Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[pifu]

[Puppy Wary 511 frugal install on hda1]

While trying to customize the init script in initrd.gz, I found cpio to be buggy. Specifically, it is unuseful for creating a valid initrd.gz file.

You can repeat my test entering these commands, which simply unpack the initial ramdisk tree and rebuild it unchanged:

cp /initrd.gz /initrd.gz.ORIG
mkdir /tmp/mydir
cd /tmp/mydir
cp /initrd.gz .
gunzip initrd.gz
cpio -ivumd initrd
rm initrd
find . -print -depth | cpio -ov -H newc > initrd
gzip -9 initrd
mv initrd.gz /

When rebooting, I got the message "Kernel panic: not syncing: no init found".

Note that using another version of cpio (in my case, cpio from "System Rescue CD" Linux distro) solved the problem.

[Karl Godt]

Here we are used to do it that way :

bash-3.2# cpio -id <initrd
4186 blocks
bash-3.2# rm initrd
bash-3.2# find . | cpio -o -H newc >initrd
cpio: File ./initrd grew, 5120 new bytes not copied
4197 blocks
bash-3.2# cpio -id <initrd
cpio: initrd not created: newer or same age version exists
4197 blocks

bash-3.2#

[pifu]

[Karl Godt]

What do you want to do ?

If your are so clever to alter the initrd.gz you should also have detected the pfix=rdsh parameters .

There are two init : /sbin/init inside the sfs and /init inside the initrd.gz

What happens when booting ?
Why do you want to change something inside the initrd ?
How does your bootloader line looks like ?

for q in `seq 1 1 $RANDOM`, I have Q and Q and Q;ME had

[technosaurus]

last time I got that error, it was a typo in my menu.lst

[pifu]

[technosaurus]

Perhaps the other version is patched to use the newc option by default (it is required iirc)

[Karl Godt]

I am still uncertain about the error msg .

Does /init of the initrd.gz still gets executed but after switch_root /sbin/init not found ?
This would indicate wrong adjustments to the code .

There are actually some scripts to work with /tmp and hopefully everything is OK is this case .

If /init in /initrd.gz is not found i suspect that

cpio creates some folder like initrd/initrd and the files get put on another level of the directory hierarchy ( 1 deeper )
OR cpio does not put the files on top level into the initrd
OR the obscure find parameters are doing something not right
OR cpio OR gzip had changed permissions ie made /init non-executable
OR you are working on a win-fs vfat/ntfs which might confuse permissions
OR you did not pack the initrd.gz correctly the first time and cannot remember the tzpo ..
OR your USB is not plugged tight into the port sometimes
OR
bash-3.00# busybox-orig cpio
BusyBox v1.16.2 (2010-06-19 18:02:46 GMT- multi-call binary.
Usage: cpio [-dmvu] [-F FILE] [-H newc] [-tio] [-p DIR]
Extract or list files from a cpio archive, or
create an archive (-o) or copy files (-p) using file list on stdin

Main operation mode:
-t List
-i Extract
-o Create (requires -H newc)
-p DIR Copy files to DIR
Options:
-d Make leading directories
-m Preserve mtime
-v Verbose
-u Overwrite
-F FILE Input (-t,-i,-p) or output (-o) file
-H newc Archive format

OR file `which cpio`
/bin/cpio: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.6.15, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), stripped

OR OR OR .

I am booting my USB pen ext3 formatted also the save file .
No probs . USB flash is so cheap that i don't fear these wear out fairy tales .

You should attach a non-functioning initrd.gz plus a tail $HOME/.history ...

I am using wary 07 with its many kernels sometimes but wary 511 is newer .

[pifu]