Bug#487421: Early boot-time kernel panic with linux-image-2.6.25-2-amd64 (2.6.25-5).

[Valentin QUEQUET <valentin.quequet@orange.fr>]

Hello, Maks and others.


> > Package: linux-image-2.6.25-2-amd64
> > Version: 2.6.25-5
> > Severity: grave
> > Justification: renders package unusable
>
> learn to set severities, not working on *one* box is not grave

Really, I apologize, if not too late ;-)
But I've been influenced in this choice by some other thread.
It would have been *nice* if you gave me a pointer to learn more about that.

Furthermore, I don't think this problem is sporadic or even endemic to 
"Compaq Presario SR1917FR" boxes.
Instead, I think either the kernel or LILO (or both) is unpredictable 
(=> buggy) over a wide range of combinations of hardware and filesystems 
( /boot ; I use reiserfs3 withOUT 'notail' option, which I may change 
later, but I'm fine with my boot (and root) partition in all other cases. ).



> read http://wiki.debian.org/InitramfsDebug
> and provide info based on that.

I must agree that I didn't say that I had already read the page at
  http://wiki.debian.org/InitramfsDebug
but I DID SO indeed.

And parameter rootdelay=9 (i.e. an arbitrary delay of 9 seconds) did NOT 
HELP ; this option really is for LVM and networked filesystems.

Furthermore, I can hardly provide useful info based on 
http://wiki.debian.org/InitramfsDebug because :

either
  - I boot with a complete initial RAM disk image and the kernel hangs, 
loading no file (init, shell, ...) from within the RAM disk.
or
  - I boot with a manually pruned initial RAM disk image and the kernel 
does well, though I MUST break startup process at some point (i.e. 
break=premount) to get a console,
      because my custom initRD is missing some modules (I'm working on 
adding just the modules I need).

Thus, one cannot think it's just that the kernel might not detect the 
good filesystem type of the initial RAM disk image.
It's clear that the problem is more complex, and I bet it is a 
Kernel+LILO problem (like in the mythology of the Babel Tower).

I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
Valentin QUEQUET