initrd

[deadpoint]

from the initrd man page.

The  special file /dev/initrd is a read-only block device.
 Device /dev/initrd is a RAM disk that is initialized (e.g.
 loaded)  by  the boot loader before the kernel is started.
 The kernel then can use the the block device /dev/initrd's
 contents for a two phased system boot-up.

when you build a new kernel you need to generate an initrd for that 
kernel, this is done with the mkinitrd command and tell grub or lilo to 
use it. the command "mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.4.28-3 2.4.18-3" could be 
used to generate an initrd for kernel version 2.4.18-3.

shipdadip wrote:

>hi all, I'm using Redhat 8.0.  I want to recompile the kernel, I'm
>slowly getting the hang of it.  My question is though in my grub.conf
>there is the following line: initrd /initrd-2.4.18-14.img.  What is
>this?  When i do recompile the kernel i can boot from it fine but I get
>a lot of errors, I think I may have to load this initrd file.  But what
>is it?  All the tutorials on recompiling kernel never mention this, just
>how to add the kernel to the grub.conf.  Anyone explain this to me?  
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