If the system uses the ext3 file system, a SCSI controller, or uses
labels to reference partitions in /etc/fstab, an
initial RAM disk is needed. The initial RAM disk allows a modular kernel
to have access to modules that it might need to boot from before the
kernel has access to the device where the modules normally reside.
On the Red Hat Enterprise Linux architectures other than IBM eServer iSeries, the initial
RAM disk can be created with the mkinitrd
command. However, this step is performed automatically if the kernel and
its associated packages are installed or upgraded from the RPM packages
distributed by Red Hat, Inc.; thus, it does not need to be executed
manually. To verify that it was created, use the command ls -l
/boot to make sure the
initrd-<version>.img
file was created (the version should match the version of the kernel
just installed).
On iSeries systems, the initial RAM disk file and
vmlinux file are combined into one file, which is
created with the addRamDisk command. This step is
performed automatically if the kernel and its associated packages are
installed or upgraded from the RPM packages distributed by Red Hat, Inc.;
thus, it does not need to be executed manually. To verify that it was
created, use the command ls -l /boot to make sure the
/boot/vmlinitrd-<kernel-version>
file was created (the version should match the version of the kernel
just installed).
The next step is to verify that the boot loader has been configured to
boot the new kernel. Refer to Section 37.6 Verifying the Boot Loader for
details.
