Bug#393329: After seemingly successful install on Turion X2 system, freeze on boot

[Carl Fink <carl@finknetwork.com>]

On Mon, Oct 16, 2006 at 12:08:03PM +0200, Frans Pop wrote:

> Can you check if this is still an issue with the 2.6.18 kernel from 
> unstable?
> You should be able to upgrade the kernel using the rescue mode of the 
> installer (boot the installer with "rescue").

I installed 2.6.18-1-k7.  The first boot, I got to a shell prompt.  I
immediately switched sources.list back to etch (after switching to sid using
the rescue disk in order to install the updated kernel), then ran "apt-get
udpate && apt-get dist-upgrade".  It froze after the third "Get".  Solid,
power-down-required freeze.

Second boot stopped after adjusting the two CPUs by 89 and -89 usecs
respectively.  Solid freeze.

I'd think it was hardware, but the installer mostly works and Knoppix worked
fine.  Off to install the 486 kernel.

Data point: despite what I wrote above, none of these were SMP kernels to
date.  There is no 2.6.18 SMP kernel for K7 in sid, and the installer didn't
install one.

> You should probably also be able to get your system to boot by installing 
> the 486 flavor of the kernel (that is also the kernel the installer 
> uses); for this you could reinstall the system in expert mode.
> That would at least give you a working kernel to fall back to.

That appears to work fine.  Of course I'm not taking advantage of my
dual-core processor.

Sure looks like a real kernel bug, I'm sorry to say.

Update (I didn't send this immediately, obviously):  the 486 kernel would
complete the boot process, but I got power-off hangs after a few minutes of
work, twice.  Removing the second SODIMM from the laptop had no effect, but
removing the first (and swapping the second into slot #1) seems to have
stopped the freezes, at least on ten minutes of work.  So maybe a
combination of kernel and hardware problems?

Aargh.

Okay, further playing around.  (Sorry about the stream-of-consciousness
thing here.)  It seems that if I sit in X, no problems.  If I stay at a
console too long, freeze.  If xdm restarts, freeze. Um, what the?

It ends up being usable, since I generally sit in X and use xterms for
everything, but I would think that freezing in certain video modes, or when
xdm restarts (and presumably resets the video mode) is a bug.
-- 
Carl Fink                                 carl@finknetwork.com
If you attempt to fix something that isn't broken, it will be.
        -Bruce Tognazzini