linux-kernel - Re: Cause of RAMDISK: incomplete write error ?

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Message-ID: <CAPJ9Yc-s6AwCVfkrAJsq-mdyQJ3MtZ4ANzN6ieEXJRZmdpLxkw@mail.gmail.com>
Date:	Tue, 12 Jul 2011 23:24:06 +0200
From:	David Balažic <xerces9@...il.com>
To:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, kent.robotti@...il.com
Subject: Re: Cause of RAMDISK: incomplete write error ?

On 12 July 2011 22:51, David Balažic <xerces9@...il.com> wrote:
> Hi!
>
> Recently I encountered this error when booting from an USB flash drive:
> RAMDISK: incomplete write (404 != 29094)
> write error
> UDF-fs: No partition found (1)
> (followed by panic)
>
> According to kernel source, this is a problem in the write() call:
>
> (v2.6.39/init/do_mounts_rd.c , line 318)
> static int __init compr_flush(void *window, unsigned int outcnt)
> {
>        int written = sys_write(crd_outfd, window, outcnt);
>        if (written != outcnt) {
>                if (decompress_error == 0)
>                        printk(KERN_ERR
>                               "RAMDISK: incomplete write (%d != %d)\n",
>                               written, outcnt);
>
> I use grub4DOS on a NTFS formatted USB drive for booting.
> The menu.lst entry is:
>
> title xxx test RL13.5  xxxx Boot Linux system! (32-bit kernel)
> pause --wait=0 Loading kernel32...
> kernel /kernel32 root=/dev/ram0 rw vga=normal video=640x400
> pause --wait=0 Loading rootfs.cgz... This could take a couple of minutes.
> initrd /rootfs.cgz
>
> The same problem happens on two PCs, one HP N36L microserver and the
> other an Asus EEE PC 1005HA netbook (booting the same USB drive).
>
> Could it be, that the initrd image is somehow to big, hitting some limit?
>
> This is the RIPLinux mini distro. I encountered this problem a few
> versions back. I suspect the image size, as it
> gets bigger from release to release.
> Currently it is 147.790.634 bytes big.
>
> Booting the same files from a CD works, but that uses a different
> bootloader (distro official ISO image, uses isolinux, I think).
>
> The problem I am describing is with RIPLinux release 13.5, I used the
> files from this download:
> http://rip.7bf.de/current/RIPLinuX-13.5.iso
> (I guess they will move it after a while to
> http://rip.7bf.de/all_mirrored_versions/ )
>
> So, can please someone point me in a direction, where the problem could lie?
>
> Checking the initrd image file with gzip gives an OK.

I decompressed the initrd file (using 7-zip) and booted the
decompressed version and that works.
The decompressed file size is 243.040.768 bytes.

I also tried the original, compressed initrd on a third PC, booting
from grub4dos too.
There the kernel hangs on EDD check (know BIOS issue on this PC), but
after adding edd=off it boots fine.

Regards,
David

PS: Please CC me any replies, thanks.
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