Ramdisk images are too large.

[Hypex]

A follow up post to this. So after some research I found it is plymouth that is bloating it out. Plymouth is used for the startup screen. But if it's inactive it's redundant and wasting space. I don't recall ever seeing a startup screen when a Linux kernel boots.

On my older Ubuntu it attempts to use plymouth when building ramdisk but fails. So the size is cut down. On my Fienix it includes plymouth which causes the bloat. By removing it the size can be brought from 11MB to a more manageable 4MB. Still more than 2MB but bootable.

It's hard to fix as mkinitramfs gives little control over the process. It allows you to change config but it uses hooks to include all the binaries that cannot be disabled or diverted. However it allows custom hooks to be added so a hook can be added to remove what isn't wanted. Not as clean as stopping what isn't wanted. But it can work.

I am also getting constant errors now when booting a systemd system from init ramdisk. One cause is building ramdisk from a 5.x kernel fails to boot a kernel 6.x system. I don't know to build a systemd friendly ramdisk from init system. Suppose installing systemd would help. But matching kernel releases does help.

My manager will include an update so ramdisks can be built again and also updated if desired.

[xeno74]

One cause is building ramdisk from a 5.x kernel fails to boot a kernel 6.x system.

Booting with a 5.10 initial ramdisk works with the kernel 6.5.

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   CFE> setenv bootargs "root=LABEL=void"

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   CFE> ramdisk -z -addr=0x24000000 -fatfs cf0:initrd-5.10.img

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   CFE> boot -elf -noints -fatfs -z cf0:zImage-6.5

Another attempt:

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   bash-5.1# tune2fs -L DEBIAN64 /dev/sdb6

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   CFE> setenv bootargs "root=LABEL=DEBIAN64"

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   CFE> ramdisk -z -addr=0x24000000 -fatfs cf0:initrd-5.10.img

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   CFE> boot -elf -noints -fatfs -z cf0:zImage-6.5

Another attempt with the not compressed vmlinux kernel image:

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   CFE> setenv bootargs "root=LABEL=DEBIAN64"

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   CFE> ramdisk -z -addr=0x24000000 -fatfs cf0:initrd-5.10.img

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   CFE> boot -elf -noints -fatfs cf0:vmlinux-6.5

You can use the initial ramdisk from the kernel 5.10 package.

Download: linux-image-5.10.177-X1000_X5000.tar.gz

[xeno74]

Booting with a UUID: initrd to boot Linux from USB flash drives

[Hypex]

Booting with a 5.10 initial ramdisk works with the kernel 6.5.

Funny, I recall at some point you couldn't get them to work.

But do both the 5.10 ramdisk and 6.5 void/Debian systems use systemd?

I've found similar errors to what the initramfs break with online about failing to find init.

Download: linux-image-5.10.177-X1000_X5000.tar.gz

Thanks.

But this does reveal a limitation of my manager which is intentional. It doesn't allow to set arbitrary ramdisks that don't match the kernel version. It installs a ramdisk if one is included in archive. Otherwise it will generate one on the fly to match that exact kernel.

[xeno74]

But do both the 5.10 ramdisk and 6.5 void/Debian systems use systemd?

Void PPC: runit

Debian PPC64: systemd

[Hypex]

Void PPC: runit

Debian PPC64: systemd

Oh no. Another init system. I'll need to add this in. Also if any other supported systems use packages other than debs I need to convert to that as well.

[Hypex]

I made a collection of ramdisks a couple of years ago but it seems I may have forgotten to upload the links.

RamdisksXZ.tar:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/177GNsU ... sp=sharing

RamdisksGZ.tar:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nni7kd ... sp=sharing

[xeno74]

I made a collection of ramdisks a couple of years ago but it seems I may have forgotten to upload the links.

RamdisksXZ.tar:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/177GNsU ... sp=sharing

RamdisksGZ.tar:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nni7kd ... sp=sharing

Thank you!