Grub doesn't account for the kernel vmalloc= parameter when finding where to place initrd, causing booting with vmalloc=256m to produce an error such as follows: 3232MB HIGHMEM available. 864MB LOWMEM available. initrd extends beyond end of memory (0x37fef0e1 > 0x36000000) disabling initrd The kernel panics soon after. The problem and a workaround are documented in this posting: http://linux.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/Kernel/2006-06/msg09537.html
hpa's response to this on lkml ( http://linux.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/Kernel/2006-06/msg09868.html ) is correct. If this is to happen, it needs to happen in the kernel. It's not just grub that picks the highest available memory to load the initrd in - it's grub, syslinux, pxelinux, and other bootloaders on other platforms. This needs to be fixed at the right place - in the kernel.
This request was evaluated by Red Hat Product Management for inclusion in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux maintenance release. Product Management has requested further review of this request by Red Hat Engineering, for potential inclusion in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Update release for currently deployed products. This request is not yet committed for inclusion in an Update release.
Created attachment 365080 [details] backport of referenced patch can you please give this patch a try and see if it corrects your issue? Thanks!
ping, any update here?
Casey, ping, any update on this?
Sorry. I think I was running into some weirdness trying to get the patch to apply in the build. Back on top of it now.
Ok, please let me know.
casey, ping once again. I'm going to close this if I don't get some feedback here at some point soon.
Delivered the patched kernel. Waiting for it to get tested. I'll see if I can push things a bit quicker.
~~ Attention Customers and Partners - RHEL 5.5 Beta is now available on RHN ~~ RHEL 5.5 Beta has been released! There should be a fix present in this release that addresses your request. Please test and report back results here, by March 3rd 2010 (2010-03-03) or sooner. Upon successful verification of this request, post your results and update the Verified field in Bugzilla with the appropriate value. If you encounter any issues while testing, please describe them and set this bug into NEED_INFO. If you encounter new defects or have additional patch(es) to request for inclusion, please clone this bug per each request and escalate through your support representative.
My apologies. This items is scheduled for inclusion in Snapshot 1.
An advisory has been issued which should help the problem described in this bug report. This report is therefore being closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For more information on therefore solution and/or where to find the updated files, please follow the link below. You may reopen this bug report if the solution does not work for you. http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2010-0178.html
Clearing out needinfo requests. Chris Lalancette