problem with initramfs-tools

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Sat, 2024-12-21 at 18:57 +1100, Eyal Lebedinsky wrote:
> $ grep 'model name' /proc/cpuinfo
> model name      : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.66GHz

Hi,

in this case it doesn't matter, since the instruction sets are backwards
compatible. Somewhere from the Internet:

"i386 – Intel i386/80386  (in 1985) or AMD386 / AM386 (in 1991)
 i486 – Intel i486/80486  (in 1989) or AMD486 / AM486 (in 1993)
 i586 – Intel Pentium     (in 1993) or         AMD-K5 (in 1996)
 i686 – Intel Pentium Pro (in 1995) or         AMD-K6 (in 1997)
 i786 – Intel Pentium 4   (in 2000) or         AMD-K7 (in 1999)"

IOW you can use everything from i386 to i786.

> It is not a freak but a proper distro, not something I cooked myself
> though.

My comment refers to the recommended Tiny Core Linux, but also to other
distros of this kind, for example Alpine Linux. Consider using such
distros only as a last resort or if you want to learn about embedded
Linux systems or if you are using an OS that tries to forbit a
hypervisor. Alpine Linux is probably the only real Linux guest running
on an iPadOS/iOS host.

I run Alpine Linux on one of my iPads, https://github.com/ish-app/ish/ ,
https://i.imgur.com/bX63Hes.jpeg as well as on my desktop PC.

Just an excerpt from my bare metal installs:

$ head -1 {,/mnt/m1.{alpine,xubu20.04}}/etc/issue 
==> /etc/issue <==
Arch Linux \r (\l)

==> /mnt/m1.alpine/etc/issue <==
Welcome to Alpine Linux 3.18

==> /mnt/m1.xubu20.04/etc/issue <==
Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS \n \l

As different as major distros like Ubuntu flavors and Arch Linux may be,
they have a lot in common, but a distro like Alpine Linux is about as
foreign as a BSD compared to major distros.

Regards,
Ralf