INITRD(4)		   Linux Programmer's Manual		     INITRD(4)



NAME
       initrd - boot loader initialized RAM disk

CONFIGURATION
       /dev/initrd  is	a  read-only  block device assigned major number 1 and
       minor number 250.  Typically /dev/initrd is  owned  by  root.disk  with
       mode  0400  (read  access  by root only).  If the Linux system does not
       have /dev/initrd already created, it can be created with the  following
       commands:

	       mknod -m 400 /dev/initrd b 1 250
	       chown root:disk /dev/initrd

       Also,  support  for  both "RAM disk" and "Initial RAM disk" (e.g., CON-
       FIG_BLK_DEV_RAM=y  and  CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD=y)	  must	 be   compiled
       directly	 into  the  Linux  kernel  to  use  /dev/initrd.   When	 using
       /dev/initrd, the RAM disk driver cannot be loaded as a module.

DESCRIPTION
       The special file /dev/initrd is a read-only block device.  This	device
       is  a  RAM  disk	 that is initialized (e.g., loaded) by the boot loader
       before the kernel is started.  The kernel then  can  use	 /dev/initrd's
       contents for a two-phase system boot-up.

       In  the first boot-up phase, the kernel starts up and mounts an initial
       root filesystem from the contents of /dev/initrd (e.g., RAM  disk  ini-
       tialized	 by the boot loader).  In the second phase, additional drivers
       or other modules are loaded from the initial  root  device's  contents.
       After  loading the additional modules, a new root filesystem (i.e., the
       normal root filesystem) is mounted from a different device.

   Boot-up operation
       When booting up with initrd, the system boots as follows:

       1. The boot loader loads the kernel program and /dev/initrd's  contents
	  into memory.

       2. On  kernel  startup, the kernel uncompresses and copies the contents
	  of the device /dev/initrd onto device /dev/ram0 and then  frees  the
	  memory used by /dev/initrd.

       3. The  kernel  then read-write mounts the device /dev/ram0 as the ini-
	  tial root filesystem.

       4. If the indicated normal root filesystem is  also  the	 initial  root
	  filesystem  (e.g., /dev/ram0) then the kernel skips to the last step
	  for the usual boot sequence.

       5. If the executable file /linuxrc  is  present	in  the	 initial  root
	  filesystem,  /linuxrc	 is  executed  with UID 0.  (The file /linuxrc
	  must have executable permission.  The file /linuxrc can be any valid
	  executable, including a shell script.)

       6. If  /linuxrc is not executed or when /linuxrc terminates, the normal
	  root filesystem is mounted.  (If /linuxrc exits with any filesystems
	  mounted  on  the  initial  root filesystem, then the behavior of the
	  kernel is UNSPECIFIED.  See the NOTES section for the current kernel
	  behavior.)

       7. If  the  normal  root filesystem has a directory /initrd, the device
	  /dev/ram0 is moved from / to /initrd.	 Otherwise, if	the  directory
	  /initrd  does	 not  exist, the device /dev/ram0 is unmounted.	 (When
	  moved from / to /initrd, /dev/ram0 is not  unmounted	and  therefore
	  processes  can  remain running from /dev/ram0.  If directory /initrd
	  does not exist on the	 normal	 root  filesystem  and	any  processes
	  remain  running  from /dev/ram0 when /linuxrc exits, the behavior of
	  the kernel is UNSPECIFIED.  See the NOTES section  for  the  current
	  kernel behavior.)

       8. The  usual  boot  sequence  (e.g., invocation of /sbin/init) is per-
	  formed on the normal root filesystem.

   Options
       The following boot loader options, when used with  initrd,  affect  the
       kernel's boot-up operation:

       initrd=filename
	      Specifies	 the file to load as the contents of /dev/initrd.  For
	      LOADLIN this is a command-line option.  For LILO you have to use
	      this  command  in	 the LILO configuration file /etc/lilo.config.
	      The filename specified with this	option	will  typically	 be  a
	      gzipped filesystem image.

       noinitrd
	      This  boot option disables the two-phase boot-up operation.  The
	      kernel performs the usual boot sequence as  if  /dev/initrd  was
	      not  initialized.	 With this option, any contents of /dev/initrd
	      loaded into memory by the boot loader  contents  are  preserved.
	      This  option  permits the contents of /dev/initrd to be any data
	      and need not be limited to a filesystem image.  However,	device
	      /dev/initrd  is  read-only  and  can be read only one time after
	      system startup.

       root=device-name
	      Specifies the device to be used as the normal  root  filesystem.
	      For  LOADLIN  this is a command-line option.  For LILO this is a
	      boot time option or can be used as an option line	 in  the  LILO
	      configuration  file  /etc/lilo.config.   The device specified by
	      the this option must be a mountable  device  having  a  suitable
	      root filesystem.

   Changing the normal root filesystem
       By  default,  the  kernel's settings (e.g., set in the kernel file with
       rdev(8) or compiled into the kernel file), or the  boot	loader	option
       setting	is  used  for the normal root filesystems.  For an NFS-mounted
       normal  root  filesystem,  one  has  to	use  the   nfs_root_name   and
       nfs_root_addrs  boot options to give the NFS settings.  For more infor-
       mation on NFS-mounted root see the kernel documentation file Documenta-
       tion/filesystems/nfsroot.txt.  For more information on setting the root
       filesystem see also the LILO and LOADLIN documentation.

