diff -u linux-2.6.16.29-orig/init/do_mounts.c linux-2.6.16.29/init/do_mounts.c
--- linux-2.6.16.29-orig/init/do_mounts.c	2006-09-12 20:02:10.000000000 +0200
+++ linux-2.6.16.29/init/do_mounts.c	2006-09-23 19:48:57.986439236 +0200
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 #include "do_mounts.h"
 
 extern int get_filesystem_list(char * buf);
+extern int  populate_rootfs(int);
 
 int __initdata rd_doload;	/* 1 = load RAM disk, 0 = don't load */
 
@@ -412,6 +413,11 @@
 
 	is_floppy = MAJOR(ROOT_DEV) == FLOPPY_MAJOR;
 
+#ifdef CONFIG_INIT_TMPFS
+	if (populate_rootfs(0))
+		goto out;
+#endif
+
 	if (initrd_load())
 		goto out;
 
diff -u linux-2.6.16.29-orig/init/initramfs.c linux-2.6.16.29/init/initramfs.c
--- linux-2.6.16.29-orig/init/initramfs.c	2006-09-12 20:02:10.000000000 +0200
+++ linux-2.6.16.29/init/initramfs.c	2006-09-23 19:59:17.379743943 +0200
@@ -498,24 +498,86 @@
 
 #endif
 
-void __init populate_rootfs(void)
+#ifdef CONFIG_INIT_TMPFS
+static char __initdata tmpfs_options[64] = "mode=755";	/* options passed to tmpfs */
+int __init mount_tmpfs_root(void);
+extern int root_mountflags; 
+
+static int __init inittmpfs_options(char *str)
+{
+	strncpy(tmpfs_options,str,63);
+	tmpfs_options[63] = 0;
+	return 1;
+}
+
+__setup("inittmpfs=", inittmpfs_options);
+
+/*
+ * Mount a root tmpfs. Return 0 on success; -1 on failure.
+ */
+int init_tmpfs (void);
+int __init mount_tmpfs_root(void)
 {
-	char *err = unpack_to_rootfs(__initramfs_start,
-			 __initramfs_end - __initramfs_start, 0);
-	if (err)
-		panic(err);
+	int err;
+	int tmpfs_root_mountflags = root_mountflags;
+	
+	/* create mount point */
+	if ( (err = sys_mkdir("/tmp_root", 0755)) < 0) {
+		printk(KERN_ERR "INITRAMFS: unable to create mountpoint /tmp_root. (%d)\n", err);
+		return -1;
+	}
+
+	printk ("INITRAMFS: Trying to mount tmpfs using options '%s'.\n", tmpfs_options);
+	/* always mount rw,verbose */
+	tmpfs_root_mountflags |= MS_VERBOSE;
+	tmpfs_root_mountflags &= ~MS_RDONLY;
+	err = sys_mount("tmpfs", "/tmp_root", "tmpfs", tmpfs_root_mountflags,
+			tmpfs_options);
+	if (err) {
+		(void)sys_rmdir("/tmp_root");
+		printk(KERN_ERR "INITRAMFS: unable to mount tmpfs filesystem (%d), using normal ramfs.\n", err);
+		return -1;
+	}
+	printk ("INITRAMFS: tmpfs mounted.\n");
+	if ( (err = sys_chdir("/tmp_root")) < 0)
+		printk(KERN_ERR "INITRAMFS: unable change to new root (%d).\n", err);
+	return 0;
+}
+#endif
+
+int __init populate_rootfs(int first_invocation)
+{
+	char *err;
+
+	if (first_invocation) {
+		err = unpack_to_rootfs(__initramfs_start,
+				       __initramfs_end - __initramfs_start, 0);
+		if (err)
+			panic(err);
+	}
 #ifdef CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD
 	if (initrd_start) {
 		int fd;
+
+#ifdef CONFIG_INIT_TMPFS
+		if (first_invocation) {
+			printk(KERN_INFO "INITRAMFS: delaying decompression of initramfs to make use of tmpfs...\n");
+			return 0;
+		}
+#endif
+
 		printk(KERN_INFO "checking if image is initramfs...");
 		err = unpack_to_rootfs((char *)initrd_start,
 			initrd_end - initrd_start, 1);
 		if (!err) {
 			printk(" it is\n");
+#ifdef CONFIG_INIT_TMPFS
+			mount_tmpfs_root();
+#endif
 			unpack_to_rootfs((char *)initrd_start,
 				initrd_end - initrd_start, 0);
 			free_initrd();
-			return;
+			return 1;
 		}
 		printk("it isn't (%s); looks like an initrd\n", err);
 		fd = sys_open("/initrd.image", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT, 700);
@@ -527,4 +589,5 @@
 		}
 	}
 #endif
+	return 0;
 }
diff -u linux-2.6.16.29-orig/init/Kconfig linux-2.6.16.29/init/Kconfig
--- linux-2.6.16.29-orig/init/Kconfig	2006-09-12 20:02:10.000000000 +0200
+++ linux-2.6.16.29/init/Kconfig	2006-09-23 15:30:16.443035847 +0200
@@ -354,6 +354,15 @@
 	  option replaces shmem and tmpfs with the much simpler ramfs code,
 	  which may be appropriate on small systems without swap.
 
+config INIT_TMPFS
+	bool "Use tmpfs for initial ramfs" if EMBEDDED
+	default y
+	depends on TMPFS && BLK_DEV_INITRD
+	help
+	  Use tmpfs for initial ramdisk. To achieve this the cpio archive for 
+	  the initial ram is extracted at the end of the boot process. If you
+	  need the contents of the archive earlier you can't use this.
+
 config CC_ALIGN_FUNCTIONS
 	int "Function alignment" if EMBEDDED
 	default 0
diff -u linux-2.6.16.29-orig/init/main.c linux-2.6.16.29/init/main.c
--- linux-2.6.16.29-orig/init/main.c	2006-09-12 20:02:10.000000000 +0200
+++ linux-2.6.16.29/init/main.c	2006-09-23 19:47:46.226994596 +0200
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@
 extern void prio_tree_init(void);
 extern void radix_tree_init(void);
 extern void free_initmem(void);
-extern void populate_rootfs(void);
+extern int  populate_rootfs(int);
 extern void driver_init(void);
 extern void prepare_namespace(void);
 #ifdef	CONFIG_ACPI
@@ -682,7 +682,7 @@
 	 * Do this before initcalls, because some drivers want to access
 	 * firmware files.
 	 */
-	populate_rootfs();
+	populate_rootfs(1);
 
 	do_basic_setup();