[gentoo-dev] Gentoo RC3 kernel booting with AMD K6

[gentoo-dev] Gentoo RC3 kernel booting with AMD K6

[Brian Snipes]

OK. I followed the installation instructions from gentoo.org and my
booting of the bzImage kernel stops at:

VFS: Mounted root (reiserfs filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 220k freed

And then it pauses forever. Does the kernel support K6 processors or is
it PII+ only or does anyone else have any ideas what might be the problem?

Brian Snipes

Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo RC3 kernel booting with AMD K6

[drobbins]

On Mon, Jan 08, 2001 at 09:53:43PM -0600, Brian Snipes wrote:
> 
> OK. I followed the installation instructions from gentoo.org and my
> booting of the bzImage kernel stops at:
> 
> VFS: Mounted root (reiserfs filesystem) readonly.
> Freeing unused kernel memory: 220k freed
> 
> And then it pauses forever. Does the kernel support K6 processors or is
> it PII+ only or does anyone else have any ideas what might be the problem?

I believe the kernel was compiled for Pentium Pro and up systems.  Would this
cause it to not be compatible with a standard K6?  If so, we can move the
optimizations back to Pentium Classic, if that will work for everyone.

Congratulations, you found a potential bug :)  Let me know how you'd like
your kernel optimized and I'll compile a .tbz2 for you.  If that ends up
being the problem, I'll have it fixed in rc4.

Best Regards,

-- 
Daniel Robbins					<drobbins@gentoo.org>
President/CEO					http://www.gentoo.org 
Gentoo Technologies, Inc.			

Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo RC3 kernel booting with AMD K6

[Achim Gottinger]

Brian Snipes wrote:

> OK. I followed the installation instructions from gentoo.org and my
> booting of the bzImage kernel stops at:
>
> VFS: Mounted root (reiserfs filesystem) readonly.
> Freeing unused kernel memory: 220k freed
>
> And then it pauses forever. Does the kernel support K6 processors or is
> it PII+ only or does anyone else have any ideas what might be the problem?

Hi Brian,

I tested to install on a K6 yesterday too. The bootcd freezes after linuxrc
is finished
So init gets not started.
I compiled everything here with -mpentium not -mpentiumpro, so the
optimization can not be the cause
for that. The tarnge thing is that older versions of gentoo worked fine on
K6/2 machines here.

If you have found the bug, please tell me, meanwhile I will try get things
working here.

Bye Achim

>
> Brian Snipes
> _______________________________________________
> gentoo-dev mailing list
> gentoo-dev@gentoo.org
> http://www.gentoo.org/mailman/listinfo/gentoo-dev

Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo RC3 kernel booting with AMD K6

[Achim Gottinger]

Achim Gottinger wrote:

> Brian Snipes wrote:
>
> > OK. I followed the installation instructions from gentoo.org and my
> > booting of the bzImage kernel stops at:
> >
> > VFS: Mounted root (reiserfs filesystem) readonly.
> > Freeing unused kernel memory: 220k freed
> >
> > And then it pauses forever. Does the kernel support K6 processors or is
> > it PII+ only or does anyone else have any ideas what might be the problem?
>
> Hi Brian,
>
> I tested to install on a K6 yesterday too. The bootcd freezes after linuxrc
> is finished
> So init gets not started.
> I compiled everything here with -mpentium not -mpentiumpro, so the
> optimization can not be the cause
> for that. The tarnge thing is that older versions of gentoo worked fine on
> K6/2 machines here.
>
> If you have found the bug, please tell me, meanwhile I will try get things
> working here.
>

I was unable to fix this bug till now. :-/
But I found out at which place the system hangs.
It is definately /sbin/init that does not work.
I modified /usr/src/linux/init/main.c a bit to output more info what is going
on at the moment.
And I found out that the last call in mail.c that succeeds is
execve(/sbin/init....).
This function does not return on sucess, so I think /sbin/init can be executed
but hangs then.
So I will focus on init now.

>
> Bye Achim
>
> >
> > Brian Snipes
> > _______________________________________________
> > gentoo-dev mailing list
> > gentoo-dev@gentoo.org
> > http://www.gentoo.org/mailman/listinfo/gentoo-dev
>
> _______________________________________________
> gentoo-dev mailing list
> gentoo-dev@gentoo.org
> http://www.gentoo.org/mailman/listinfo/gentoo-dev

Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo RC3 kernel booting with AMD K6

[Achim Gottinger]

Achim Gottinger wrote:

> Achim Gottinger wrote:
>
> > Brian Snipes wrote:
> >
> > > OK. I followed the installation instructions from gentoo.org and my
> > > booting of the bzImage kernel stops at:
> > >
> > > VFS: Mounted root (reiserfs filesystem) readonly.
> > > Freeing unused kernel memory: 220k freed
> > >
> > > And then it pauses forever. Does the kernel support K6 processors or is
> > > it PII+ only or does anyone else have any ideas what might be the problem?
> >
> > Hi Brian,
> >
> > I tested to install on a K6 yesterday too. The bootcd freezes after linuxrc
> > is finished
> > So init gets not started.
> > I compiled everything here with -mpentium not -mpentiumpro, so the
> > optimization can not be the cause
> > for that. The tarnge thing is that older versions of gentoo worked fine on
> > K6/2 machines here.
> >
> > If you have found the bug, please tell me, meanwhile I will try get things
> > working here.
> >
>
> I was unable to fix this bug till now. :-/
> But I found out at which place the system hangs.
> It is definately /sbin/init that does not work.
> I modified /usr/src/linux/init/main.c a bit to output more info what is going
> on at the moment.
> And I found out that the last call in mail.c that succeeds is
> execve(/sbin/init....).
> This function does not return on sucess, so I think /sbin/init can be executed
> but hangs then.
> So I will focus on init now.

