I am observing the following. We are using linux 2.6.23 kernel crashkernel=128M at 16M We also have few kernel modules in our code base. The kernel modules are gzip'ed in the cpio archive which is included in the .init.ramfs section of vmlinux When the size of the .init.ramfs section goes beyond certain limit then it corrupts the crash kernel reserved area. If the .init.ramfs size is 0x33d0f6 then things work ok. If the init.ramfs size is 0x4be430 then it corrupts the crashkernel area. Any pointers for further debugging?