After you select all the options you want, you can save the configuration file and continue with step 7 in the kernel compiling checklist shown earlier.
Creating an Initial RAM Disk Image
If you require special device drivers to be loaded to mount the root file system (for SCSI drives, network cards or exotic file systems, for example), you must create an initial RAM disk image named /boot/initrd.img. For most users, it is not necessary to create this file, but if you are not certain, it really does not hurt. We covered the initrd.img in Chapter 34. To create an initrd.img file, use the shell script /sbin/mkinitrd.
The format for the command is the following:
/sbin/mkinitrd filename kernel_version
where filename is the name of the image file you want created.