# initramfs not working in 2.6.23 {solved - somehow}

## albright

Hi all. After switching to 2.6.23 I notice that the initramfs

is not working any more. I must spend 5 seconds looking

at tux and a few boot messages.

Here's the relevant part of my grub.conf (the kernel line is *really* just 1 line):

```

title=Gentoo 2.6.23 TEST (3)

root (hd0,4)

kernel /boot/2.6.23_2 root=/dev/sda5 elevator=cfq video=vesafb:ywrap,mtrr vga=0x317 splash=silent,fadein,theme:livecd-2007.0 quiet CONSOLE=/dev/tty1

initrd /boot/fbsplash-livecd-2007.0-1024x768

```

Has there been some change in 2.6.23 that I should know about?

----------

## tarpman

If you're talking specifically about fbcondecor, mine isn't working either, but I haven't had time to look at why.  There haven't been any changes to initramfs loading that I know about.  No, an initramfs is not specific to a kernel; it is just a cpio archive.

----------

## albright

I went to the trouble of building the kernel (2.6.23-r1-tuxonice)

with fbcondecor stuff + uvesa stuff. Rebuilt splashutils and

themes. Rebuilt initramfs.

Still no dice. I am getting tired of watching the penguin. This

is a 2.6.23 problem since the initramfs stuff works perfectly

with 2.6.22.

It just looks so **amateur**  :Sad: 

----------

## TheUNabeefer

Oh good, I'm not the only one.  I have gotten uvesafb to work fine and dandy.... nice and hi-res bootup with my teeeeeny-tiny fonts, but getting the decor part to work or the prettiness (as my sister calls it).... yeah, just doesn't show.

I have tried remerging splashutils, deleting and adding fbcondecor to my boot or default runlevels...  I've tried all sorts of things with my kernel.  Still, just the penguin on black.

[edit]  Well, I got the splash screen working on Silent, but not Verbose.  Back to messing around with things....  [/edit]

----------

## daithi

I had a similar problem.

Updated splashutils and then went to 2.6.23-tuxonice-r1 and the verbose splash screen stopped working.

Noticed I forgot to set "Graphics Support -> Console display driver support -> Support for the Framebuffer Console Decorations" so I enabled it, rebuilt kernel, booted it, rebuilt splashutils, regenerated my theme and it worked.

As a side note, the hibernate seemed to work correctly without the above enabled in the kernel. After getting the splash working hibernate stopped behaving. After a resume the entire desktop consists of randomly drawn lines and boxes, filled with random colours. Colours which change when you move the mouse or rotate the cube.  If I blindly feel my way around and manage to log out of Gnome,  for a split second, everything looks okay again, and then I'm dumped back on TTY1 (I don't use GDM/KDM/XDM, just startx and ~/.xinitrc).

IIRC, that penguin boot logo can not work with the splash screen? Try disabling it.

----------

## albright

Well, I never had trouble with the splashscreen (verbose of

silent).

My problem is that the initramfs is not loading so I am

forced to watch boot messages for about 5 seconds (which

is a long time to be embarrassed about gentoo).

It makes no difference if the bootlogo option is selected or

not in the kernel. If it is not then of course I don't see the

penguin, but I still get the 5 seconds of amateur-land  :Sad: 

Probably this will work in a newer revision of 2.6.23 ...

----------

## TheUNabeefer

 *daithi wrote:*   

> Noticed I forgot to set "Graphics Support -> Console display driver support -> Support for the Framebuffer Console Decorations" so I enabled it, rebuilt kernel, booted it, rebuilt splashutils, regenerated my theme and it worked.
> 
> 

 

That got ME working.. It's always something simple, aint it?

...and as for the 5 seconds of kernel messages, are they they type that go away when you put "quiet" into your kernel line in grub/lilo config?

----------

## daithi

 *TheUNabeefer wrote:*   

> That got ME working.. It's always something simple, aint it?

 

It is indeed normally something simple ... or else it's the Intel 855GM.

Can you post the error message that you get, if any? Maybe regenerate your theme. Maybe rebuild splashutils. Maybe reference your initrd file from / instead of /boot/? I'm just blind guessing now...

Meanwhile ... after some more rebuilding tools, reading config files and a few reboots, hibernate is now working for me ... with splash ... although sadly for me verbose mode only, as my 855GM displays the silent screen with random messed up colour on a shutdown. Also it won't allow me to use animations like progress bars. And also it won't let me use >= 8bit color (has to be something like 248 colours or less in the picture. Will not load it if it has the full 255.).

