Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE SERVER 10 SP2 - INSTALLATION AND ADMINISTRATION Installation Manual page 410

Loading Kernel Modules
Depending on your hardware configuration, special drivers may be needed to access
the hardware components of your computer (especially your hard drive). To access
the root file system, the kernel needs to load the proper file system drivers.
Providing Block Special Files
For each loaded module, the kernel generates device events. udev handles these
events and generates the required block special files on a RAM file system in /dev.
Without those special files, the file system and other devices would not be accessi-
ble.
Managing RAID and LVM Setups
If you configured your system to hold the root file system under RAID or LVM,
init sets up LVM or RAID to enable access to the root file system later. Find infor-
mation about RAID in Section 7.2, "Soft RAID Configuration" (page 123). Find
information about LVM in Section 7.1, "LVM Configuration" (page 115). Find in-
formation about EVMS and special storage settings in Storage Administration
Guide.
Managing Network Configuration
If you configured your system to use a network-mounted root file system (mounted
via NFS), init must make sure that the proper network drivers are loaded and that
they are set up to allow access to the root file system.
If the file system resides on a networked block device like iSCSI or SAN, connection
to the storage server is also set up by the initramfs.
When init is called during the initial boot as part of the installation process, its tasks
differ from those mentioned earlier:
Finding the Installation Medium
As you start the installation process, your machine loads an installation kernel and
a special initrd with the YaST installer from the installation medium. The YaST
installer, which is run in a RAM file system, needs to have information about the
location of the installation medium to access it and install the operating system.
Initiating Hardware Recognition and Loading Appropriate Kernel Modules
As mentioned in Section 20.1.1, "initramfs" (page 390), the boot process starts with
a minimum set of drivers that can be used with most hardware configurations. init
starts an initial hardware scanning process that determines the set of drivers suitable
for your hardware configuration. The names of the modules needed for the boot
392 Installation and Administration