Since genkernel uses initramfs nowdays (and has done for quite some time now) there is really no need for some stuff from the examples in the handbook. we have for example: --- title Gentoo Linux 2.6.34-r1 root (hd0,0) kernel /boot/kernel-genkernel-amd64-2.6.34-gentoo-r1 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/sda3 initrd /boot/initramfs-genkernel-amd64-2.6.34-gentoo-r1 --- Which really should be: --- title Gentoo Linux 2.6.34-r1 root (hd0,0) kernel /boot/kernel-genkernel-amd64-2.6.34-gentoo-r1 real_root=/dev/sda3 initrd /boot/initramfs-genkernel-amd64-2.6.34-gentoo-r1 --- Why? The only two reasons for the "root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192" with kernel 2.6 I could find are if you are using a initrd, which is discouraged by kernel devs which will point towards the use of a initramfs which also is what genkernel creates, or if you want to not use /init or /sbin/init as the ramsdisk init, in which case kernel devs will point you towards "rdinit=". The removal of those parameters will not break anything as all those things are stuff the kernel already does by default with a initramfs. Also I would suggest use "root=" instead of "real_root" because as long as REAL_ROOT is not set, CDROOT is not set, and "root=" is not pointing towards /dev/ram0 then genkernel will use "root=". That would simplify the documentation, and leave confusing stuff to documentation covering those corner cases where it is needed.
You're right, these options are not needed anymore. Thanks, I've fixed that in CVS.
If you want to simplify it even more, you can change it to "root=" instead of "real_root=", which works perfectly fine with genkernel. Really, "real_root=" only makes sense if you need root to point towards the ramdisk. So currently the only needed deviance between the two grub examples in the handbook should be that one does not contain a initrd-line, the other does. I am currently working on having the same logic apply to init=, so my hopes is that in the end genkernel should behave just like the kernel documentation states (i.e. rdinit= specifies the init for the ramdisk, root= specifies the root for the to be root, and init= specifies the init to be used in said root=), however the patch for init= has not been merged upstream yet.
