diff --git a/alpine/Makefile b/alpine/Makefile
index f3cb2de49..2e438f813 100644
--- a/alpine/Makefile
+++ b/alpine/Makefile
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 all:	initrd.img
 
-initrd.img: Dockerfile repositories etc/hostname etc/motd etc/inittab
+initrd.img: Dockerfile mkinitrd.sh repositories etc/hostname etc/motd etc/inittab
 	rm -f initrd.img
 	docker build -t moby:test .
 	docker run -i -v $(PWD):/export moby:test /export/mkinitrd.sh
diff --git a/alpine/mkinitrd.sh b/alpine/mkinitrd.sh
index 8f50c6c1d..4f1509cf2 100755
--- a/alpine/mkinitrd.sh
+++ b/alpine/mkinitrd.sh
@@ -1,3 +1,47 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
-find / -xdev | cpio -H newc -o > /export/initrd.img
+set -e
+
+rm -rf /tmp/*
+
+for f in $(ls | grep -vE 'dev|sys|proc|tmp|export')
+do
+  cp -a $f /tmp
+done
+
+mkdir -m 555 /tmp/dev /tmp/proc /tmp/sys
+mkdir -m 1777 /tmp/tmp
+
+cd /tmp/dev
+
+mknod -m 666 null c 1 3
+mknod -m 666 full c 1 7
+mknod -m 666 ptmx c 5 2
+mknod -m 644 random c 1 8
+mknod -m 644 urandom c 1 9
+mknod -m 666 zero c 1 5
+mknod -m 666 tty c 5 0
+
+mknod -m 600 ttyS0 c 4 64
+
+# we are using sata emulation at present
+mknod -m 600 sda b 8 0
+mknod -m 600 sda1 b 8 1
+mknod -m 600 sda2 b 8 2
+mknod -m 600 sda3 b 8 3
+mknod -m 600 sda4 b 8 4
+mknod -m 600 sda5 b 8 5
+mknod -m 600 sda6 b 8 6
+mknod -m 600 sdb b 8 16
+mknod -m 600 sdb1 b 8 17
+mknod -m 600 sdb2 b 8 18
+mknod -m 600 sdb3 b 8 19
+mknod -m 600 sdb4 b 8 20
+mknod -m 600 sdb5 b 8 21
+mknod -m 600 sdb6 b 8 22
+
+mkdir pty
+
+cd /tmp
+
+find . | cpio -H newc -o > /export/initrd.img