<P><TABLE nowrap="1" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<TR>
<TD valign="top" class="source" width="2%"><FONT color=red>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<font size="-1"><code>5</code></font><code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<font size="-1"><code>10</code></font><code>&nbsp;</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;</code><br>
</FONT></TD><TD valign="top" class="source" bgcolor="#FFE0C0"><FONT color=blue>
<code>boot=/dev/sda</code><br>
<code>prompt</code><br>
<code>timeout&nbsp;=&nbsp;50</code><br>
<code>compact</code><br>
<code>vga&nbsp;=&nbsp;extended</code><br>
<code>linear</code><br>
<code>image&nbsp;=&nbsp;/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.17</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;initrd&nbsp;=&nbsp;/boot/initrd-2.2.17</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;label&nbsp;=&nbsp;linux</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;root&nbsp;=&nbsp;/dev/sda1</code><br>
<code>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;read-only</code><br>
</FONT></TD></TR></TABLE><P>
Notice the use of the <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">linear</FONT></TT> option. This is a BIOS
trick that you can read about in <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo</FONT></TT>(5). It is often necessary
but can make SCSI disks nonportable to different BIOSs (meaning
that you will have to rerun <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">lilo</FONT></TT> if you move the disk to a
different computer).
<BR>

<P>

<H1><A NAME="SECTION003480000000000000000">
31.8 Using <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">mkinitrd</FONT></TT></A>
</H1>

<P>
Now that you have learned the manual method of creating an
<TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">initrd</FONT></TT> image, you can read the <TT>
<FONT COLOR="#0000ff">mkinitrd</FONT></TT> man page. It
creates an image in a single command. This is command is peculiar
to RedHat.

<P>
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