Add the 'cat' compression option to the list for consistency's sake as it was mentioned in the comment above. Also sorts the various options by their compression efficiency based on compressing the fallback image by each of the respective methods (default options). % ls -Sl 17140224 initramfs-linux-fallback.img 8375766 initramfs-linux-fallback.img.lzo 6039365 initramfs-linux-fallback.img.gz 5394818 initramfs-linux-fallback.img.bz2 4058536 initramfs-linux-fallback.img.xz 4057855 initramfs-linux-fallback.img.lzma --- a/mkinitcpio.conf 2013-07-18 14:23:43.000000000 -0400 +++ b/mkinitcpio.conf 2013-11-03 02:52:35.974235044 -0500 @@ -54,11 +54,12 @@ # COMPRESSION # Use this to compress the initramfs image. By default, gzip compression # is used. Use 'cat' to create an uncompressed image. +#COMPRESSION="cat" +#COMPRESSION="lzop" #COMPRESSION="gzip" #COMPRESSION="bzip2" -#COMPRESSION="lzma" #COMPRESSION="xz" -#COMPRESSION="lzop" +#COMPRESSION="lzma" # COMPRESSION_OPTIONS # Additional options for the compressor