Rebuilding the initial ram disk (initrd)

Installing new hardware may mean that new kernel need to be loaded when your server boots up. There's a two step process to making a new initrd file:

First, add the appropriate line to your /etc/modules.conf or /etc/modprobe.conf which corresponds to your new kernel module.

Next, rebuild the initial ram disk after making a backup of the current one:

# cp /boot/initrd-`uname -r`.img /boot/initrd-`uname -r`.img.bak
# mkinitrd -f initrd-`uname -r`.img `uname -r`

Reboot the server now and make sure the new driver is loaded properly.

Printed from: http://rackerhacker.com/2008/01/28/rebuilding-the-initial-ram-disk-initrd/ .
© Major Hayden 2012.

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  • Welcome! I started this blog as a way to give back to all of the other system administrators who have taught me something in the past. Writing these posts brings me a lot of enjoyment and I hope you find the information useful. If you spot something that's incorrect or confusing, please write a comment and let me know. Drop me a line if there's something you want to know more about and I'll do my best to write a post on the topic.
    -- Major Hayden

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