diff --git a/cmd/control/install.go b/cmd/control/install.go
index 7fbdbda8..fc701208 100755
--- a/cmd/control/install.go
+++ b/cmd/control/install.go
@@ -975,6 +975,7 @@ func installRancher(baseName, bootDir, VERSION, DIST, kappend string) error {
 			log.Errorf("copy %s: %s", file.Name(), err)
 			return err
 		}
+		log.Debugf("copied %s to %s as %s", filepath.Join(DIST, file.Name()), filepath.Join(baseName, bootDir), file.Name())
 	}
 	// the general INCLUDE syslinuxcfg
 	if err := dfs.CopyFile(filepath.Join(DIST, "isolinux", "isolinux.cfg"), filepath.Join(baseName, bootDir, "syslinux"), "syslinux.cfg"); err != nil {
diff --git a/scripts/integration-test b/scripts/integration-test
index 08c6f487..41db580c 100755
--- a/scripts/integration-test
+++ b/scripts/integration-test
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ source $(dirname $0)/version
 
 cd $(dirname $0)/../tests
 
-if [ ! -e ../dist/artifacts/initrd ]; then
+if [ ! -e "$INITRD" ]; then
     ../scripts/dev
 fi
 
diff --git a/scripts/isolinux_label.cfg b/scripts/isolinux_label.cfg
index 00d56b98..14ceb76b 100644
--- a/scripts/isolinux_label.cfg
+++ b/scripts/isolinux_label.cfg
@@ -4,8 +4,6 @@ DEFAULT rancheros-${LABEL}
 LABEL rancheros-${LABEL}
     SAY rancheros-${LABEL}: RancherOS ${VERSION} ${KERNEL_VERSION}
     KERNEL /boot/vmlinuz-${KERNEL_VERSION}
-    INITRD /boot/initrd
-    #TODO - once we work out how to append it for qemu-dev,/boot/linuxmods-${KERNEL_VERSION}
-    #APPEND quiet rancher.autologin=tty1 rancher.autologin=ttyS0 ${APPEND}
-    #INCLUDE global.cfg
+    INITRD /boot/initrd-${VERSION}
+    # see global.cfg for kernel boot parameters
 
diff --git a/scripts/package-initrd b/scripts/package-initrd
index 3213e22f..9b6447fc 100755
--- a/scripts/package-initrd
+++ b/scripts/package-initrd
@@ -3,10 +3,11 @@ set -e
 
 cd $(dirname $0)/..
 
+source scripts/version
+
 BUILD=$(pwd)/build
 INITRD_DIR=${BUILD}/initrd
 ARTIFACTS=$(pwd)/dist/artifacts
-INITRD=${ARTIFACTS}/initrd
 
 mkdir -p ${ARTIFACTS}
 
diff --git a/scripts/package-installer b/scripts/package-installer
index 9f9ad785..0eb013de 100755
--- a/scripts/package-installer
+++ b/scripts/package-installer
@@ -8,11 +8,14 @@ source ./scripts/version
 BASEDOCKERFILE=./scripts/installer/BaseDockerfile.${ARCH}
 DOCKERFILE=./scripts/installer/Dockerfile.${ARCH}
 
-if [ ! -f $DOCKERFILE ] || [ ! -f dist/artifacts/vmlinuz-${KERNEL_VERSION} ] || [ ! -f dist/artifacts/initrd ]; then
-    exit 0
+if [ ! -f $DOCKERFILE ] || [ ! -f dist/artifacts/vmlinuz-${KERNEL_VERSION} ] || [ ! -f ${INITRD} ]; then
+    echo "ERROR: ${ARTIFACTS}/vmlinuz-${KERNEL_VERSION}  or ${INITRD} not found"
+    exit 1
 fi
 
 # TODO maybe extract the creation of the syslinux cfg files
+DIST=$(pwd)/dist
+echo "mkdir -p ${DIST}/boot/isolinux/"
 mkdir -p ${DIST}/boot/isolinux/
 cat scripts/isolinux.cfg | envsubst >         ${DIST}/boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg
 cat scripts/isolinux_label.cfg | LABEL=${VERSION} envsubst >   ${DIST}/boot/linux-current.cfg
@@ -35,7 +38,7 @@ docker build \
 docker save -o dist/artifacts/installer.tar ${OS_REPO}/os-installer
 cp $DOCKERFILE dist/artifacts/
 
-cp ./dist/artifacts/initrd ./scripts/installer/build/boot
+cp ${INITRD} ./scripts/installer/build/boot
 cp ./dist/artifacts/vmlinuz-${KERNEL_VERSION} ./scripts/installer/build/boot
 cp -r ${DIST}/boot/* ./scripts/installer/build/boot
 cp $DOCKERFILE ./scripts/installer/build/Dockerfile
diff --git a/scripts/package-iso b/scripts/package-iso
index c549eb24..f9f18f5b 100755
--- a/scripts/package-iso
+++ b/scripts/package-iso
@@ -13,11 +13,12 @@ CHECKSUM=iso-checksums.txt
 mkdir -p ${CD}/boot/isolinux
 mkdir -p ${CD}/rancheros
 
-if [ ! -f ${ARTIFACTS}/vmlinuz-${KERNEL_VERSION} ] || [ ! -f ${ARTIFACTS}/initrd ]; then
-    exit 0
+if [ ! -f ${ARTIFACTS}/vmlinuz-${KERNEL_VERSION} ] || [ ! -f ${INITRD} ]; then
+    echo "ERROR: ${ARTIFACTS}/vmlinuz-${KERNEL_VERSION}  or ${INITRD} not found"
+    exit 1
 fi
 
-cp ${ARTIFACTS}/initrd                        ${CD}/boot
+cp ${INITRD}                        ${CD}/boot
 
 # TODO: these move to os-kernel
 pwd
@@ -26,6 +27,7 @@ cp ${ARTIFACTS}/vmlinuz-${KERNEL_VERSION}     ${CD}/boot/
 #TODO cp ${ARTIFACTS}/linuxmods-${KERNEL_VERSION}   ${CD}/boot/
 
 # cfg files creation moved to package-installer
+DIST=$(pwd)/dist
 cp -r ${DIST}/boot/* ${CD}/boot/
 
 cp /usr/lib/ISOLINUX/isolinux.bin             ${CD}/boot/isolinux/
diff --git a/scripts/version b/scripts/version
index e9949750..7370e7af 100755
--- a/scripts/version
+++ b/scripts/version
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
 if [ -n "$(git status --porcelain --untracked-files=no)" ]; then
     DIRTY="-dirty"
 fi
@@ -13,7 +15,8 @@ if [ -z "$VERSION" ]; then
     fi
 fi
 
-export VERSION COMMIT
+INITRD=${ARTIFACTS}/initrd-${VERSION}
+export VERSION COMMIT INITRD
 
 # Suffix
 export SUFFIX=""