14.3.2. Linux crashes when uncompressing the kernel

Question:

When I try to boot Linux, it crashes during uncompressing the kernel image:

=> bootm 100000
## Booting image at 00100000 ...
Image Name: Linux-2.4.25
Image Type: PowerPC Linux Kernel Image (gzip compressed)
Data Size: 1003065 Bytes = 979.6 kB
Load Address: 00000000
Entry Point: 00000000
Verifying Checksum ... OK
Uncompressing Kernel Image ... Error: inflate() returned -3
GUNZIP ERROR - must RESET board to recover

Answer:

Your kernel image is quite big - nearly 1 MB compressed; when it gets uncompressed it will need 2.5 ... 3 MB, starting at address 0x0000. But your compressed image was stored at 1 MB (0x100000), so the uncompressed code will overwrite the (remaining) compressed image. The solution is thus simple: just use a higher address to download the compressed image into RAM. For example, try:

=> bootm 400000