From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040514 Description of problem: I have a Penguin Computing server that's running FC1 flawlessly right now. I wanted to blow it away and install FC2 on it. I was using the boot CD to install it over the network and as you hit enter at the lilo (?) boot screen it starts loading the kernel gets to a line where it allocates AGP memory and then it prints: "agpgart: posted write buffer flush took morethen 3 seconds" About a million times on the screen. I've retried the installer using noagp and I still get the agp error. I search the FAQ and the errata as well as BugZilla and could find almost no reference to this error at all. Google only had a dozen or so hits and most were links to the agpgart source. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): Whatever kernel the installer uses I'm not sure How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Burn Boot CD 2. Boot up system with boot CD 3. Hit "enter" at the boot screen to boot the kernel 4. *poof* agpgart error! 5. profit! Actual Results: It loads about 2 pages worth of Kernel messages and gets to a section where it allocates AGP memory and spits out agpgart: posted write buffer flush took morethen 3 seconds a million times. Expected Results: It should have launched the regular installer Additional info: Here's some system specs, I'm not sure if they're helpful or not. I can provide more if required. :lspci -v 00:00.0 Host bridge: ServerWorks CNB20HE Host Bridge (rev 23) Flags: fast devsel Memory at fa000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [disabled] [size=32M] Memory at <ignored> (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=4K] 00:00.1 PCI bridge: ServerWorks CNB20LE Host Bridge (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 64 Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=64 I/O behind bridge: 0000b000-0000bfff Memory behind bridge: fc500000-fe5fffff Prefetchable memory behind bridge: fc200000-fc2fffff Capabilities: [80] AGP version 2.0 00:00.2 Host bridge: ServerWorks: Unknown device 0006 (rev 01) Flags: medium devsel 00:00.3 Host bridge: ServerWorks: Unknown device 0006 (rev 01) Flags: medium devsel 00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82557/8/9 [Ethernet Pro 100] (rev 08) Subsystem: Intel Corp. EtherExpress PRO/100+ Server Adapter (PILA8470B) Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 5 Memory at feafd000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K] I/O ports at d400 [size=64] Memory at fe800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M] Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2 00:06.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82557/8/9 [Ethernet Pro 100] (rev 08) Subsystem: Intel Corp. EtherExpress PRO/100+ Server Adapter (PILA8470B) Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 9 Memory at feafe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K] I/O ports at d800 [size=64] Memory at fe900000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M] Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2 00:0f.0 ISA bridge: ServerWorks OSB4 South Bridge (rev 50) Subsystem: ServerWorks OSB4 South Bridge Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0 00:0f.1 IDE interface: ServerWorks OSB4 IDE Controller (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP]) Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64 I/O ports at ffa0 [size=16] 00:0f.2 USB Controller: ServerWorks OSB4/CSB5 OHCI USB Controller (rev 04) (prog-if 10 [OHCI]) Subsystem: ServerWorks OSB4/CSB5 OHCI USB Controller Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 10 Memory at feaff000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K] 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage XL AGP 2X (rev 27) (prog-if 00 [VGA]) Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc Xpert 98 RXL AGP 2X Flags: bus master, stepping, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11 Memory at fd000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M] I/O ports at b800 [size=256] Memory at fe5ff000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K] Expansion ROM at fe5c0000 [disabled] [size=128K] Capabilities: [50] AGP version 1.0 Capabilities: [5c] Power Management version 2
we poke a value into a pci register, and try and read it back. 3 seconds later, it still wasn't the value we wrote into the register. If your BIOS has any options like 'pci posted writes' and the like, try turning them off. It's very odd that this code works on FC1 but doesn't in FC2, as the logic hasn't changed at all afaik.
I couldn't find a "pci posted writes" but I did find "memory write posting" and "agp operations" both of which I disabled and I still get that error and the system hangs. I updated the BIOS as well, still no luck. Heck I even tried "lost failsafe defaults" in the BIOS still with no luck. Rebooted and loaded FC1 just fine. If it helps anyone the motherboard is a SuperMicro 370DER. Anything else I should be trying?
I am experiencing the same issue with the exact same motherboard. I thought I had a bug filed on it here, but can't find it. No BIOS settings seem to have any effect. Anything I can do to assist in tracking this down?
ok, bug found. this driver was trying to be too clever for its own good. Fix will go to Linus today, and should show up in the FC2 update kernel.
Hi. I got the same problem. Is this fix released yet or how can i get updated CD with this new kernel ?
