diff --git a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
index 030a954ed292..0c6387d6a6ae 100644
--- a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
+++ b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
@@ -633,7 +633,8 @@
 	. = ALIGN(PAGE_SIZE);						\
 	VMLINUX_SYMBOL(__initramfs_start) = .;				\
 	*(.init.ramfs)							\
-	VMLINUX_SYMBOL(__initramfs_end) = .;
+	. = ALIGN(8);							\
+	*(.init.ramfs.info)
 #else
 #define INIT_RAM_FS
 #endif
diff --git a/init/initramfs.c b/init/initramfs.c
index 4b9c20205092..371c3da64ad3 100644
--- a/init/initramfs.c
+++ b/init/initramfs.c
@@ -483,7 +483,8 @@ static int __init retain_initrd_param(char *str)
 }
 __setup("retain_initrd", retain_initrd_param);
 
-extern char __initramfs_start[], __initramfs_end[];
+extern char __initramfs_start[];
+extern unsigned long __initramfs_size;
 #include <linux/initrd.h>
 #include <linux/kexec.h>
 
@@ -570,8 +571,7 @@ static void __init clean_rootfs(void)
 
 static int __init populate_rootfs(void)
 {
-	char *err = unpack_to_rootfs(__initramfs_start,
-			 __initramfs_end - __initramfs_start);
+	char *err = unpack_to_rootfs(__initramfs_start, __initramfs_size);
 	if (err)
 		panic(err);	/* Failed to decompress INTERNAL initramfs */
 	if (initrd_start) {
@@ -585,8 +585,7 @@ static int __init populate_rootfs(void)
 			return 0;
 		} else {
 			clean_rootfs();
-			unpack_to_rootfs(__initramfs_start,
-				 __initramfs_end - __initramfs_start);
+			unpack_to_rootfs(__initramfs_start, __initramfs_size);
 		}
 		printk(KERN_INFO "rootfs image is not initramfs (%s)"
 				"; looks like an initrd\n", err);
diff --git a/usr/initramfs_data.S b/usr/initramfs_data.S
index 49a545fea120..b9efed5e35cc 100644
--- a/usr/initramfs_data.S
+++ b/usr/initramfs_data.S
@@ -11,11 +11,7 @@
   -T initramfs_data.scr initramfs_data.cpio.gz -o initramfs_data.o
    ld -m elf_i386  -r -o built-in.o initramfs_data.o
 
-  initramfs_data.scr looks like this:
-SECTIONS
-{
-       .init.ramfs : { *(.data) }
-}
+  For including the .init.ramfs sections, see include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.
 
   The above example is for i386 - the parameters vary from architectures.
   Eventually look up LDFLAGS_BLOB in an older version of the
@@ -28,4 +24,14 @@ SECTIONS
 #include <linux/stringify.h>
 
 .section .init.ramfs,"a"
+__irf_start:
 .incbin __stringify(INITRAMFS_IMAGE)
+__irf_end:
+.section .init.ramfs.info,"a"
+.globl __initramfs_size
+__initramfs_size:
+#ifdef CONFIG_32BIT
+	.long __irf_end - __irf_start
+#else
+	.quad __irf_end - __irf_start
+#endif