creating custom initrd

[Mike Wright]

John Summerfield wrote:
> Rick Stevens wrote:
> 
>> On Fri, 2007-11-09 at 15:14 -0600, Aaron Konstam wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, 2007-11-09 at 17:33 +0100, info at boer-software-en-webservices.nl
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Is it possible to define which modules mkinitrd should add to the 
>>>> initrd?
>>>>
>>>> I have a custom initrd, but after every kernel upgrade, it recreates 
>>>> the
>>>> initrd. When it does this,
>>>> I loose the extra module I need, so I end up recreating the initrd
>>>> myself again.
>>>>
>>>> I know in Ubuntu and Debian there is a file somewhere in /etc/sysconfig
>>>> that defines the modules
>>>> to use when building the initrd. But I have yet to find this file in 
>>>> Fedora.
>>>>
>>> The --with option in mkinitrd
>>
>>
>> mkinitrd will load any modules required to mount the root filesystem
>> (e.g. SCSI, ext3, network [if / is on an NFS volume], etc.)  If you need
>> additional modules, then "--with=name-of-module" is required.
> 
> 
> Some one has to remember what the extra modules are? It's difficult 
> enough for me, let alone any colleagues who might share the 
> responsibility, or my successor.
> 
> The Nameless One's point (in part) is that in Debian. one adds those 
> names to a configuration file, and then
> 1. It's documented for said colleagues and successors
> 2. It happens every time in the future, nobody has to remember it.
> 
> 
> I think you can do something by adding a file to 
> /etc/sysconfig/mkinitrd/ where you set MODULES to the list of modules to 
> add,
>

Good catch, John!

I'm not certain why this file isn't created during the initial 
installation process but I think it should be.  That would transparently 
integrate it into the mkinitrd described in the man page.

I found these four are the overridable options described in the manpage.

PROBE="yes"
MODULES=""
PREMODS=""
DMDEVS=""

Not sure where this one comes from (possibly the mkinitrd script itself) 
but looks like an opportunity to specify network device modules.

NET_LIST=""

MIke Wright