Note: This bug is displayed in read-only format because the product is no longer active in Red Hat Bugzilla.

Bug 88335

Summary: Kernel boot hangs on motherboard with shared video memory
Product: [Retired] Red Hat Linux Reporter: Joshua Penix <jpenix>
Component: kernelAssignee: Arjan van de Ven <arjanv>
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX QA Contact: Brian Brock <bbrock>
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: 9CC: wtogami
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: athlon   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2004-09-30 15:40:46 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:
Attachments:
Description Flags
Patch against vanilla kernel 2.4.20 source which allows booting none

Description Joshua Penix 2003-04-09 03:24:01 UTC 
From Bugzilla Helper:
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Gecko/20030319 Galeon/1.3.3

Description of problem:
The 2.4.x kernels in the installers of RedHat 7.3, 8.0 and 9.0 lock up
immediately after displaying "Okay, booting the kernel..." on Shuttle FX41
motherboard with shared video memory.  Motherboard has VIA KM266 chipset, with
VIA "Savage 8" video chipset.  Details of hardware here:
http://us.shuttle.com/specs2.asp?pro_id=155

All installs hang at same point, regardless of options passed to kernel.  I
found roughly similar references to this problem in two previous LKML threads:
http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/linux/linux-kernel/2002-50/0096.html
http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0208.2/0772.html
... but suggestions to tweak mem= parameters were not effective in my
situation.

Kernel 2.2-based distributions, such as RedHat 6.2, boot fine.

Upon further investigation, I found that the only 2.4 kernel I could get to boot
was one from the Gentoo v1.4rc3 installer.  I determined that Gentoo's
installation kernel was patched with SGI's XFS patches, and this seemed to make
the difference.

Investigation of a diff between the vanilla kernel.org and XFS-patched
versions of /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/kernel/setup.c showed a small
difference in the memory detection code.  I applied the changes found in the XFS
code to a vanilla 2.4.20 kernel and was then able to boot
successfully.

Attached is the patch to kernel v2.4.20 that allowed for booting on this
hardware.  Note that I am by no means a kernel programmer, and have no way of
knowing if my patch is safe or proper, though I figure the SGI guys know what
they're doing :^)

I submitted this patch to the maintainer of the i386 setup code, Dave Jones
(davej) on 3/25/03, and he replied:

"Yes, the zero sized e820 patch needs to go into 2.4
I sent it to Marcelo a while back.
I'll retransmit."

I thought I'd file a bug here as well so RedHat can patch their kernel at their
leisure, and perhaps before upstream does so.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):


How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Put in RedHat installation CD
2. Press <ENTER>

    

Actual Results:  System locks up hard immediately after "Okay, booting the
kernel..."

Expected Results:  Installer should have started.

Additional info:
Comment 1 Joshua Penix 2003-04-09 03:26:11 UTC 
Created attachment 91025 [details]
Patch against vanilla kernel 2.4.20 source which allows booting

Kernel maintainer called this the "zero sized e820 patch"
Comment 2 Bugzilla owner 2004-09-30 15:40:46 UTC 
Thanks for the bug report. However, Red Hat no longer maintains this version of
the product. Please upgrade to the latest version and open a new bug if the problem
persists.

The Fedora Legacy project (http://fedoralegacy.org/) maintains some older releases, 
and if you believe this bug is interesting to them, please report the problem in
the bug tracker at: http://bugzilla.fedora.us/