[syslinux] PXELinux Q(s) :)

[Jerry Gilyeat]

Real quick background on what I'm doing now, and what I'm trying to do:
We are using PXELinux with VA's SystemImager software to image new servers 
over our network.  It's been working beautifully since the fall  of 2000 
using a 2.2 kernel.  (Long and short: we bootstrap with PXE, use the initrd 
as the root file system, partition, mount and rsync the new drive, 
reconfigure, lilo and reboot into standalone, all automagically.  It's 
-REALLY- nice.  Currently we're using RH6.2 for the new servers using kernel 
2.2.19 and ext2 across the board...the filesystem is important, as I explain 
further...)

However, we're looking to upgrade the client servers to 7.3, including a 
kernel upgrade to 2.4, -and- a filesystem move from ext2 to ext3.
The 2.2.19 kernel that we have PXE pushing across doesn't have ext3 support.  
That's a problem.  So, I went ahead and built the new kernel, and it ain't 
working.

Specifically:
The new server comes up, talks to the DHCP server and gets its IP.  No problem 
there.  It then does the PXELinux thing, grabbing the kernel and the 
initrd.gz via TFPT.  Again, no problem.
It uncompresses and boots the kernel, and does well...until the kernel panics.  
For some reason it just can't seem to find 'init'.  It's in the initrd, as is 
everything else that currently works just fine using the 2.2 kernel.  And to 
help troubleshoot, I can make the kernel and initrd available for perusal.

The long and the short of this whole sordid tale is this: does anyone have 
-any- idea why this is happening, and how I can fix it?

Thanks.
-- 
Jerry Gilyeat
Systems Administrator
Alabanza.