[U-Boot-Users] Is ramdisk a must or not?

Robert Schwebel robert at schwebel.de
Mon Feb 2 16:31:51 CET 2004


On Mon, Feb 02, 2004 at 11:02:28PM +0800, Sam Song wrote:
> 1.Is ramdisk a must or not for embedded application?

No, you don't need a RAM-disk. U-Boot can directly boot from a flash
partition (for example a cramfs or JFFS2 partition).

> and some web pages,they say an initrd image is needed
> for loading your SCSI module at boot time.So if I
> didn't use SCSI module,I would save the initrd
> image.Is that so?

In embedded applications you normally _know_ which hardware you have, so
either compile it directly into the kernel or load your module from a
script while starting. 

> 2.What advantage does ramdisk have?In which situation
> should we use it?

Initrds were invented for distributors; they normally don't know which
hardware the user boots on, but have to supply drivers for every
possible device. 

Robert 
-- 
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