[syslinux] PXELINUX: how to debug initrd corruption?

[Alexander Foken]

On 08.01.2012 23:49, Andy Walls wrote:
> On Sat, 2012-01-07 at 22:27 -0500, Gene Cumm wrote:
>> On Jan 7, 2012 7:15 PM, "Andy Walls"<awalls at md.metrocast.net>  wrote:
>>> Hi All,
>>>
>>> I have a system, that, ~80% of the time, fails to properly boot using
>>> pxelinux.0 as provided by RHEL 5.5 (syslinux 3.11, I think).  The
>>> gripe, before the console messages stop, is a message that comes from
>>> the linux kernel complaining the compressed ram drive image is bad:
>>> "invalid compressed format (err=[small number])".
>>>
> [...]

> Also, about 1 out of every 5
> times, the system does boot completely sucessfully.

> [...]

Are you sure that the system does not have a memory or cooling problem? 
Try running memtest86+ (http://www.memtest.org/) for some time, so that 
each test is run at least once. Preferably, run it for a day or so. If 
memtest does not report any errors, reboot and enter the BIOS setup. 
Look for a page named "system health" or similar, open it and look at 
the CPU temperature and the fan RPMs. CPU temperature should be well 
below 100°C, fans should show 1500 to 3000 RPM. Note that some systems 
can monitor more fans than actually installed, so a fan constantly 
showing 0 RPM may simply be missing. But at least a CPU fan should be 
installed, and it should rotate at reasonable speed.

Alexander

-- 
Alexander Foken
mailto:alexander at foken.de  http://www.foken.de/alexander/