NFS-Root mini-HOWTO: Known problems

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## 5. Known problems

## 5.1 /sbin/init doesn't start.

A common problem with /sbin/init is that some distributions (e.g., Red Hat Linux) come with /sbin/init dynamically linked. So you have to provide a correct /lib setup to the client. An easy thing one could try is replacing /sbin/init (for the client) with a statically linked ``Hello World'' program. This way you know if it is something more basic, or ``just'' a problem with dynamic linking.

Also note that Busybox by default installs its `init` symlink in `/bin` rather than `/sbin`. You may need to move it or pass an explicit `init=` parameter on the kernel command line, as shown in the final example of the previous section.

## 5.2 /dev troubles.

If you get some garbled messages about ttys when booting, then you should run a MAKEDEV from the client in the /dev directory. There are rumors that this doesn't work with certain server OSes that use 64-bit device numbers; should you run into this, please consider updating this section! A potential solution would be to create a small /dev ram disk early in the boot process and reinstall the device nodes each time, or simply embed directly into the kernel a suitably initialized ramdisk.

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