> What does not work is
>   gzip -cd initrd-2.6.9-42.0.3.ELsmp.img > xx
>   mount xx /mnt/initrd -t ext2 -o loop
> The error is:
> mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/loop0,
>        or too many mounted file systems
>        (could this be the IDE device where you in fact use
>        ide-scsi so that sr0 or sda or so is needed?)
> 
> What am I doing wrong?

Compressed initrd is not recognized as a filesystem:

# file initrd.img
initrd.img: gzip compressed data, from Unix, max compression

Kernel does not support compressed filesystem images...
(this would be very time/space -inefficient: for compressions
like gzip all the image would have to be decompressed
into memory: this is what happens with initrd on boot)

There are compressed filesystems (read-only!) alike
cramfs or squashfs .. but that's another story.
(actually second stage install images for SL are cramfs,
initrd cannot be cramfs as cramfs driver is compiled as a
module and loaded .. from initrd .. on the other hand
initrd may be gzip-compressed or not: both formats will be
useable)

Cheers

Jarek

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