Overlay initrd files using cat

[tinypoodle]

"include *all* these fancy networking devices" was not at all what I had in mind, but e.g. a Intel Pro 100 NIC (not uncommon to be found in laptops): the e100 driver of size 15KB getting loaded from base, but not in a working state until firmware which has a size of 539B is installed by user.

My point regarding ethernet support in base was that it could be debatable to include either drivers and respective firmware, or none of the both.

[hiro]

Do other distributions include that firmware?

[tinypoodle]

Yes, and AFAIK, the singling out of firmware from drivers is a recent kernel development, with older versions there was no seperate firmware required, just the driver.

[Michael Wells]

As I am trying to test the microcore + Xgui, I ran into a problem. This probably will not be an issue if tinycore.gz is replaced with microcore.gz and the GUI module gz's overlaid ... but when I tried to put the Xlibs.gz and Xprogs.gz and a Xvesa.gz (from xvesa.tcz) in the tce directory to be loaded at microcore boot time ... I ran into the following problem:  later when I rebooted tinycore.gz the gz's files in the tce directory were also loaded and the GUI was all messed up.

Perhaps I am doing something wrong in using the same tce directory to boot both microcore and tinycore with gz's inside ... but moving them out every time I want to boot tinycore is troublesome under the 3.x current configuration.

[gerald_clark]

You have absolutely no reason to boot tinycore.gz with the X gzs in the tce directory.
That will cause problems.
Use a different tce directory.

[tinypoodle]

If I understood right, in this way you loaded two different Xvesa versions from cpio archives to different paths in the initramfs, which is an unforeseen case.

Besides from using separate tce dirs as gerald_clark suggested, loading the cpio archives via bootparam initrd= from a different path (e.g. where tinycore.gz resp. microcore.gz are located) would give most control, also in specifying the order of loading.