“checking if image is initramfs… it isn’t (bad gzip magic numbers)”

If your initramfs grew too big (Hardy 8.04 Ubuntu, anyone?) and you use LILO because your /boot partition is in a LVM, you must add the line below to /etc/lilo.conf and re-run /sbin/lilo:

large-memory

Roland Dreier noticed LILO can’t load a big initramfs using the default options. He confirmed those suspicions with yaird, which creates a slimmer (albeit less generic) initramfs that LILO loaded under the 15 MB mark.

Drop into a console when your installation finishes, right before rebooting.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 12:44 am and is filed under Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to ““checking if image is initramfs… it isn’t (bad gzip magic numbers)””

  1. Sean McGrath Says:
    August 4, 2008 at 2:35 am

    “Drop into a console when your installation finishes, right before rebooting.”
    Can you point me at lilo options to use?
    “/target/sbin/lilo -C /target/etc/lilo.conf -b /target/boot”
    says “warning: Ignoring entru ‘boot’”
    “Fatal: Not a RAID install, ‘raid-extra-boot=’ not allowed”

    Thanks
    Sean McGrath

  2. Sean McGrath Says:
    August 4, 2008 at 5:51 pm

    This worked for me, installing Ubuntu server 8.04.1 with LVM on RAID1:

    Before writing the boot records with LILO (if you get the location prompt go back),
    switch to a shell and say ‘nano /var/lib/info/lilo-installer.postinst’. You are edittiing the
    script on the ramdisk that creates /etc/lilo.conf. Locate (^w) ‘!! Reminder !!’.
    type ‘large-memory’ into the blank line after the comment. Save (^o) and quit(^x).
    Switch to the install screen and finish the install. Boot the new system.

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