Debian – Getting debug output from a debian initramfs

debiandebugginginitramfslvmraid

I'm attempting to configure a server for a debian lenny on software raid0 and a LVM root filesystem via the serial console and the hosting company's recovery console (basically an ubuntu liveCD).

After configuring the raid0, establishing LVM, running debootstrap, installing grub, etc, I reboot, and the server hangs in boot, before reaching init. Based on the kernel log messages, the raid array was brought online, and possibly LVM as well (sorry, don't have the exact log messages right now, but will tomorrow).

There is absolutely no error output from the initramfs scripts themselves – only kernel log messages. How can I get the initramfs to produce some useful debug output so I can at least determine where it dies?

Best Answer

It appears that the problem was the console was specified twice on the kernel command line:

.... console=ttyS0,57600 console=tty0

Although kernel messages went to both consoles, userspace messages presumably only went to the latter.