[Bug 1835660] Re: initramfs unpacking failed

[John Gilmore]

This happened for me yesterday, when booting the main Ubuntu 20.04 beta
x86_64 iso on real hardware (not a virtual machine).  It has a graphical
splash screen but in the upper left corner I get this "console" message.
Then eventually in a few seconds, after it has fully booted, that splash
screen is replaced and the system has booted up fine.  But it's a worry-
producing message that should really not be there.  If the kernel is
actually able to handle the stock ISO's initramfs, then please change
the kernel boot process to not produce an error message when there is no
error.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1835660

Title:
  initramfs unpacking failed

Status in initramfs-tools package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in linux package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  "initramfs unpacking failed: Decoding failed",  message appears on
  boot up.

  If I "update-initramfs" using gzip instead of lz, then boot up passes
  without decoding failed message.

  ---

  However, we currently believe that the decoding error reported in
  dmesg is actually harmless and has no impact on usability on the
  system.

  Switching from lz4 to gzip compression, simply papers over the
  warning, without any benefits, and slows down boot.

  Kernel should be fixed to correctly parse lz4 compressed initrds, or
  at least lower the warning, to not be user visible as an error.

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