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hajimete is an attempt at a general Linux initramfs system.

Unusually for an initramfs, the hajimete system’s init program is written in C, and the initramfs includes a dynamic loader and a basic set of system administration tools, as well as an (optionally password-protected) emergency rescue mode. It also uses a full udev installation (with minimized rules) to load modules and create devices without any hardcoding.

Using hajimete? Well, you really shouldn’t yet. But if you want to try, you’ll first have to manually edit the initramfs_contents file to match your linux installation. Then type make and an initramfs should magically appear.

Other, similar projects include dracut which is (at the time of writing) unfortunately limited to redhat systems, although its goal is to be portable. I’m hoping that hajimete will become obsolete in favour of dracut at some point, or maybe just offer my C-based init as an alternative to the bash-script init in dracut?

The original inspiration was to create an initramfs that was capable of booting an experimental Linux distribution installed on a multi-volume btrfs. No available initramfs systems could do that easily, and I was in the mood to try to rig something up.