[syslinux] Size limit for initrd in PXELINUX?

[Duetsch Thomas]

I'm not sure about that, because when the diskimge is big enough, it doesn't
even get to the kernel. It resets the machine while still downloading the
image.
My guess is, that some of the already downloaded data gets overriden if the
image exceeds a certain size. And the bigger the image is, the more gets
overridden. That would perhaps explain the worse behaviours for larger
files.
Well, but I seem to have a nice workaround. I get a small Linux system up
and running with PXELINUX and then get the big image and mount that as root.
A direct download would be nicer, but this works also pretty fine up to now.
But I'll definitly give 2.0-pre14 a go.
Thanks

_tom

-----Original Message-----
From: H. Peter Anvin [mailto:hpa at zytor.com]
Sent: Donnerstag, 24. Oktober 2002 16:18
To: Duetsch Thomas
Cc: syslinux at zytor.com
Subject: Re: [syslinux] Size limit for initrd in PXELINUX?


Duetsch Thomas wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> sorry for taking so long, but I needed to come up with a workaround and
> haven't had much time.
> I tried 2.0-pre11 and still have the same behaviour as before.
> I was able to get some more differentiated information for the different
> image sizes.
> The first time it doesn't work is at an image size somewhere between
> 12288000 and 12582912 bytes. In this case, I get the "Couldn't find valid
> RAM disk image starting at 0."-message after the kernel started.
> Then, somewhere between 13312000 and 13824000 bytes, the image is
downloaded
> and the next thing I get is:
> 
> Ready
> Uncompressing Linux..
> 
> ran out of input data
> 
> --System halt
> 
> At 14848000 bytes, the screen just goes crazy. Strange colors and special
> characters start blinking all over the place.
> 
> Well, and after that, the system just reboots.
> I hope that helps in some way.
> Bye,
> 

This *definitely* sounds more like a kernel bug than a SYSLINUX bug.  I
believe the kernel you're running has known bugs in the decompression
routine; you may want to try an up-to-date 2.4 kernel.

	-hpa