1. Build kernel with option:

CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE=""

to disable the embedded initramfs, i.e., to disable stage1 init.


2. Extract the current boot and recovery initrds from a working CM9
boot.img:

eval `grep -Fam 1 -A 1 BOOT_IMAGE_OFFSETS boot.img | tail -n 1`
dd if=boot.img of=boot.cpio.gz bs=512 skip="$boot_offset" count="$boot_len"
dd if=boot.img of=recovery.cpio.gz bs=512 skip="$recovery_offset" count="$recovery_len"
for i in boot recovery; do mkdir "$i"; cd "$i"; zcat "../$i.cpio.gz" | cpio -idmv; cd ..; done

which will create "boot" and "recovery" directories.


3. Update boot/recovery modules and rcs as necessary.


4. Create new boot.cpio.gz and recovery.cpio.gz initrds:

for i in boot recovery; do cd "$i"; find . -print0 | cpio -o0vH newc | gzip -9 > "../$i.cpio.gz"; cd ..; done


5. Push zImage, boot.cpio.gz, and recovery.cpio.gz along with
boot_zImage_with_boot.zip and boot_zImage_with_recovery.zip to /sdcard.


6. To "normal boot" CM9, apply "boot_zImage_with_boot.zip".  Alternatively,
to boot CM9 recovery, apply "boot_zImage_with_recovery.zip".


7. New kernel builds should only require pushing a new zImage.  You may
want to update boot.cpio.gz and recovery.cpio.gz after CM9 ROM builds, or
if you change any kernel modules.