From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.2a) Gecko/20020913 Description of problem: After upgrading to RedHat 8.0 the machine no longer boots. The system is one of the VA Full-On servers (single processor) with the Intel L440GX motherboard, and the DAC 960 raid controller. Neither the smp or single processor kernels will boot. The single processor kernel dies with adaptec driver errors (this is the apic problem again), while the smp kernel hangs right after the Real Time Clock driver loads. Attempting to boot into single user mode yields similar results, but I get an additional line after the Real Time Clock line: oprofile: APIC was already enabled It looks as though it may be the APIC problem in another form (again). I have been running the smp kernel on this system to get around the apic problem in prior kernels. But that doesn't seem to work here. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Upgrade to RedHat 8.0 2. Boot upgraded system 3. Additional info:
Created attachment 82624 [details] .config to build a custom kernel for (single processor) L440GX+ motherboards
I have attached above a .config for a custom kernel (from the 2.4.18-17.8.0 source tree) that will work on single processor systems that use the L440GX+ motherboard. *NOTE* A number of modules have been disabled from being built simply because I don't need them.... This .config *only* applies to L440GX+ systems with single processors, the stock smp kernel works just fine on dual processor L440GX+'s, but does not work on motherboards with only a single processor (and of course, the stock non-smp kernel rpm does not work on the L440GX+ at all) Basically there are only 3 important changes... 1. Disable SMP support 2. Enable local APIC support for uniprocessors 3. Enable IO-APIC support for uniprocessors Then build and install the custom kernel. I should also add that the kernel-BOOT rpm works, but since it lacks support for a number of things (like nfs) it isn't really a suitable work-around.
Created attachment 82725 [details] boot-up messages from a successful boot (2.4.18-14BOOT)
I'm seeing the same behavior with a fresh install from the 8.0 CDs. The install goes fine, but subsequent boots hang; the last message is "Serial driver version 5.05c...". This is on a VALinux 1150 (one CPU, L440GX+ motherboard) without a DAC960; I may be trying the install again on a VALinux box with a DAC960 soon. I was able to install and boot RH7.3 successfully on this same machine by using the APIC/SMP-kernel workaround, but that no longer works with 8.0. The behavior is slightly different between the SMP and non-SMP kernels, though; with the SMP kernel I get up to the "Serial driver..." message (as I mentioned above), but with the non-SMP kernel I get the SCSI timeouts that always used to happen with RH 7.x on this hardware. It would seem to be a step backward that the workaround that was working with 7.x is no longer working in 8.0; people with single-CPU VALinux hardware are now left out in the cold, with only the possibility of a custom kernel to make it possible to install 8.0. Is anyone at RedHat in contact with Intel over the L440GX+ issue?
> Is anyone at RedHat in contact with Intel over the L440GX+ issue? We were. "Intel Proprietary Information" is needed to fix this issue and we're not going to get it. Complain to vendor please.
I'm aware that RedHat contacted Intel at one point and asked about resolving the bug, but I was actually asking whether anyone at RedHat is "in contact" with Intel--in other words, continuously in contact, keeping after them, until this problem is resolved. Even though this may be more Intel's issue than RedHat's, the fact is that it makes it impossible to use RedHat on a popular motherboard, and it's been going on for well over a year now, so it would seem worthwhile for RedHat to actively pursue it with Intel. The fact that the SMP-kernel/APIC workaround no longer works with uniprocessor VALinux hardware and RH8.0 makes it even more urgent for those of us who want to upgrade this hardware. Do you have any idea *why* this no longer works? As I said, it's a bad sign...up until now there's been slow forward progress in workarounds/compatibility, but RH8.0 is the first step backward.
Since these are systems made by VA Linux and since VA Linux is no longer selling these, is there a contact at Intel you can point us at? I have no problem complaining I just need to know who to bug.
The exact same problem happened when I ran up2date on my 7.3 system to bring in the new 2.4.18-17.7.x kernel. The SMP kernel hangs after the "oprofile: APIC was already enabled" message, and the UP kernel gets SCSI disk errors. I've backed off to the 2.4.18-3smp kernel which I was running before. Looking for the oprofile message in the source suggests to me that the problem is happening when the oprofile module configures the NMI interrupt. The hang certainly happens within oprofile, as the final "oprofile 0.2 loaded" message never appears. It would be nice if there were some way to disable the oprofile initialization, as it does not appear to be necessary.
FWIW - I have exactly the same symptoms as ian only updating RH7.3 to the 2.4.18-18.7.xsmp kernel (L440GX motherboard running a single processor). Tried booting with the "noapic" option. Got past the hang at "oprofile: APIC was already enabled" message but went into the hang on endless SCSI check loop instead (using Adaptec AIC-7896 SCSI controller - see, for example, Bug #29555). Also tried the up version of the newer kernel. also wound up with the endless SCSI check loop. Like Ian, I've also gone back to 2.4.18-3smp kernel for now (works fine). If I find myself with wads of time on my hands (hah), I might try compiling my own kernel using rod's config. Has anyone with this problem tried the latest BIOS for this board (Release 14.3 build 133)? I'm using release 14.0, build 129 and have been hesitant to bother with an update, but if someone had expressed success, I'd be more likely to give it a try.
Where are BIOS updates for these boards available? I have looke at Intel's site and could not find anything wrt these boards. Do they actually make a difference? So far the only success I have had is building a custom kernel and enabling the apic support as described above.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 75947 ***
I found (but haven't tried yet) BIOS upgrades at: http://support.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/L440GX/ more specifically at: http://support.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/L440GX/latest_bios.htm
I updated to the latest BIOS. Same error. Infinite SCSI check loop. So no use if you updated the BIOS.