Aha, I know that problem. You have to reset the persistency using
something like this (before serialization and after loading):

        kernel persistency: PRNullPersistency new

Arf, at one point I wanted to try that ! but I forgot :) Thanks Lukas...

The persistency references a semaphore and semaphores obviously don't
like to be serialized.

Btw, I saw that you have PRImagePersistency set in your image. This
will sooner or later result in corrupted sources and changes, if you
manually change code or load packages in the image. You have been
warned!

uhm !

What the alternative then... change the persistency to PRNullPersistency, makes changes and updates and then redo image persistency.
I've seen there are evolutions to ImagePersistency in the last commits...

Cédrick

ps: btw, I found pier really great as a user :) I serve it at home ans this is working nicely. I have suggestions as an admin page per default but I'llcome back later for that ... :)