make-initrd(1)

General Commands Manual

make-initrd(1)

NAME

make-initrd - creates initial ramdisk images for preloading modules

SYNOPSIS

make-initrd [<option>]
make-initrd guess-modules [<device>|<directory>]
make-initrd guess-config
make-initrd bug-report

DESCRIPTION

make-initrd is a new, uevent-driven initramfs infrastructure based around udev. Without options, the program generates images for all the configuration files.

bug-report

Makes the archive for developers when bug happens. The archive contains information about disks and partitions and other information about hardware. It does not contain information about users.

guess-config

Guesses the current configuration and generates the config file.

guess-modules [<device>|<directory>]

Shows kernel module needed to mount specified mountpoint or block device.

feature-info [name [name1...]]

Shows information about feature. Example:

$ make-initrd feature-info mdadm luks
Feature mdadm


  requires : add-udev-rules


  disables : raid


  required : guestfs kickstart
Feature luks


  requires : depmod-image devmapper modules-crypto-user-api system-glibc


  disables :


  required : guestfs kickstart

uki

Creates an UEFI executable with the kernel, cmdline and initramfs combined.

OPTIONS

--latest-kernel

create an initramfs image for the highest kernel version that can be found, cnot the currently running kernel.

-D, --no-depmod

don’t recreate a list of module dependencies.

-N, --no-checks

don’t check /dev, /proc and the kernel modules directory.

-c, --config=FILE

set custom config file.

-b, --bootdir=DIR

set boot directory (default: /boot).

-k, --kernel=VERSION

set kernel version (default: currently running kernel).

-v, --verbose

print a message for each action. The option can be specified more than once. Each time the option is specified, the detail of the messages increases.

-V, --version

Show version of program and exit.

-h, --help

Show this text and exit.

ENVIRONMENT

INITRD_WORKDIR - Sets working directory (default: /tmp or $TMPDIR if set).

BLACKLIST_MODULES - List of modules that need to be ignored.

SYSFS_PATH - Sets sysfs placement.

FILES

/etc/initrd.mk - Main configuration file for make-initrd.

/etc/initrd.mk.d - Directory for optional configuration files.

AUTHOR

Written by Alexey Gladkov, Kirill Shutemov.

BUGS

Report bugs to the authors.

2026-04-27