MKINITRAMFS(8) mkinitramfs manual MKINITRAMFS(8) NAME mkinitramfs - low-level tool for generating an initramfs image SYNOPSIS mkinitramfs [-d confdir] [-k] [-o outfile] [-r root] [-v] [version] mkinitramfs [--supported-host-version= hversion] mkinitramfs [--supported-target-version= tversion] DESCRIPTION The mkinitramfs script generates an initramfs image. The initramfs is a gzipped cpio archive. The archive can be used on a different box of the same arch with the corresponding Linux kernel. mkinitramfs is meant for advanced usage. On your local box update-initramfs calls mkinitramfs with the relevant parameters. update-initramfs keeps sha1sum of generated initramfs. It takes care to generate backups and eventually runs the bootloader. At boot time, the kernel unpacks that archive into RAM disk, mounts and uses it as initial root file system. All finding of the root device happens in this early userspace. OPTIONS -d confdir Set an alternate configuration directory. -k Keep the temporary directory used to make the image. -o outfile Write the image to outfile. -r root Override the ROOT setting in initramfs.conf. -v Set the verbose mode output. version Set the kernel version of the initramfs image (defaults to the running kernel). --supported-host-version=hversion This option queries if mkinitramfs can create ramdisks on a run- ning kernel of version hversion. --supported-target-version=tversion This option queries if mkinitramfs can create ramdisks for ker- nel version tversion. FILES /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf The default configuration file for the script. See initramfs.conf(5) for a description of the available configura- tion parameter. /etc/initramfs-tools/modules Specified modules will be put in the generated image and loaded when the system boots. The format - one per line - is identical to that of /etc/modules, which is described in modules(5). /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d The conf.d directory allows to hardcode bootargs at initramfs build time via config snippets. This allows to set ROOT or RESUME. This is especially useful for bootloaders, which do not pass an root bootarg. /etc/initramfs-tools/DSDT.aml If this file exists, it will be appended to the initramfs in a way that causes it to be loaded by ACPI. EXAMPLES Create an initramfs for current running kernel: mkinitramfs -o ~/tmp/initramfs-$(uname -r) Create an initramfs for specific kernel and keep builddirs: mkinitramfs -k -o ~/tmp/initramfs-2.6.21-686 2.6.21-686 Debug initramfs creation (check out written logfile) sh -x mkinitramfs -o ~/tmp/initramfs-$(uname -r) 2> ~/tmp/log AUTHOR The initramfs-tools are written by Maximilian Attems <maks@debian.org>, Jeff Bailey <jbailey@raspberryginger.com> and numerous others. SEE ALSO initramfs.conf(5), initramfs-tools(8), update-initramfs(8). $Date: 2007/08/08 $ MKINITRAMFS(8)