Comment # 3 on bug 1180381 from Berthold Gunreben

(In reply to Petr Tesa������������k from comment #2)
> (In reply to Sarah Kriesch from comment #1)
> >           '    91 *-* \'punch ftpboot initrd t (noh\'                       
> > ',
> >           '       >>>   "punch ftpboot initrd t (noh"                       
> > ',
> >           'DMSPUN044E Record exceeds allowable maximum                      
> > ',
> >           '       +++ RC(32) +++                                            
> > ',
> 
> AFAICS this is the root cause. The initrd could not be added to the virtual
> punch. Since no block device driver is built in, and the dasd kernel module
> was in the initrd (which is missing), the kernel cannot mount any root
> device and panics.
> 
> I'd like to understand why we're getting the DMS044E error message from CMS.

Good catch. And it I also don't understand it so far. So, what qaboot does is
retrieve the file (ftpboot.initrd.t) from the ftpserver, and then uses pipe
with fblock to created fixed length records.

'pipe < ftpboot initrd t | fblock 80 00 | > ftpboot initrd t'

For some reason, that does not seem to work as desired. For a slightly more
verbose version of the error, see

https://www.vm.ibm.com/library/640pdfs/64616105.pdf

Page 43 (PDF Page 57):
Explanation: The record length given exceeds the maximum record length allowed.
For more information on the maximum record lengths allowed by the EDIT,PRINT
and PUNCH commands, refer to z/VM: CMS Commands and Utilities Reference. 

System action:RC=32. Execution of the command is terminated. The system status
remains the same.
User response:
...
For DMSPUN, you can change the record length with the COPYFILE command, and
then reissue thecommand.

Maybe we could have a LISTFILE on the contents of the T mode before the files
get punched (would have to be added to qaboot rexx).