Initrd

An initrd (Initial RamDisk) is essentially a filesystem in-a-can. It is a (typically gzip) compressed file which contains a functional filesystem containing various files depending on its intended function. One popular use of an Initrd is for a framebuffer image to display during bootup, using programs such as bootsplash. It has many more functional uses however, such as being a place where modules can be placed that will automatically get loaded on boot up, which is handy for many reasons. Most off the shelf distros like using an initrd file on a standard installation, but they are not strictly required normally.

initrd files can be created using the mkinitrd command.

Examining an initrd
Supposing you have an initrd file you wish to examine, named initrd-file. First find out what file type it is: file initrd-file It can be a
 * pure ramdisk
 * cpio archive
 * gzipped cpio archive
 * in this case you would see something like this:

initrd-file: gzip compressed data, was "build.initramfs", from Unix
 * 1) file initrd-file
 * cramfs image
 * in this case you can see something like this:

file initrd-file Linux Compressed ROM File System data

pure ramdisk
The following commands should show you what's inside: mkdir idir losetup /dev/loop/0 initrd-file mount /dev/loop/0 idir ls idir

Later: umount idir losetup -d /dev/loop/0

Variations:
 * The device may need to be /dev/loop0 (depending on your kernel version) or even a different number, if loop 0 is in use.

cramfs
mount -t cramfs /dev/loop/0 idir

cpio
As discussed, the initrd may be a cpio packed file. To unpack this, you will have to use the command cpio -id <../initrd.img To pack it again (if you changed the content), you will have to use find. | cpio --create --format='newc' > ../newinitrd