What is initrd Or ramdisk and use of initrd while booting?
The initial RAM disk (initrd) is an initial root file system that is mounted prior to when the real root file system is available. The kernel then mounts this initrd as part of the two-stage boot process to load the modules to make the real file systems available and get at the real root file system.
What is the function of initrd?
initrd provides the capability to load a RAM disk by the boot loader. This RAM disk can then be mounted as the root file system and programs can be run from it. Afterwards, a new root file system can be mounted from a different device.
What is the name of the initial ramdisk in Linux?
An initrd (initial ramdisk) is a small filesystem loaded during the boot process on a Linux system. One of the tasks that the initrd might be responsible for is network configuration.
How is the initial RAM disk ( initrd ) used?
initrd provides the capability to load a RAM disk by the boot loader. This RAM disk can then be mounted as the root file system and programs can be run from it. Afterwards, a new root file system can be mounted from a different device. The previous root (from initrd) is then moved to a directory and can be subsequently unmounted.
How to create a ramdisk image using initrd?
On such systems, the creation of a ramdisk image doesn’t need to involve special block devices or loopbacks; you merely create a directory on disk with the desired initrd content, cd to that directory, and run (as an example): Examining the contents of an existing image file is just as simple:
What’s the difference between initrd and ramfs?
Both initrd and ramfs are zipped at compile time, but the difference is, initrd is a block device unpacked to be mounted by the kernel at booting, while ramfs is unpacked via cpio into memory. Am I correct? Or is ramfs a very minimal file system? Finally, up until this day, the initrd image is still presented in the latest kernel.