The default RH version is about 400 lines and contains the following highlights:

• run /sbin/initlog
• set $PATH
• init network & other functions
• load keymap & system font
• activate swapping
• inspect /fsckoptions, /forcefsck, /fastboot
• do some complex fsck on root; reboot if problems
• mount /proc
• remount the root filesystem as read-write
• load modules
• check non-root filesystems
• set up clock
• dump syslog