[Buildroot] [git commit master 1/1] initramfs: update help text

Grant Edwards grant.b.edwards at gmail.com
Mon Jun 28 15:13:04 UTC 2010


On 2010-06-28, Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2010-06-27, Peter Korsgaard <jacmet at sunsite.dk> wrote:

>>  Thomas> Well, a cpio archive can be generated by Buildroot without having to
>>  Thomas> build a kernel, see fs/cpio/Config.in. What Grant was complaining about
>>  Thomas> originally was the fs/initramfs case. However, last time I tried
>>  Thomas> pointing CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE to a cpio archive, it didn't work.
>>
>> Peter> So what is the difference between initramfs and cpio? Just the
>> Peter> integration with the kernel build for the first? Maybe the initramfs
>> Peter> stuff should simply be a 'embed in kernel' question on the cpio package
>> Peter> if the internal kernel build is enabled?
>>
>> Ok, looked a bit closer and noticed that the initramfs target doesn't
>> actually create a cpio, but a command file for gen_init_cpio.
>
> Right.  But why does that require building a kernel?  It's just a list
> of files/nodes that goes into the cpio archive.  If you're allowed to
> build a cpio archive or a tar archive, surely you should be allowed to
> build the list of files that goes into the archive?
>
>> Nevertheless, is there any advantage to use that instead of just
>> creating a cpio archive (besides it not working for you somehow)?
>
> If the cpio archive works, then I'm happy.  For no particular reason
> I've always used the file-list method in the past.  I tried building
> the kernel with the cpio archive instead, and the build worked fine.
> But, my target HW seems to have gone walkabout for a few days, so I
> haven't been able to test the impage built with the cpio archive
> instead of the source file list.

I've got target HW again, and building the kernel using a cpio archive
instead of the cpio-file-list seems to work fine, so that's what I'll
plan on doing.

I still don't understand why one can build a cpio archive without
building a kernel, but in order to create a list of what's in the cpio
archive a kernel must be built.

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! I'm sitting on my
                                  at               SPEED QUEEN ... To me,
                              gmail.com            it's ENJOYABLE ... I'm WARM
                                                   ... I'm VIBRATORY ...




More information about the buildroot mailing list