Running FC4 w/ SMP kernel on Compaq DL360 / G1

[Rick Stevens]

On Fri, 2005-10-07 at 16:52 -0700, Bruce McPeek wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I have an older Compaq DL360 / G1 w/ dual procs running 1266 MHz and a
> gig of RAM.
> 
> When I installed the OS, the system was recognized as dual proc and an
> SMP kernel was set to boot by default. Unfortunately the boot will
> hang with the last message showing something like "Unpacking system
> image". This is as far as I can go.
> 
> I can boot from a single proc kernel, although I do get a few messages
> about being unable to determine the AGP aperture. /var/log/messages
> has this text
> 
> Oct  7 15:24:43 p4test kernel: Linux agpgart interface v0.101 (c) Dave
> Jones 
> Oct  7 15:24:43 p4test kernel: agpgart: unable to determine aperture
> size. 
> Oct  7 15:24:43 p4test kernel: agpgart: agp_backend_initialize()
> failed. 
> Oct  7 15:24:43 p4test kernel: agpgart-serverworks: probe of
> 0000:00:00.0 failed with error -22 
> Oct  7 15:24:43 p4test kernel: agpgart: unable to determine aperture
> size. 
> Oct  7 15:24:43 p4test kernel: agpgart: agp_backend_initialize()
> failed. 
> Oct  7 15:24:43 p4test kernel: agpgart-serverworks: probe of
> 0000:00:00.1 failed with error -22
> 
> FC4 originally installed with the kernel version reporting to be
> "Linux version 2.6.11-1.1369_FC4". I ran up2date and brought
> everything current including the kernel. I am now booting with the
> kernel version at "2.6.13-1.1526_FC4".
> 
> The single processor the kernel is reporting is "Intel(R) Pentium(R)
> III CPU - S         1266MHz stepping 04".
> 
> Does anyone know how to boot this system with an SMP kernel? Barring
> that, does anyone have ideas I may be able to try?

Try adding "noapic" to the boot command line and booting the SMP kernel.
This works on many AMD-based SMP machines and it may work for you...
especially since it's an older box.

Also look at updating your BIOS.  Sometimes the APIC isn't set right
with older BIOSes, mandating the "noapic" keyword.

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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-         "If you can't fix it...duct tape it!"  - Tim Allen         -
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