BIOS Upgrade - Linux on USB Key no longer boots

[iminj]

I have a version of slax which was successfully booting on my R40 from a SanDisk Cruzer Micro USB flash drive (512Mb).

I recently upgraded the system BIOS from ver. 1.29 (1PET61WW) to ver. 1.30 (1PET62WW) .. just released Oct. 19, 2005, and now slax will no longer boot. The system recognizes the USB Key, and loads the linux kernel -- however, it consistently freezes while loading initrd.gz. I also have the same distro on a liveCD, and oddly - it boots completely from the CD drive.

I downgraded to the older BIOS, and now I can boot from the USB key once again.

Is this a bug with the new BIOS? Is it worthwhile bringing the problem to the attention of Lenovo/IBM .. or should I seek a patch for the initrd file ?

Thanks

[iminj]

I am still trying to solve this.

1.8. /initrd (from www.tldp.org)

"initrd provides the capability to load a RAM disk by the boot
loader. This RAM disk can then be mounted as the root file
system and programs can be run from it. Afterwards, a new
root file system can be mounted from a different device. The
previous root (from initrd) is then moved to a directory and
can be subsequently unmounted.

initrd is mainly designed to allow system startup to occur
in two phases, where the kernel comes up with a minimum set
of compiled-in drivers, and where additional modules are
loaded from initrd."

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Does anyone have any idea what Lenovo could have done to its recently released BIOS for the ThinkPad R40 that would prevent initrd from loading a RAM disk when booting from a USB Key (SCSI emulation ?), while permitting the same initrd file to boot from the CD drive?

Thanks.