Description of problem:

[root@xen-card boot]# ls
config-2.6.15-1.1955_FC5guest      mkinitrd.diff
grub                               System.map-2.6.15-1.1955_FC5guest
initrd-2.6.15-1.1955_FC5guest.img  System.map-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5.z1
lost+found                         vmlinuz-2.6.15-1.1955_FC5guest
mkinitrd                           vmlinuz-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5.z1
[root@xen-card boot]# ls /lib/modules
2.6.15-1.1955_FC5guest  2.6.15-1.2054_FC5.z1
[root@xen-card boot]# mkinitrd initrd-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5.z1.img 2.6.15-1.2054_FC5.z1
/sbin/mkinitrd: line 975: initrd-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5.z1.img: Permission denied
[root@xen-card boot]# 

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

[root@xen-card boot]# rpm -q mkinitrd
mkinitrd-5.0.32-1

How reproducible:

100% under given conditions

Steps to Reproduce:
0. Create a standard Xen guest with /usr/sbin/xenguest-install.py
1. Boot into the Xen guest
2. Build a custom kernel
3. make modules_install
4. cp vmlinu* /boot  (well, has to have good names, see above)
5. Run mkinitrd as above

Actual results:

"Permission denied" message

Expected results:

Normal compressed cpio image

Additional info:

The problem is caused by unbalanced pushd, so mkinitd attempts to create
the image inside sysfs. Running with a full path argument works around it.

This problem may be present outside of Xen, just latent due to different
boot devices or other layout differences.

Please see the patch (to be attached).