Questions tagged [initrd]

initrd is a method for loading a temporary file system into memory, during the process of booting the Linux kernel.

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Nixos install results in error during boot of "Timed out waiting for device /dev/dis/by-uuid/... to appear" with external NVME drive via USB

I have an issue when using an external NVME drive, grub successfully boots but once entering the entry default configuration (nixos generation) it gives me the below error: "Timed out waiting ...
Chris Stryczynski's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
411 views

What happens to the files in directories mounted by initrd , when initrd unmounts

While the linux boots up, initrd is mounted with basic support files and kernel modules, which are needed to help further boot procedure. Later the rootfs is mounted and initrd is unmounted from the ...
Franc's user avatar
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Generate initrd.img for bootable ISO after kernel update

I need to bundle a RHEL 6.2 based OS into a bootable ISO. The OS is shipped with kernel 2.6.32 but I need to update it to 3.10.63, so I downloaded the newer kernel from https://cbs.centos.org/koji/...
nicsalv's user avatar
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2 answers
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Why is my boot partition full?

When I run run apt-get dist-upgrade, I get update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated) Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.142) ... update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.0....
Evan Carroll's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
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What files are pulled in by update-initramfs?

I need to know what config and data files are pulled in to make the initrd.img-xxx when update-initramfs (mkinitramfs) is executed. I am having a video driver problem that I have narrowed down to the ...
Max Power's user avatar
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How to change default username/hostname for Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS LiveCD?

I'm trying to edit the default username/hostname for a a custom Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS LiveCD. I'm understanding I need to edit the /etc/casper.conf file that resides inside $ISO_MEDIA/casper/initrd, ...
joliver's user avatar
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create initrd image compressed with zstd

I have initrd image compressed with xz. This is how I created it from image file initrd: e2image -ar initrd - | xz -9 --check=crc32 > initrd.xz now I need same image compressed using zstd ...
Martin Vegter's user avatar
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Boot into Xen on debian11 (initrd trouble)

Linux xd 5.10.0-16-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 5.10.127-1 (2022-06-30) x86_64 GNU/Linux Edit 2022-07-20 This issue has had comes and goes, at the moment, I am having a lot of trouble when Xen boot lands on ...
Bruno Schroeder's user avatar
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Is it possible to suppress initramfs logs during shutdown?

There are quite a few Linux kernel parameters that can prevent the boot and shutdown logs from appearing on the screen. I was able to set the following kernel parameters to achieve a completely silent ...
Rtsne42's user avatar
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RemainAfterExit not working

I have a systemd service unit, for which I want to enable RemainAfterExit. This runs in a custom intrd. Here is my unit: [Unit] Description=Ask for network config Conflicts=initrd-switch-root.target ...
Gary van der Merwe's user avatar
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Why initrd size is not fixed?

After update-initramfs -c -k KERNELVERSION(I didn't do any change and just type this command), the initrd will always has different size with the previous initrd. And this situation happen on Debian ...
Azreal's user avatar
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decoding failed, system halted during legacy boot (possibly due to large SATA drive attached)

I booted liveUSB stick based on Linux Mint 20.2. After outputting initrd line (one after vmlinuz) I got empty screen with "decoding failed, system halted" (tried twice, error got reproduced)...
Martian2020's user avatar
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Adjusting a RHEL 8 install for a machine without a hard drive?

I've been working with a custom RHEL 8 image (basically the official ISO but with a kickstart for packages/configuration) on a CD and have gotten it to install without issue on a piece of hardware ...
eakirk16's user avatar
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Kernel panic - not syncing: Requested init /init failed (error -2)

Attaching a bit more of the boot log. HugeTLB registered 1.00 GiB page size, pre-allocated 0 pages HugeTLB registered 32.0 MiB page size, pre-allocated 0 pages HugeTLB registered 2.00 MiB page size, ...
rish_1n4's user avatar
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Unable to auto-mount encrypted filesystem.squashfs of Debian Live CD

Part 1 I've created a live ISO image of my system using 'live build' tool on a Debian system. For automated installation i've used a preseeding file. To protect my senstive data I'm using LUKS ...
Dheeraj -'s user avatar
5 votes
3 answers
889 views

Where is /cow for Linux booted from LiveUSB?

