32-bit install kernel sleeps off during installation
Hi,
I'm a linux hardware test engineer and I'm also testing Debian on new
hardware from time to time. Actually I'm trying to figure out a strange
problem:
I have a system that sleeps of when I'm installing Debian/Lenny 32bit.
The installation is done by booting the netboot kernel & initrd.gz from
PXE and then doing a normal network installation.
This task is usally easy, just respond to the dialogs and your system
will be installed in around 30 minutes. On this system its different.
The progress bars stop until you hit a key on the keyboard (text
installer) or move the mouse (graphical installer).
Switching to one of the consoles and doing a dmesg there sometimes shows
a message that CPU#0 has a soft lockup for more than xxx seconds!
So the installation needs a frequent "kick" with the keyboard or the
mouse to finish. Once the system is installed I never see this problem
again.
Would be nice to figure out the "why" behind this problem. My guess at
the moment is that it is related to
a) the CPU which is a new AMD dual core athlon
b) the 2.6.26-2-486 kernel that is used during the installation
The later would also explain why the problem doesn't occur anymore once
the installation is done, because then the 2.6.26-2-686 kernel is used.
To prove this theory I also did a 64-bit installation which luckily uses
2.6.26-2-amd64 for both installation and running system and here
everything worked without the kernel sleeping of.
So I think there is a sort of "incompatibilty" on new Athlon processors
and the -486 kernel from Debian.
Question is: Is there a easy (means debian like and good documented) way
to build a netboot image with a different kernel architecture. From my
understanding this would mean replacing both the kernel image as well as
all the modules that are provided from the initrd.gz image.
Comments, hints & ideas are welcome. I would really nail down the root
cause of this just to be sure about the "why". Here are some details
from my tests so far:
/proc/cpuinfo (from the -486 kernel):
processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 15
model : 107
model name : AMD Athlon(tm) Neo X2 Dual Core Processor L325
stepping : 2
cpu MHz : 1500.020
cache size : 512 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 1
core id : 0
cpu cores : 1
apicid : 0
initial apicid : 0
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge
mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext
fxsr_opt rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow up pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm
extapic cr8_legacy 3dnowprefetch
bogomips : 3078.71
clflush size : 64
power management: ts fid vid ttp tm stc 100mhzsteps
System-components (lspci):
00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge
(Internal gfx)
00:06.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (PCI
Express Port 2)
00:07.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (PCI
Express Port 3)
00:12.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 Non-Raid-5 SATA
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI0)
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI1)
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI2)
00:13.3 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI3)
00:13.4 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI4)
00:13.5 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB Controller (EHCI)
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 14)
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 IDE
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 PCI to LPC Bridge
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron]
HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron]
Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron]
DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron]
Miscellaneous Control
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RS690M [Radeon
X1200 Series]
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 02)
08:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 02)
Regards & thanks for the excellent work on the Debian project
Rainer
--
Dipl.-Inf. (FH) Rainer Koenig
Project Manager Linux Business Clients
Dept. TSP CLI R&D SW OSE
Fujitsu Technology Solutions
Bürgermeister-Ullrich-Str. 100
86199 Augsburg
Germany
Telephone: +49-821-804-3321
Telefax: +49-821-804-2131
Mail: mailto:Rainer.Koenig@ts.fujitsu.com
Internet ts.fujtsu.com
Company Details ts.fujitsu.com/imprint.html
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