for the first time, i'm going to dive into the kernel support for initramfs, so i'll start with a couple questions. first, i note that the Doc file ramfs-rootfs-initramfs.txt seems(?) a bit dated, in that it refers to the 2.6 kernel, but it may just mean that it's relevant for 2.6 and everything newer, so it may be just fine, i guess i'll find out eventually. next (and possibly a silly question), i know that the primary(?) purpose of an initramfs is to load an early rootfs to get access to kernel modules, after which one tosses away the initramfs and mounts the "real" rootfs. but i'm pretty sure i have the right to build a kernel with enough of an initramfs that i can run off that embedded initramfs entirely out of RAM if all i want to do is, say, basic diagnostics. next, from the Doc file, i see the possibility of a second (external) initramfs: External initramfs images: -------------------------- If the kernel has initrd support enabled, an external cpio.gz archive can also be passed into a 2.6 kernel in place of an initrd. In this case, the kernel will autodetect the type (initramfs, not initrd) and extract the external cpio archive into rootfs before trying to run /init. This has the memory efficiency advantages of initramfs (no ramdisk block device) but the separate packaging of initrd (which is nice if you have non-GPL code you'd like to run from initramfs, without conflating it with the GPL licensed Linux kernel binary). It can also be used to supplement the kernel's built-in initramfs image. The files in the external archive will overwrite any conflicting files in the built-in initramfs archive. Some distributors also prefer to customize a single kernel image with task-specific initramfs images, without recompiling." is all that still accurate? again, i'm sure i can confirm that once i start digging through the code. in my case, i don't think i'll need an external initramfs if i can cram everything i need into the one embedded in the kernel. thoughts? rday -- ======================================================================== Robert P. J. Day Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA http://crashcourse.ca Twitter: http://twitter.com/rpjday LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/rpjday ========================================================================