       It is also possible for the /linuxrc executable to  change  the	normal
       root device.  For /linuxrc to change the normal root device, /proc must
       be mounted.  After mounting /proc, /linuxrc  changes  the  normal  root
       device  by  writing into the proc files /proc/sys/kernel/real-root-dev,
       /proc/sys/kernel/nfs-root-name,	and   /proc/sys/kernel/nfs-root-addrs.
       For  a physical root device, the root device is changed by having /lin-
       uxrc write the new root filesystem device  number  into	/proc/sys/ker-
       nel/real-root-dev.   For	 an  NFS  root	filesystem, the root device is
       changed	by  having  /linuxrc  write  the  NFS	setting	  into	 files
       /proc/sys/kernel/nfs-root-name  and /proc/sys/kernel/nfs-root-addrs and
       then writing  0xff  (e.g.,  the	pseudo-NFS-device  number)  into  file
       /proc/sys/kernel/real-root-dev.	 For example, the following shell com-
       mand line would change the normal root device to /dev/hdb1:

	   echo 0x365 >/proc/sys/kernel/real-root-dev

       For an NFS example, the following shell command lines would change  the
       normal  root  device  to the NFS directory /var/nfsroot on a local net-
       worked NFS server with IP number 193.8.232.7 for a system with IP  num-
       ber 193.8.232.2 and named "idefix":

	   echo /var/nfsroot >/proc/sys/kernel/nfs-root-name
	   echo 193.8.232.2:193.8.232.7::255.255.255.0:idefix \
	       >/proc/sys/kernel/nfs-root-addrs
	   echo 255 >/proc/sys/kernel/real-root-dev

       Note:  The  use	of  /proc/sys/kernel/real-root-dev  to change the root
       filesystem is obsolete.	See the Linux kernel  source  file  Documenta-
       tion/initrd.txt as well as pivot_root(2) and pivot_root(8) for informa-
       tion on the modern method of changing the root filesystem.

   Usage
       The main motivation for implementing initrd was to  allow  for  modular
       kernel configuration at system installation.

       A possible system installation scenario is as follows:

       1. The  loader  program boots from floppy or other media with a minimal
	  kernel (e.g.,	 support  for  /dev/ram,  /dev/initrd,	and  the  ext2
	  filesystem) and loads /dev/initrd with a gzipped version of the ini-
	  tial filesystem.

       2. The executable /linuxrc determines what is needed to (1)  mount  the
	  normal  root filesystem (i.e., device type, device drivers, filesys-
	  tem) and (2) the distribution media (e.g.,  CD-ROM,  network,	 tape,
	  ...).	  This	can be done by asking the user, by auto-probing, or by
	  using a hybrid approach.

       3. The executable /linuxrc loads the necessary modules from the initial
	  root filesystem.

       4. The  executable  /linuxrc creates and populates the root filesystem.
	  (At this stage the normal root filesystem does not have to be a com-
	  pleted system yet.)

       5. The executable /linuxrc sets /proc/sys/kernel/real-root-dev, unmount
	  /proc, the normal root filesystem and any other filesystems  it  has
	  mounted, and then terminates.

       6. The kernel then mounts the normal root filesystem.

       7. Now  that  the  filesystem is accessible and intact, the boot loader
	  can be installed.

       8. The boot loader is configured to load into /dev/initrd a  filesystem
	  with	the  set  of  modules  that  was  used to bring up the system.
	  (e.g.,  Device  /dev/ram0  can  be  modified,	 then  unmounted,  and
	  finally, the image is written from /dev/ram0 to a file.)

       9. The  system is now bootable and additional installation tasks can be
	  performed.

       The key role of /dev/initrd in the above is to reuse the	 configuration
       data  during  normal  system operation without requiring initial kernel
       selection, a large generic kernel or, recompiling the kernel.

       A second scenario is for installations where Linux runs on systems with
       different  hardware  configurations in a single administrative network.
       In such cases, it may be desirable to use only a small set  of  kernels
       (ideally	 only  one) and to keep the system-specific part of configura-
       tion information as small as possible.  In this case, create  a	common
       file  with  all needed modules.	Then, only the /linuxrc file or a file
       executed by /linuxrc would be different.

       A third scenario is more convenient recovery disks.   Because  informa-
       tion  like  the location of the root filesystem partition is not needed
       at boot time, the system loaded	from  /dev/initrd  can	use  a	dialog
       and/or auto-detection followed by a possible sanity check.

       Last  but  not  least, Linux distributions on CD-ROM may use initrd for
       easy installation from the CD-ROM.  The distribution can use LOADLIN to
       directly load /dev/initrd from CD-ROM without the need of any floppies.
       The distribution could also use a LILO boot floppy and then bootstrap a
       bigger RAM disk via /dev/initrd from the CD-ROM.

FILES
       /dev/initrd
       /dev/ram0
       /linuxrc
       /initrd

NOTES
       1. With	the  current  kernel, any filesystems that remain mounted when
	  /dev/ram0 is moved from / to	/initrd	 continue  to  be  accessible.
	  However, the /proc/mounts entries are not updated.

       2. With	the  current kernel, if directory /initrd does not exist, then
	  /dev/ram0 will not be fully unmounted if /dev/ram0 is	 used  by  any
	  process  or  has  any filesystem mounted on it.  If /dev/ram0 is not
	  fully unmounted, then /dev/ram0 will remain in memory.

       3. Users of /dev/initrd should not depend on the behavior give  in  the
	  above	 notes.	  The  behavior	 may  change in future versions of the
	  Linux kernel.

SEE ALSO
       chown(1), mknod(1), ram(4), freeramdisk(8), rdev(8)

       Documentation/initrd.txt in the Linux kernel source tree, the LILO doc-
       umentation, the LOADLIN documentation, the SYSLINUX documentation

COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 4.10 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, information about reporting bugs,  and  the
       latest	  version     of     this    page,    can    be	   found    at
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



Linux				  2010-09-04			     INITRD(4)