Initial Ram Disk

Purpose

To Update the initial ram disk (initramfs) with additional modules. If you specified minimal modules load and you have an encrypted LVM, you may not be able to input password to continue kernel load as your USB keyboard may not work. Your USB keyboard don't work because USB modules isn't loaded by default. Don't ask me how I know. This procedure allows you to add modules necessary to work with additional hardware.

Always make proper backup before proceeding.
Please report problems and direct all inquiries to Contact US.

Prerequiste

A computer with Debian distribution, Lenny. Tested on i386 platform.
Initramfs-tools package installed.
Root access.

Procedures

1. Find Module Names

To find out which modules you need to load, run lsmod and check modules dependencies. In this case, we need USB related modules. Login as root or use sudo.

 # lsmod
 Module                  Size  Used by
 ...
 ohci_hcd               18532  0
 ehci_hcd               28428  0
 usbhid                 35904  0
 hid                    33184  1 usbhid
 usbcore               118192  4 ohci_hcd,ehci_hcd,usbhid
 ff_memless              4392  1 usbhid

2. Modify Load List

Modify the file "/etc/initramfs-tools/module" and add the following modules. Replace with your own. Use vi or your favourite text editor.

usbhid

hid

ff_memless

ehci_hcd

ohci_hcd

usbcore

3. Update Initial Ramdisk

Update the initial ramdisk in /boot, you can check the date/time stamp on the file afterwards.

 # update-initramfs -u

Test and Verify

Shutdown and reboot to test and verify. If it still doesn't work, you are probably missing some dependencies.

 # shutdown -r now

References

For further information on initial ramdisk, check the Debian Linux Kernel Handbook on Chapter 6. Managing the initial ramfs (initramfs) archive. This chapter also shows you how to examine the ramdisk content.
For variation or additional insight, please read Creating an initrd image on Debian GNU/Linux.

Page locked (last edited December 2, 2009) [info] [diff])
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