20M is indeed to small.
My understanding is that 20M is a location, not a size.
Yes.
The ramdisk (incl. kernel modules) is on the order of 26M; I've tried setting it to 32M - this setting is what
allows
the kernel to actually start; however (as previously mentioned), the kernel is unable to mount the ramdisk.
Because the kernel is looking at 20M and you moved it to 32M?
No. These are the parameters passed to the kernel. What I have seen in the past is the ramdisk being loaded close enough to the kernel that the kernel stomps it, and corrupts it in early startup. This should be diagnosable by looking at the boot up messages from the kernel startup.
Sorry I misunderstood. I'm surprised that 16M wasn't enough room to keep the kernel from overwriting the initrd.
Thanks, Myles