Updating YDL 3.0

[Andrew]

On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 09:39:27 -0500
Eric Dunbar <eric.dunbar at gmail.com> wrote:

> > > On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 15:39:45 -0800, Daniel Gimpelevich <daniel at gimpelevich>
> > > wrote:
> > > > You're supposed to use root= and/or init= with the pathname to the root or
> > > > init, e.g.: root=/dev/sda5
> > >
> > > I was slowly working my way in that direction ;) -- I'd figured out
> > > that it was supposed to be a path but couldn't get the right one.
> > >
> > > What I'd like to know is why is it important to run the RAM disk,
> > > rather than just the kernel 2.6.9*8 as I am doing presently (on my
> > > Beige G3/266)?
> > 
> > Hmm. I just noticed you wrote ROOT=/dev/hdc8. I'll try that now and
> > keep fingers crossed.
> 
> Well, root=/dev/hdc8 works! Now, why is it that I should be using a
> RAM disk rather than "just" the kernel to boot an OldWorld machine?
> (there seems to be no difference between the two)

 Well, my RAM was filling up slowly at a steady rate. It took a week or so of uptime then the whole system went berserk (jumpy mice, ~10 seconds to launch a xterm....) First, xorg vanished, dropping me a tty with lots of memory problems... that was not pretty, then everything else struggled to death. To set the initrd file as a RAM disk in bootx seam to resolve the issue.

 So, in short, feel free to keep the initrd aside for now but if the symptoms mentionned above manifest, try using the initrd as a RAM disk and see if it help. At least, that worked for me :)