Same Problem on a Supermicro 370DER+ ... system hang on install AGPGART Error loop. Haven't seen any release of fix for this. So my Dual Xeon Server sits quietly. Installed fine on P4 2.5ghz ASUS. Tried update on the BIOS... no killjoy Setting within the bios useless. Hope there is a fix ... would hate to wait for FC3
can you try the update kernel from http://people.redhat.com/arjanv/2.6 on FC1 (you'll need to boot with vdso=0). That should have this fixed hopefully.
How can I use that kernel, if I can't even get the OS installed?
you don't still have FC1 installed as you mentioned in comment #1 ? if we can prove this works, we can generate another boot.iso as we did for the VIA C3 & ASUS P4P800 bugs. It's a bit of hoop-jumping, but it'll work so you can get FC2 installed. But first we need to know if the problem is fixed or not, otherwise the creation of the boot.iso is pointless (and its not a trivial amount of work to build one).
Unfortunately that server is in use for the time being (running FC1) and can't be rebooted. That should change shortly and I can test again. Perhaps you should contact the other two posters on this bug that are getting the same error I am. Once I get services moved off my server I'll be able to test as well. Either next week, or the week after.
Sorry, I have been out of town, but I just tried to test this and it looks to fail. Here are the steps I went through in case any adjustments need to be made to properly test the new kernel. I have just downloaded and installed a minimal FC1. No updates were applied. I installed http://people.redhat.com/arjanv/2.6/RPMS.kernel/kernel-2.6.7-1.441.i686.rpm and rebooted. I switched to the new kernel, edited it, changed the kernel line to include vdso=0 at the end. It displays the AGP initialization and then seems to hang. No "posted write buffer" messages appear, but it goes no further in the boot process. Let me know what I can do to help. I will leave this system at base FC1 for the time being so that more testing can be done... Thanks, Bill
I have several of these motherboards not in production all exhibit the same behavior described in this report. I can do any testing as needed
Testing update. Installed Fedora Core 1 on SuperMicro 370DER motherboard. Compiled 2.6.7 kernel without agpgart support. System booted without any problems.
Well Bill, yes FC1 installs fine ... with AGPGART ... I did not exclude AGPGART on the first install. However FC2 does not install. At this point it looks like I'll have to install FC1 and then upgrade. Although I hear upgrading is not really a good idea. There probably will not be a new release out just for this problem. As I'm sure you all now... the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
I'm in the same boat with teh same board; I have no current OS installation and don't have FC1 around. Is there any information on building a custom boot image so that I can get this machine going?
Scratch that; I managed to get things working by using the current rawhide initrd.img, vmlinuz and netstg2.img. I had to boot with agp=off to avoid a hard hang but otherwise it's working fine. The installed system is plain FC2 with all updates applied.
I just tried installed FC3T3 on this motherboard and now the error message doesn't loop forever, but it does lock up. Has anyone tried install FC3 on this 370DER motherboard? Did you have the same results?
You don't say whether you tried booting with agp=off as mentioned in the comment directly above yours. It was required for me to boot FC3T1.
I am in the same boat with the same board. System is currently running FC1 with no problems, but when I try to upgrade to FC2 using the CD-ROMs, I get the same error. I really need to upgrade this box to FC2. Can anybody tell me how this can be accomplished?
The server with this particular motherboard was just freed up, and thus I had a chance to try and install FC3 on it. It appears it is possible to boot now if you pass the agp=off during the install boot process.
I have tried to install Core 2 and Core 3 by passing the agp=off during the install boot process. The message does not loop forever, but locks up. Please advise.
I must admit, I'm incredibly puzzled why agp=off didnt do the trick in fc3 (it was broken in fc2) Do you still see agpgart messages with that switch? does it hang at the same place ?
At the boot line I type "linux agp=off" When it gets to "agpgart: posted write buffer flush took morethen 3 seconds" the boot process hangs. The motherboard is supermicro mentioned above.
ok, found a bug where we still tried to do a chipset initialisation even if we passed agp=off. I'll fix this up.
is the problem just with the kernel of the installer or is it problematic with subsequent kernels? am i totally off base?
there is no seperate 'installer kernel' these days, so it affects every kernel.
Does the 2.6.9-1.11_FC2 or 2.6.9-1.11_FC2 kernel released yesterday address this problem? If so, is there a quick and dirty way to make a boot disk (either floppy or cdrom) to where I can upgrade my FC1 server to either FC2 or FC3?
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.