Hello !

Simple question : does anyone know why in a standard debian installation
the developers chose to add these two links (initrd.img and vmlinuz) in
the root partition ? Are there any specific needs or something ?


Ciao

dan


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daniele wrote:
> Simple question : does anyone know why in a standard debian installation
> the developers chose to add these two links (initrd.img and vmlinuz) in
> the root partition ? Are there any specific needs or something ?

It is tradition. In the old days the Unix kernel would be placed
there at /vmunix (or even other older names before vm kernels).
Therefore the natural place on a Unix-like system for the linux kernel
is /vmlinux. Then it became compressed with gzip and so /vmlinuz and
then versions were added and so forth.

But having files flat in the root of the system isn't very well
organized. Therefore in later years systems moved their kernel files
to subdirectories. HP-UX puts it in /standalone for example. On
systems that follow the FHS standard these files are put in /boot.

http://proton.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#BOOTSTATICFILESOFTHEBOOTLOADER

The default lilo bootloader configuration and configuration scripts
look for files at the top level. And so the tradition continues with
putting files there for compatibility with old lilo configurations.

But this isn't needed with the configuration supplied with, say,
grub. The default grub installation looks at files in /boot and
doesn't need anything in the top level. Therefore on a grub booted
system those symlinks at the top level can be removed. However the
kernel packages post install scripts will create them automatically
unless you tell them not to do so with do_symlinks=No. See the man
page for kernel-img.conf(5) for details.

Bob

Bob Proulx wrote:

daniele wrote:

Simple question : does anyone know why in a standard debian installation
the developers chose to add these two links (initrd.img and vmlinuz) in
the root partition ? Are there any specific needs or something ?



It is tradition. In the old days the Unix kernel would be placed
there at /vmunix (or even other older names before vm kernels).
Therefore the natural place on a Unix-like system for the linux kernel
is /vmlinux. Then it became compressed with gzip and so /vmlinuz and
then versions were added and so forth.

But having files flat in the root of the system isn't very well
organized. Therefore in later years systems moved their kernel files
to subdirectories. HP-UX puts it in /standalone for example. On
systems that follow the FHS standard these files are put in /boot.

http://proton.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#BOOTSTATICFILESOFTHEBOOTLOADER

The default lilo bootloader configuration and configuration scripts
look for files at the top level. And so the tradition continues with
putting files there for compatibility with old lilo configurations.

But this isn't needed with the configuration supplied with, say,
grub. The default grub installation looks at files in /boot and
doesn't need anything in the top level. Therefore on a grub booted
system those symlinks at the top level can be removed. However the
kernel packages post install scripts will create them automatically
unless you tell them not to do so with do_symlinks=No. See the man
page for kernel-img.conf(5) for details.

Bob

oh, thank you Bob for taking time to think and write down these notes,
which contain many helpful informations beside the answer to my
question. Thank you very much,


Daniele


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One last thing... If you have multiple kernels installed,

ls -l from / shows that /vmlinuz points to the most recent kernel. It is an easy way to find out this information.

Regards.
Gireesh.

On Fri, May 23, 2008 at 6:36 PM, daniele <meslists@yahoo.fr> wrote:

Bob Proulx wrote:


daniele wrote:

*


Simple question : does anyone know why in a standard debian installation the developers chose to add these two links (initrd.img and vmlinuz) in the root partition ? Are there any specific needs or something ?

* *




It is tradition. *In the old days the Unix kernel would be placed

there at /vmunix (or even other older names before vm kernels).

Therefore the natural place on a Unix-like system for the linux kernel

is /vmlinux. *Then it became compressed with gzip and so /vmlinuz and

then versions were added and so forth.



But having files flat in the root of the system isn't very well

organized. *Therefore in later years systems moved their kernel files

to subdirectories. *HP-UX puts it in /standalone for example. *On

systems that follow the FHS standard these files are put in /boot.



*http://proton.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#BOOTSTATICFILESOFTHEBOOTLOADER



The default lilo bootloader configuration and configuration scripts

look for files at the top level. *And so the tradition continues with

putting files there for compatibility with old lilo configurations.



But this isn't needed with the configuration supplied with, say,

grub. *The default grub installation looks at files in /boot and

doesn't need anything in the top level. *Therefore on a grub booted

system those symlinks at the top level can be removed. *However the

kernel packages post install scripts will create them automatically

unless you tell them not to do so with do_symlinks=No. *See the man

page for kernel-img.conf(5) for details.



Bob

*


oh, thank you Bob for taking time to think and write down these notes, which contain many helpful informations beside the answer to my question. Thank you very much,



Daniele





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Gireesh