Re: The policy on initramfs decompression failure

From: Ingo Molnar
Date: Wed Jan 14 2009 - 00:46:22 EST



* Bodo Eggert <7eggert@xxxxxx> wrote:

> If the initrd is not decompressed successfully, [...]

No, that's not the issue - i think hpa's description was misleading in
that respect.

This is not some sort of corruption. I have hit this pointless panic
during testing: there was nothing wrong with either the initrd or the
system, the bzImage simply did not include the right decompressor .config
option to even read the initrd.

The analogue is if i booted a kernel with CONFIG_MODULES disabled. I do it
all the time, it always worked without problems and the initrd with
modules in it cannot be interpreted in any sane way CONFIG_MODULES - still
it works just fine because the initrd is uninteresting as far as the
modules go.

So basically now the kernel has regressed in its bzImage utility: "oh, i
dont have a decompressor for the initrd. PANIC!". And that is a step
backwards. Unless you use bzImage i dont think you can really appreciate
this argument.

I would not mind a warning message though, that bit makes sense.

Ingo
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