[Xen-devel] [Fwd: Installing from distribution CDs]

[Jared Rhine <jared@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

[Anthony == anthony@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on Wed, 02 Feb 2005 09:03:17 -0600]

  Jared> While I can't speak to the cause, I do know that XenCD does
  Jared> need a init=/linuxrc on the kernel boot line to function
  Jared> properly.

  Anthony> Your /linuxrc is actually an init process.  You should
  Anthony> probably have a symlink from it to /sbin/init.

I don't think so; the bottom of my /linuxrc execs /sbin/init.  This
marks the end of the standard initrd process of doing a pivot-root and
getting on with life.  It doesn't have to be an either/or between
linuxrc and init.

As far as I know, this is entirely standard procedure for these types
of live CDs.  Your initrd preps a tmpfs rootfs, pivots into it, and
after that, you just start init as if nothing ever happened (whether
by linuxrc's exit or an explicit exec).

While this is a little different from how initrds are used to support
modular kernels, it well supported and widely used, I'm pretty sure.

  Anthony> What makes things a little more complicated is that initrd
  Anthony> does some weird things with remounting the root file system
  Anthony> and has some subtle side-effects.  That's why Xen should
  Anthony> probably just call the kernels code...

As mentioned, I can't speak to the innards, but I can offer solid
proof that I need an init=/linuxrc on my boot line, and that this
snippet would not be needed if I wasn't using a Xen'ed kernel.  On a
regular kernel, the /linuxrc is found and used automatically in
preference to /sbin/init, if it is present.

-- jared@xxxxxxxxxxx

"A pessimist is one who has been intimately acquainted with an optimist."
        -- Elbert Hubbard


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