I wanted to see what files are added on top of ISO 9660 when LiveUSB Linux is running. When booted with persistence upper and work folders are on USB drive clearly seen. I run mount on Linux booted ...
Martian2020's user avatar
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Unable to create an identical initrd on re-compression for Pop! OS 19.04

I've made changes to initramfs, but when i'm repacking, the obtained file isn't identical to the original file I've pulled out the boot image with the help of dd using dd if=INITRD.GZ of=main bs=1 ...
VPraharsha's user avatar
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tput from initrd

I have a script that uses tput and runs in a initrd. Specifically I'm using tput -T linux [sc|rc|ed] > /dev/tty0 to overwrite multiple lines. When I run in a qemu vm, it works perfectly. When I run ...
Gary van der Merwe's user avatar
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How to debug a loop in systemd-shutdown / initrd ? (Arch Linux)

I've recently installed Arch Linux to a virtual disk, under a custom configuration for root on ZFS. This was in using some scripting I've put together for managing a multiboot configuration, with ...
Sean Champ's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
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Ubuntu 21.04 hangs at "loading initial ramdisk" after kernel update with LUKS

I've reproduced this twice from a fresh install - the setup initially works fine, but when a kernel update is applied, the system hangs on reboot. Selecting the older kernel I have available from GRUB ...
Bereded's user avatar
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/dev/sde install disk is seen as /dev/sda at boot time

I'm SystemImager image deployment software developper. I'm trying to support external disk drivers, but I'm stuck with a silly problem. When I run preinstall scripts (udev has already settled) I fetch ...
Olivier LAHAYE's user avatar
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2 answers
2k views

How to control the OverlayFS size

I'm trying to mount the rootfs / of a Debian Buster system as overlayfs because I'm interested in using tmpfs for the /upper directory. My idea is to use this to preserve the root filesystem integrity ...
jfernandz's user avatar
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How to repair linux after failed to start file system

I have problem with my linux. I always had small problem with my HHD but my PC always could works correctly but yesterday its stuck and I decided to reboot it. After rebooting I get this error. [...
Tomas's user avatar
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1 answer
710 views

stuck at busy box, attempt to boot old linux at another partition

I have, and able to boot with arch Linux with kernel 5.10.34 normally. I have older Linux (linuxmint 20.1) on my sda6 with kernel 5.4.0-72 and 5.8.0-50. I am using grub-customizer. Kindly not answer ...
Adi Prasetyo's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
379 views

Why do distros(e.g. Arch) use BOTH initramfs and root={smth}?

I thought the goal of initramfs is to boot a root partition and chroot into it. But I can't understand why do distro developers use initramfs if there is ALWAYS a root={smth} flag.
Mr. Infinity's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
4k views

How to verify signed UEFI binaries?

I'm trying to understand why secure boot works on my machine. It is enabled in the UEFI config, everything boots just fine, and mokutil --sb-state says SecureBoot enabled. But I think it shouldn't. ...
stribika's user avatar
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Dropping to initramfs shell

For many years now I've been an avid windows & mac user. Most recently, the growing love-affair between tech corporatists and government bureaucrats has convinced me to take the plunge into the ...
STYX's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
403 views

A Small GUI Linux System with UEFI completely running on RAMDisk

I am developing a POS System and I am planning to use Linux. My requirements are as follows UEFI Support. (Running on x86 and x86_64) No Storage Drive so completely running on RAM and persistence ...
NJP's user avatar
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2 answers
2k views

is /sbin/init an executable?

# Mount the root filesystem. 1 .mount -o ro /dev/sda1 /mnt/root # Boot the real thing. 2 .exec switch_root /mnt/root /sbin/init This is a piece of code from /init file of initramfs as mentioned in ...
ferb's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
227 views

Difference between initrd.img and a initramfs.img?

an initrd.img sets the stage for the real root file system to take over once done, as I understand it the initramfs.img is a customizable version of the initrd. lets say you are loading to a diskless ...
MacLCM's user avatar
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4 votes
2 answers
2k views

/boot/vmlinuz file is not present

I am using debian and when I was just checking my filesystem there was no vmlinuz file and after a bit of googling many user with no vmlinuz were having trouble to boot but my computer is booting well....
Sudip Ghimire's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
6k views

How to pack an extracted initrd (x-cpio archive)?

I am customizing an Ubuntu 20.04 ISO, in this process, I have to edit the files inside initrd file which is inside the casper directory Ubuntu20.04-ISO/casper/initrd How to recompile this file type of ...
PRATAP's user avatar
  • 111
1 vote
1 answer
835 views

Ubuntu 20.04 on zfs on root on LUKS on UEFI

I am following https://github.com/openzfs/zfs/wiki/Ubuntu-18.04-Root-on-ZFS but doing it for Ubuntu 20.04. When I get to: update-initramfs -u -k all nothing happens: It returns after 0.1 second and ...
Ole Tange's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
869 views

Problem extracting the "initrd" archive in kernel 5.4

I can see my initrd is occupied almost 90 MB of disk but after extracting it via cpio , it contains only a 30 KB microcode : $ cpio -it < initrd.img-5.4.0-18-generic . kernel kernel/x86 kernel/...
Parsa Mousavi's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
155 views

Why does a shebang script run as init= have an euid of 0 when run from an initrd, but not otherwise?

