From Fedora Project Wiki

Description

This test case is intended to validate using a host-built dracut-generated ramdisk image on a system currently using a locally built mkinitrd-generated ramdisk image.


How to test

  1. On an already installed system (e.g., Dracut Test Day live image or updated Fedora 12 rawhide system), confirm that the kernel provides a dracut host-built ramdisk image.
    rpm -qf /boot/vmlinuz-$(uname -r) -l | fgrep -q initrd-generic \
    && echo "OK. Dracut ramdisk already provided by kernel rpm" \
    || echo "Bad. No dracut ramdisk provided by kernel rpm"
  2. Tell your bootloader to use the dracut ramdisk. Run the following command with root permissions.
    grubby --make-default --title "dracut-test" \
    --add-kernel /boot/vmlinuz-$(uname -r) \
    --initrd /boot/initrd-generic-$(uname -r).img \
    --copy-default
  3. Verify that /etc/grub.conf has something similar to the following as its first entry.
    title dracut-test
    root (hd0,0)
    kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.31-0.167.rc6.git6.fc12.i686.PAE ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_mether-lv_root rhgb quiet SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 KEYTABLE=us rd_plytheme=fade-in
    initrd /initrd-generic-2.6.31-0.167.rc6.git6.fc12.i686.PAE.img
  4. Now reboot the system.

Expected Results

  1. This test is only valid on a system that does provide a dracut ramdisk image with the kernel rpm. To confirm, you should see:
    OK. Dracut ramdisk already provided by kernel rpm
  2. A new grub boot entry is added that uses your existing kernel, and the dracut ramdisk.
  3. The system boots normally. There should be no difference between booting the locally-built mkinitrd ramdisk image and the host-built dracut ramdisk image.