Re: [tlug] Mounting an initrd file?

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

>>>>> "Al" == Al Hoang <hoanga@example.com> writes:

    Al> 4.  Auto-generation tools for creating (ex. mkinitrd) don't
    Al> seem to be standardized.  What's the canonical way to do this?

"Bootstrap" and "standardized" don't mix, although GRUB seems to do a
good job of hiding the difference.  :-)

First, since it's in a file, you will need a loopback file system.
That's the -o loop option.  AFAIK it's the same thing as using
losetup, though.  (losetup does have a manpage on my Debian sid
system.)

So basically running the changes on  "mount -o loop -t FSTYPE
/boot/initrd /mnt/foo" should eventually find it.  My guess would be
FSTYPE=cramfs.  Maybe you can let mount do the guessing for you with
FSTYPE=auto.

The cpio thing is a good clue.  One of the common initrd file systems
is basically just a cpio file IIRC (I thought it was cramfs).

You should just try listing contents with cpio or gzip | cpio; if that
looks sane, unpack it and see what you get.

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