When Linux is booted by the boot loader, it will first load the kernel image (usually /boot/vmlinuz) into memory, followed by the initial boot ramdisk (usually /boot/initrd). If for some reason the initrd image has been corrupted, booting may fail. The following procedure can be used to re-generate the initrd image.
- Make sure the BIOS is set to boot from the optical drive
- Insert the OpenSUSE install DVD into the optical drive.
- Boot the machine
- Select the menu option “Rescue System”
- When prompted to login, type “root”
- Mount the Linux root partition, typically something like “mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1 /mnt”
- If the Linux /boot area is on a separate partition, also mount that into the root partition, f.ex. “mount -t ext3 /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot”
- Bind the rescue system’s /dev to the mounted root filesystem with “mount –bind /dev /mnt/dev” – this will make sure all your device nodes are correct
- Chroot to the mounted root filesystem with “chroot /mnt”
- Mount proc and sys: “mount /proc” and “mount /sys”
- Re-generate initrd image with “mkinitrd”
- Remove DVD and reboot
