[CentOS] PXE-Kernel crashes with "RAMDISK: incomplete write ..." after modifiying initrd.img

Fri Mar 27 15:04:40 UTC 2009
Frank Thommen <frank.thommen at embl-heidelberg.de>

Tru Huynh wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 05:27:10PM +0100, Frank Thommen wrote:
>>> What cpio options did you use to re-create modules/modules.cgz and then 
>>> the initrd.img?
>> I used `cpio -ovF <file>` and `cpio -ov -H crc -F <file>` (I found the 
>> latter on http://sial.org/howto/linux/initrd/).  However I could not 
>> find any "officially looking" information about how the 
>> initrd.img/modules.cgz is created.
> 
> find ./ | cpio -H newc -o | | gzip -c9 > /path/to/my/initrd.img


This give a slightly different error message:

[...]
md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
md: autorun ...
md: ... autorun DONE.
VFS: Cannot open root device "<NULL>" or unknown-block(253,3)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on
unknown-block(253,3)


The two "RAMDISK" error lines have gone.  I have archived 
modules/modules.cgz *and* initrd.img with "-H newc".


frank