bootsplash's splash command ruins my initrd image

[jonantice]

I installed bootsplash, recompiled a kernel with the patch etc. I have it working fine now but there is one thing I don't understand.
Bootsplash provides a splash command to insert parts of the splash in the initrd image so they are available at boot. Acording to documentation, as root:

splash -s -f debblue/config/bootsplash-1024x768.cfg >> /boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-1-bs-k7

is the way to do it. However, if I do it this way my initrd image is rendered unbootable. The way I make it work is, after I've set a new theme to current, I run

dpkg-reconfigure linux-image-2.6.18-1-bs-k7

which I guess generates a new image with everything it needs because it works.
Has anyone else observed this behaviour? Is it a bug I should report?

[jonantice]

OK. I found the answer to my own question on the bootsplash.org FAQ so I'll post here in case anyone has this question in the future.

It turns out that the make-kpkg and debian configure scripts for etch are using the initramfs-tools package to build a compressed cpio randisk. A "bootsplash" file produced by "splash -s -f" is actually there in the root of the ramdisk image.

Catting the file onto the end of the ramdisk image basically destroys the compressed cpio format, and leads to the kernel panics.

So basically when the kernel is installed, everything is taken care of. So the method I described in my first post is correct for Debian I guess, and not a hack.