[syslinux] Not ready to load rootfs.gz

[Philip Macias]

Hello,

I am having a problem with the second-generation of a custom isolinux
boot CD for one of the PCs here in the lab.

We have three types of PC here - two Dells and one from SGI (a SGI
230). The previous version of the custom bootcd still works on all
three platforms.

The new version only works on the Dells. It fails on only the SGIs with:

     -----------------------------------------------
     Loading linux...............

     Loading rootfs.gz............................................
     Ready.

     -----------------------------------------------

A Google search has limited results
(http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Loading+rootfs.gz%22+%22ready.%22&hl=en&hs=Rbl&lr=&client=opera&rls=en&filter=0)

The only intended difference between the old and new boot cd images is
that rootfs has gone up from 4Mb to 5Mb. The compressed rootfs.gz has
gone from 1.4Mb to 1.5 Mb. I only added a couple of binaries and
needed a larger /tmp space.

Since it boots fine I would think the SGI has problems loading the
rootfs into memory - and that's the tone of the postings from the
google search, above. But on whim I tried to burn a new CD from the
old 4Mb rootfs and it fails in the same way. This leads me to think it
is something related to the way mkisofs makes the image or cdrecord
burns it.

FWIW, my isolinux.cfg is:

   default /KERNEL initrd=rootfs.gz load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 
ramdisk_size=16384 rw root=/dev/ram
   label KERNEL
   KERNEL KERNEL

and I am making the iso image with:

   mkisofs -o ../../cdfs.iso -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c \
   isolinux/boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table .

and burning with:

   cdrecord blank=fast -v speed=2 dev=0,1,0  -data cdfs.iso

Any ideas or pointers?

  - phil