I am trying to create my own PID 1 init script, to be called from the boot cmdline with init=/myscript. How can I make it work on a real filesystem, with any kernel? When it runs in an initrd, it ...
loser's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
2k views

CentOS 7.6 - Initrd.img not loading updated driver

I have been trying to load an updated initrd.img file with updated drivers on booting the Centos 7.6 ISO, however it seems to still load the old driver even though I have replaced the driver. Steps ...
luj's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
140 views

initrd and intramfs purpose confusion

My understanding of the purpose of having initrd or intramfs is for the kernel to be able to mount a temporary file system in RAM to load drivers and other things in order to be able to mount the ...
Engineer999's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
841 views

In a systemd initrd, how do I persist a mount into the new root

Background I'm building a custom initrd using dracut. It: mounts an ext4 disk partition to /data retrieves a squashfs image over the network, which it stores in /data mounts the squashfs mounts an ...
Gary van der Merwe's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
152 views

Initrd - rebooting issue

I recently booted into Root via Ubuntu kernel recovery mode. When I finished what I was doing, and not altering anything in my system, I tried to reboot with shutdown -r now. This started various ...
Paul Benson's user avatar
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1 answer
248 views

Ubuntu 18.04.3 netboot PXE fresh installed boots up with Ethernet not managed by Network Manager

I'm trying to set up a PXE server to deliver Linux image for end user workstation in my company. I've finally made it to set up dnsmasq and nfs-kernel-server so now I can get the images via network ...
mr troubleshooter's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
177 views

How create RAID 1 on working Slackware 14.2?

I use Slackware 14.2 (with kernel 4.4.14-smp) on sda and I'm trying to create the RAID 1 with additional sdb. I'm using the VM VirtualBox. First, I have cleaned the sdb: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb ...
infernalcucumber's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
7k views

Grub: boot with USB key, then continue booting from SD card?

I have an old laptop that has a built-in SD card reader, only it's not available at boot. I can however grub boot linux (Debian) from a small 8GB USB key (USB 2.0), but it's very slow. The SD card is ...
D.A. Reyn's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
238 views

Initramfs not reading new configuration/scripts

I am trying to add some custom initramfs scripts to /etc/initramfs-tools/scripts/init-bottom/. However, these are not executed at next boot, after having rebuilt with # update-initramfs -u In fact, ...
Marco Venuti's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
1k views

How to boot OpenWRT FROM PXE?

I have downloaded OpenWRT files for PC from OpenWRT site. I have installed DHCP and TFTP (in my LAN) and can boot (other) kernels from them. Now I want to boot these OpenWRT files. I wrote in PXE ...
Dims's user avatar
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Take initrd out of the Linux boot process

I have "one" machine which is static. The following never change: CPU, GPU, motherboard, harddrive, keyboard, mouse, USB ports I have dual-boot Windows and Linux (specifically Windows 10 and Ubuntu) ...
Sujay Phadke's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
316 views

initrd and initramfs confusions

I read from arch wiki: In case your root filesystem is on LVM, you will need to enable the appropriate mkinitcpio hooks, otherwise your system might not boot. However, both my initrd and ...
Luke Kong's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
2k views

How to copy the /bin files along with dependencies using commands?

The /bin folder of Ubuntu 14.04 has files with dependencies. I want to copy the symbolic links along with the files, into a separate directory. Is there an inbuilt command for this?
priyalsoni's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
2k views

My initrd has only one directory, after decompressing, namely 'kernel'

The file shows 56 blocks as the size. I am using the system Ubuntu 16.04 and I need a solution that does not require me to update the kernel.
priyalsoni's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
292 views

trap signal in bash initramfs fails to work

inside /init bash script executed by the kernel in initramfs.img i need to send a signal to drop me to a rescue shell, so i have trap "exec /bin/bash" SIGINT but ctrl+C isn't effective. First why ...
Error's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
714 views

Kernel can't find initrd?

When trying to mount ext2 I get this error: Creating 4 MTD partitions on "MPC8313RDB Flash Map Info": 0x000000000000-0x000000100000 : "U-Boot" 0x000000100000-0x000000300000 : "Kernel" 0x000000300000-...
Luke's user avatar
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