[uml-user] sparse files as root images

[<ro...@mm...>]

Hi List,

I'm trying to create a root image.
So far I'm creating the underlying file as a sparse file with:

dd if=/dev/zero of=$OUTFS bs=1024 count=1 seek=$((20*1024*1024-1))

but I'm having kernel panics (not syncing) whenever I try to run various
commands inside UML.

So far I got kernel panics with top and updatedb.

Please consider that I am able to boot into UML. The trouble begins when
I'm trying to actually use the beast.

Background:
kernel.3.1.4, built with defconfig ARCH=um
host OS = Slackware.13.37
Guest OS = Slackware.13.37
Host RAM=256MB
Guest RAM= mem=128M

Thank you for your time,
-Stathis