----------

## dfelicia

 *Quote:*   

> My problem is that the initramfs is not loading

 

I'm having the same problem after upgrading to 2.6.23, but only on one of my machines.  The system that isn't working uses software RAID + LVM2.  In my grub.conf, I'm explicitly stating which drive has by initrd image.

From fstab:

```
/dev/md0    /boot    ext2     noauto,noatime 1 2
```

From mdadm.conf:

```
ARRAY           /dev/md0 devices=/dev/sda1,/dev/sdb1
```

From grub.conf:

```

title=Gentoo Linux (2.6.23-gentoo-r3 splash)

   root (hd0,0)

   kernel /kernel-2.6.23-gentoo-r3 root=/dev/md1 video=uvesafb:1600x1200-32@85,mtrr,ywrap splash=verbose,fadein,theme:livecd-2007.0 quiet CONSOLE=/dev/tty1

   initrd (hd0,0)/boot/fbsplash-2.6.23-gentoo-r3

```

Error I get is something along the lines of "Can't find cfg  file: /etc/splash/livecd-2007.0/1600x1200.cfg"

I can 

```
zcat /boot/fbsplash-2.6.23-gentoo-r3 | cpio --list
```

 and see that all the needed files are present, so I'm assuming the problem lies with loading my initrd image.

----------

## tarpman

I may as well put in my two cents worth:  My / is encrypted, so I boot off a USB stick (with GRUB and kernel on it), using a custom initramfs and init script.  I have a command in my init script to manually repaint the fbcondecor after I enter my passphrase, which always works; but until that happens the screen is just black (since I have quiet on my kernel command line).  So, I suspect that everything is being set up properly but the fbcondecor isn't being initially painted until it's told to - for me, by my init script; for the rest of you, once init starts and the progress bar starts causing it to repaint from time to time.

----------

## albright

And I should say that I solved the initramfs problem. I re-rebuilt

the kernel, klibc, and the initramfs images and then it started

to work ... So what I'm saying is that I don't really know how

I fixed it   :Confused: 

----------

## mbell

 *albright wrote:*   

> And I should say that I solved the initramfs problem. I re-rebuilt
> 
> the kernel, klibc, and the initramfs images and then it started
> 
> to work ... So what I'm saying is that I don't really know how
> ...

 

A similar method worked for me. For whatever reason, "Graphics Support -> Console display driver support -> Support for the Framebuffer Console Decorations" wasn't set in my kernel, so I set that, recompiled, and booted the new kernel. Then, I rebuilt klibc, splashutils, and recreated the initramfs images, and it worked on the next boot. As albright said though, it's hard to tell where exactly the problem lies.

----------

## overkll

Just follow spock's instructions regarding fbcondecor and uvesafb.

----------

## dariohy

Am I just loosing something, or why is it that I can not find the 

```
Graphics Support -> Console display driver support -> Support for the Framebuffer Console Decorations
```

 option??

All I see when I get there is something like this:

```
--- VGA text console

   [*]   Enable Scrollback Buffer in System RAM

   (128)   Scrollback Buffer Size (in KB)

   [*]   Video mode selection support

   <*> Framebuffer Console support

   [*]   Map the console to the primary display device

   [ ]   Framebuffer Console Rotation

   [ ] Select compiled-in fonts
```

 I have gone through the process described in spock's fbcondecor site and I can't get to make my console decorations to work... Initramsfs is working ok, I can see the progress bar while booting, but when I switch to verbose 'F2', console is just... black and borred... what's going on?

----------

## overkll

Are you using a 2.6.23 based kernel?

gentoo-sources-2.6.23-r3:

```
--- VGA text console                                             

[*]   Enable Scrollback Buffer in System RAM               

(128)   Scrollback Buffer Size (in KB)                      

[*]   Video mode selection support                              

< > MDA text console (dual-headed) (EXPERIMENTAL)           

<*> Framebuffer Console support                                

[ ]   Map the console to the primary display device           

[ ]   Framebuffer Console Rotation                              

[*]   Support for the Framebuffer Console Decorations           

[ ] Select compiled-in fonts    

```

----------

## dariohy

 *overkill wrote:*   

> Are you using a 2.6.23 based kernel?

 

Yup!

```
Linux test05 2.6.23-gentoo-r3 #6 SMP Sat Dec 8 13:46:10 CST 2007 i686 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T7200 @ 2.00GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
```

----------

## fb

 *dariohy wrote:*   

> Am I just loosing something, or why is it that I can not find the 
> 
> ```
> Graphics Support -> Console display driver support -> Support for the Framebuffer Console Decorations
> ```
> ...

 

You have gone further than me. I wish I had at least the progress bar. I'll look those kernel options

again the decorations are probably dependent of another option somewhere.

----------

