From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932444Ab1GNWjX (ORCPT ); Thu, 14 Jul 2011 18:39:23 -0400 Received: from host1743200242118.direcway.com ([174.32.118.242]:36895 "EHLO aexorsyst.com" rhost-flags-OK-FAIL-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S932279Ab1GNWjW (ORCPT ); Thu, 14 Jul 2011 18:39:22 -0400 From: "John Z. Bohach" To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: large initramfs causes h/w reset after decompressing Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2011 15:32:59 -0700 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.6 Cc: "H. Peter Anvin" References: <201107140906.46404.jzb2@aexorsyst.com> <4E1F5C20.8000008@zytor.com> In-Reply-To: <4E1F5C20.8000008@zytor.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <201107141532.59383.jzb2@aexorsyst.com> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Thursday 14 July 2011 02:14:08 pm H. Peter Anvin wrote: > On 07/14/2011 09:06 AM, John Z. Bohach wrote: > > I have a large initramfs cpio file, about 890 MB, which expands to > > 2.7 GB, and am running on linux-2.6.36.1, in 64-bit mode with 8 GB > > of physical RAM. > > > > Upon loading the initramfs, I see the message "Decompressing..." > > for a few seconds, and then comes a reset. > > > > This question has come up before...is there some sort of max size. > > that I am exceeding? With 8 GB of physical memory and 64-bit arch. > > (AMD-II), certainly seems that there should be enough memory, no? > > > > Thanks... > > What bootloader are you using? There are some bootloaders which > don't allocate the initramfs in a very good spot. > > -hpa I've actually gotten the improbable to work, and am PXE booting via syslinux and dhcp. It all works fine with an initramfs of ~20 MB, but that's quite a diff. from 2.7 GB of expanded /root (890 MB cpio.tar.gz file). But excuse my ignorance, I don't see the relevance of your question...the initramfs is part of the kernel itself...I simply load the kernel bzImage (all 890 MB) and that's where its all at...this is _not_ an initrd. --john