initramfs, what "root=" to specify? [SOLVED}

Sadako · Last edited by Sadako on Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:38 pm; edited 1 time in total

Okay, what I'm trying to do is have the kernel boot into an initramfs (compiled into the kernel image itself), which creates a tmpfs, fetches a tarball over ssh and unpacks it on that tmpfs, and then switch_root to the tmpfs.

I've been testing it under qemu, and I have everything working if I have the initramfs files as a disk image, however when I try to use an initramfs it balks with;

Sadako · Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:38 pm Post subject:

Nevermind, I re-compiled the kernel without any block device support, and it "just works".

Sounds kinda like a bug to me, as there's no reason you should have to specify a root device if it's possible to boot without one.
Needs a "root=null" or "norootdev" kernel option or something, methinks...
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Mike Hunt · Watchman Joined: 19 Jul 2009 Posts: 5287

Huh, neat.

I edited my grub.conf and rebooted - no problem