Bug 21318

Summary: Bootup halts on init
Product: [Retired] Red Hat Linux Reporter: Need Real Name <ws2>
Component: SysVinitAssignee: Bill Nottingham <notting>
Status: CLOSED NOTABUG QA Contact: Dale Lovelace <dale>
Severity: high Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: 7.0CC: rvokal
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: 2000-11-28 06:38:59 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:

Description Need Real Name 2000-11-25 01:18:40 UTC 
I did a workstation install onto my PIII/450 w/ 128mb and a Toshiba MK2016GAP.  I partitioned it with Partition Magic such that hda1->3Gb 
ext2, hda2->128Mb swap, hda3->extended, hda5->FAT32.  I installed Redhat 7 just fine and could boot up fine but then I moved the hardrive 
into my Netpliance I-opener.  I used to have Redhat 6.2 working in the I-opener but decided to get a bigger hard drive and upgrade.  Now it will 
boot up and gets to

VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 64k freed.

and then hangs.  I've tried using init=/bin/bash, init=rc.sysinit, and init=/sbin/init but none made any difference.  I have the basic MS-DOS 
system files on hda5 and the dos lilo option will boot dos fine.
Comment 1 Bill Nottingham 2000-11-28 05:44:44 UTC 
What happens if you try 'init=/bin/ash.static'?
Comment 2 Need Real Name 2000-11-28 06:08:20 UTC 
it gets to:

VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 64k freed
# 

and then fails.  The "#" sign is new.
Comment 3 Bill Nottingham 2000-11-28 06:13:18 UTC 
That's not failing - that's a shell prompt. :)

Unless you're saying the machine is hung at this point?
Comment 4 Bill Nottingham 2000-11-28 06:14:04 UTC 
If it's not hung, what happens if you run:

/bin/bash

from that shell prompt?
Comment 5 Need Real Name 2000-11-28 06:24:50 UTC 
It says

# /bin/bash
Illegal instruction
Comment 6 Bill Nottingham 2000-11-28 06:27:42 UTC 
What kind of processor is in the iopener?

What most likely happened is that when you installed the drive, the
i686 glibc package got installed. This package contains instructions
that won't run on less than a PPro.
Comment 7 Bill Nottingham 2000-11-28 06:29:47 UTC 
BTW, you can tell what architecture glibc you have by running:

rpm -q --qf "%{ARCH}\n" glibc
Comment 8 Need Real Name 2000-11-28 06:34:54 UTC 
Well that makes sense because I'm pretty sure its a Rise mp6 200Mhz processor (i586).  If that's it then what steps do I need to do?  Just remove the 
i686 glibc rpm and install the i586 glibc rpm?
Comment 9 Bill Nottingham 2000-11-28 06:37:10 UTC 
i386 glibc RPM actually (there's only an i386 and i686; adding specific
i586 optimizations doesn't actually help any), but yes, that's
what you'll have to do.
Comment 10 Bill Nottingham 2000-11-28 06:38:52 UTC 
You'll also want to check to make sure you aren't running an i686
kernel (although that would be likely to die a lot earlier in
the boot sequence...)