@abcdw I suspect that's the spot where execution is supposed to pass from the initrd to the real root.

Looks like it's governed by gnu/build/linux-boot.scm, line 443. It doesn't output any messages unless /home exists or /init doesn't.

It does disconnect/reconnect the console. Maybe there's a race condition or something there?

It's also possible, down at line 660, that to-load isn't defined, so all of that is being skipped.