Bug 129487
| Summary: | Unable to boot kernel on ANY Compaq system | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Product: | [Fedora] Fedora | Reporter: | David Nedrow <dnedrow> |
| Component: | kernel | Assignee: | Rik van Riel <riel> |
| Status: | CLOSED NEXTRELEASE | QA Contact: | Brian Brock <bbrock> |
| Severity: | high | Docs Contact: | |
| Priority: | medium | ||
| Version: | 2 | CC: | dennis, redhat, wtogami |
| Target Milestone: | --- | ||
| Target Release: | --- | ||
| Hardware: | i386 | ||
| OS: | Linux | ||
| Whiteboard: | |||
| Fixed In Version: | Doc Type: | Bug Fix | |
| Doc Text: | Story Points: | --- | |
| Clone Of: | Environment: | ||
| Last Closed: | 2005-04-16 05:59:11 UTC | Type: | --- |
| Regression: | --- | Mount Type: | --- |
| Documentation: | --- | CRM: | |
| Verified Versions: | Category: | --- | |
| oVirt Team: | --- | RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host: | |
| Cloudforms Team: | --- | Target Upstream Version: | |
| Embargoed: | |||
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Description
David Nedrow
2004-08-09 17:06:29 UTC
Just to clarify, I've also tried the uniprocessor kernels with the same result. Also, a number of people have recommended a kernel parameter of "ide=nodma" but that also made no difference. Hmmm, tracking the boot sequence more closely, it looks as though the Compaq Smart Array is not being detected by the default kernels in Cores 1, 2, and 3T1. If I replace the Fedora kernel with a custom one I've built, the array is detected and everything boots fine. OK, another update. If I install the system using my custom kernel on the bootdisk, the installed system still fails at boot up (even though the install went fine). Using suggestions from the mailing list, I booted via rescue mode from my custom boot disk, chrooted to /mnt/sysimage, and verified that the following lines were part of the /etc/modprobe.conf: alias scsi_hostadapter cpqarray alias scsi_hostadapter1 sym53c8xx I then ran mkinitrd to rebuild the initrd for kernel-smp-2.6.5-1.358smp. After doing this, I was able to boot without any problem. So, it looks as though there's something missing in the initrd that ships with Fedora. It looks as though EISA support may be missing from the kernel builds for Fedora Core. This is probably a major problem if so, since nearly all Compaq Proliants use EISA for add-on boards. Just watching to see how this goes as i have a proliant system i want to upgrade soon I'll try to reproduce the problem on a Proliant 2500 here. Hummmm, hardware trouble. Hopefully I'll be able to fix the 2500 and reproduce the bug later ... I have similar problems installing FC3 on a Compaq Proliant 2500R. Linux kernels need "mem=exactmap" hacks on this hardware. Without them, linux apparently only detects 640K, for reasons cited in bug 36940 and at http://www.cpqlinux.com/memory.html#METHOD3 -- the issue's come up occasionally, as recently as bug 115668. (I've successfully installed RH 6.0 and RH 7.0 on the Proliant 2500R using the "mem=exactmap" hacks. On my system, with 448M of RAM, the exact line is "mem=exactmap mem=640K@0M mem=447M@1M".) However, those hacks stopped working, perhaps with the 2.6 kernels. See bug 36940, comments 35-37. Since bug 36940 started with RH 7.1, the bug was closed with "not supported" boilerplate, which sidesteps the issue. Since it affects FC3 though, it's still a current bug. As above: When I try to install FC3 *without* using a "mem=..." trick, it loads the kernel, but complains about not having enough memory. Also as above: When I try to install FC3 *with* the "mem=..." trick, it hangs on "Uncompressing Linux... OK, booting the kernel." This all makes me think it's unrelated to the EISA problem, since the kernel at least loads if you don't use the "mem=" trick. Side note: Comment #2 above references the Smart Array not being detected. There's a bug in kernels starting around 2.4.19 that affects EISA Smart Array cards, I can reproduce it with my Smart 2/E. See http://www.cpqlinux.com/cpqarray-eisa.html for more info. bug 75335 and bug 70311 also both reference this problem. I'd *heard* that the fix for cpqarray would appear in the 2.6 kernel, but I don't know that for sure -- it's one of the reasons I'm trying to install FC3. Eureka! This is apparently *not* a compaq-specific bug. Just tested "mem=exactmap mem=128M@0M" on a Pentium II (asus P2L97, i440LX chipset), with 128M RAM. RH 7.0 install CD boots fine. FC3 install CD locks up at "Uncompressing Linux... OK, booting the kernel." Double eureka! I'm pretty sure this is a duplicate of bug 124312! (I haven't *completed* an FC3 install, but I've definitely beaten the "Uncompressing Linux... OK, booting the kernel." hang.) Use the mem=exactmap syntax from scenario 3 above, but change mem= to memmap=. Could someone at Redhat put something about this in the FC release notes for the next few releases? Something greppable about "exactmap" or "mem=" that suggested trying "memmap" would have saved me a few asprin. Another side note on the EISA Smart Array (cpqarray): http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-25338.html Triple eureka! FC3 installs on a Proliant 2500R, with an EISA Smart Array. changing "mem=" to "memmap=" is the fix. Fedora Core 2 has now reached end of life, and no further updates will be provided by Red Hat. The Fedora legacy project will be producing further kernel updates for security problems only. If this bug has not been fixed in the latest Fedora Core 2 update kernel, please try to reproduce it under Fedora Core 3, and reopen if necessary, changing the product version accordingly. Thank you. |