Bug 148755

Created attachment 111079 [details]
dmesg output (kernel 2.6.10-1.14_FC2smp with acpi=off)

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.

Come on. This bug has been there for long enough to be at least reproduced if
not fixed. It's not fair to leave it there and ask the reporter to reopen it
periodically.

Actually I haven't tried with FC3 and I can't update that particular workstation
right now, but I can reproduce that with the following FC2 kernel:
2.6.10-1.771_FC2. Since this version of the kernel is also available with FC3
I'm 100% certain the bug is still present in FC3.

Can you provide the dmesg output (using serial probably) when the system
actually hangs.. 

Is there any HOWTO for capturing boot messages through serial port?

I've searched the Red Hat manuals and Google withotu finding anything useful.


For what it's worth, I've tried booting with these options:
console=tty0 console=ttyS0,9600

Unfortunately:
1) I'm not sure how to capture the serial flow on the other end. I've tried:
cat /dev/ttyS0 > /LOG
but the result is not nice (looks like ANSI control chars garble the messages)
2) The boot process looks like it stops inside initrc when using the serial
console, sooner than without the serial.

Just answering myself for the benefit of users who read this bug report.

The main reference seems to be:
http://howtos.linux.com/howtos/Remote-Serial-Console-HOWTO/
but see also:
http://www.sabalsoftware.com/article_debuggingKernelModules.php
http://www.cpqlinux.com/boot_err_capture.html

I'll try captruring boot messages again.

Pheeew... I took 3 skilled programmers a few days to find a solution how to
retrieve boot messages from serial. It turned out minicom wasn't set up
properly. It would really be nice to describe basic kernel "debugging" in the
manuals, it's far from being straightforward.

Anyway, please find the logs attached. Please note that the system hangs while
init launches services, after the kernel has booted.

Created attachment 114567 [details]
startup logs

An update has been released for Fedora Core 3 (kernel-2.6.12-1.1372_FC3) which
may contain a fix for your problem.   Please update to this new kernel, and
report whether or not it fixes your problem.

If you have updated to Fedora Core 4 since this bug was opened, and the problem
still occurs with the latest updates for that release, please change the version
field of this bug to 'fc4'.

Thank you.

This bug has been mass-closed along with all other bugs that
have been in NEEDINFO state for several months.

Due to the large volume of inactive bugs in bugzilla, this
is the only method we have of cleaning out stale bug reports
where the reporter has disappeared.

If you can reproduce this bug with current FC3 updates, please
reopen this bug.

If you are not the reporter, you can add a comment requesting
it be reopened, and someone will get to it asap.

If you are not the reporter, but can reproduce this problem against
FC4, please open a new bug.

Thank you.

Just FYI, we have upgraded our Dell Precision 670 workstations form FC2 to FC4
and "acpi=off" is not needed anymore. As far as I'm concerned the bug is indeed
fixed.

good to hear, thanks for the update.