Bug#555526: linux-image-2.6.26-2-686: 2.6.26-19lenny2 with serial console hangs on boot

["Karl O. Pinc" <kop@meme.com>]

On 11/10/2009 10:30:54 AM, dann frazier wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 01:15:40AM -0600, Karl O. Pinc wrote:
> > Package: linux-image-2.6.26-2-686
> > Version: 2.6.26-19lenny2
> > Severity: normal
> > 
> > Hello,
> > 
> > I upgraded from (I think) 2.6.26-19lenny1 to 2.6.26-19lenny2
> > with the latest security update and I found my system would
> > hang during the boot. 

> Would you be able to test the 2.6.26-19lenny1 kernel to verify that 
> it
> did work? 

I suspect the problem may not be in the kernel.  Now that
I've had time to think it seems significant that once I removed
the serial console kernel parameters the system, eventually,
dropped me into single user mode due to an fsck error.
I was interacting with the the box via vga not the 
serial port.  Though the vga gets kernel messages
and eventually gets a getty it seems it does not
get any of the regular boot messages.  So that's
where the "hang" is.

I'd like to keep this report and send is somewhere,
as an enhancement if nothing else.   It sure would
be nice if there was either a way to have whichever
kernel parameter console=foo that happens to be
the one being used actually work as the console
throughout the whole boot process.  (Grub does this,
which probably contributed to my confusion because
I was interacting with grub just fine.)

Karl <kop@meme.com>
Free Software:  "You don't pay back, you pay forward."
                 -- Robert A. Heinlein