I build an statically linked init with -m486 and replaced the init on my
testsystem with that.

Now if I boot I see the INIT headline after "Freeing unused memory" then the
system freezes.
I make a -m486 optimized sys.tbz2 now and will try that.

>
>
> >
> > Bye Achim
> >
> > >
> > > Brian Snipes
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > gentoo-dev mailing list
> > > gentoo-dev@gentoo.org
> > > http://www.gentoo.org/mailman/listinfo/gentoo-dev
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > gentoo-dev mailing list
> > gentoo-dev@gentoo.org
> > http://www.gentoo.org/mailman/listinfo/gentoo-dev
>
> _______________________________________________
> gentoo-dev mailing list
> gentoo-dev@gentoo.org
> http://www.gentoo.org/mailman/listinfo/gentoo-dev

Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo RC3 kernel booting with AMD K6

[Brian Snipes]

On Tue, 09 Jan 2001 14:32:10 +0100
320095285153-0001@t-online.de (Achim Gottinger) wrote:

> Achim Gottinger wrote:
> 
> > Achim Gottinger wrote:
> >
> > > Brian Snipes wrote:
> > >
> > > > OK. I followed the installation instructions from gentoo.org and my
> > > > booting of the bzImage kernel stops at:
> > > >
> > > > VFS: Mounted root (reiserfs filesystem) readonly.
> > > > Freeing unused kernel memory: 220k freed
> > > >
> > > > And then it pauses forever. Does the kernel support K6 processors or is
> > > > it PII+ only or does anyone else have any ideas what might be the problem?
> > >
> > > Hi Brian,
> > >
> > > I tested to install on a K6 yesterday too. The bootcd freezes after linuxrc
> > > is finished
> > > So init gets not started.
> > > I compiled everything here with -mpentium not -mpentiumpro, so the
> > > optimization can not be the cause
> > > for that. The tarnge thing is that older versions of gentoo worked fine on
> > > K6/2 machines here.
> > >
> > > If you have found the bug, please tell me, meanwhile I will try get things
> > > working here.
> > >
> >
> > I was unable to fix this bug till now. :-/
> > But I found out at which place the system hangs.
> > It is definately /sbin/init that does not work.
> > I modified /usr/src/linux/init/main.c a bit to output more info what is going
> > on at the moment.
> > And I found out that the last call in mail.c that succeeds is
> > execve(/sbin/init....).
> > This function does not return on sucess, so I think /sbin/init can be executed
> > but hangs then.
> > So I will focus on init now.
> 
> I build an statically linked init with -m486 and replaced the init on my
> testsystem with that.
> 
> Now if I boot I see the INIT headline after "Freeing unused memory" then the
> system freezes.
> I make a -m486 optimized sys.tbz2 now and will try that.
> 

Thanks!  I am not a C programmer (only PHP, so far) but if there is any testing I can do let me know.

Brian Snipes

Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo RC3 kernel booting with AMD K6

[Achim Gottinger]

Achim Gottinger wrote:

> Achim Gottinger wrote:
>
> > Brian Snipes wrote:
> >
> > > OK. I followed the installation instructions from gentoo.org and my
> > > booting of the bzImage kernel stops at:
> > >
> > > VFS: Mounted root (reiserfs filesystem) readonly.
> > > Freeing unused kernel memory: 220k freed
> > >
> > > And then it pauses forever. Does the kernel support K6 processors or is
> > > it PII+ only or does anyone else have any ideas what might be the problem?
> >
> > Hi Brian,
> >
> > I tested to install on a K6 yesterday too. The bootcd freezes after linuxrc
> > is finished
> > So init gets not started.
> > I compiled everything here with -mpentium not -mpentiumpro, so the
> > optimization can not be the cause
> > for that. The tarnge thing is that older versions of gentoo worked fine on

                                   ^ strange

>
> > K6/2 machines here.
> >
> > If you have found the bug, please tell me, meanwhile I will try get things
> > working here.
> >
>
> I was unable to fix this bug till now. :-/
> But I found out at which place the system hangs.
> It is definately /sbin/init that does not work.
> I modified /usr/src/linux/init/main.c a bit to output more info what is going
> on at the moment.
> And I found out that the last call in mail.c that succeeds is

                                                                    ^ main.c

>
> execve(/sbin/init....).
> This function does not return on sucess, so I think /sbin/init can be executed
> but hangs then.
> So I will focus on init now.
>
> >
> > Bye Achim
> >
> > >
> > > Brian Snipes
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > gentoo-dev mailing list
> > > gentoo-dev@gentoo.org
> > > http://www.gentoo.org/mailman/listinfo/gentoo-dev
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > gentoo-dev mailing list
> > gentoo-dev@gentoo.org
> > http://www.gentoo.org/mailman/listinfo/gentoo-dev
>
> _______________________________________________
> gentoo-dev mailing list
> gentoo-dev@gentoo.org
> http://www.gentoo.org/mailman/listinfo/gentoo-dev

Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo RC3 kernel booting with AMD K6

[drobbins]

On Tue, Jan 09, 2001 at 08:39:45AM +0100, Achim Gottinger wrote:

> I tested to install on a K6 yesterday too. The bootcd freezes after linuxrc
> is finished So init gets not started.  I compiled everything here with
> -mpentium not -mpentiumpro, so the optimization can not be the cause for
> that. The tarnge thing is that older versions of gentoo worked fine on K6/2
> machines here.

Achim, remember that if for some reason the kernel is not compatible with the
K6, /sbin/init will crash the first time it makes a call to an incompatible
kernel function.  Maybe a good test would be to boot and run /bin/bash first
rather than init to make sure everything works.  If everything works (ls, man,
etc) then it might be /sbin/init.  I see no special reason why init should
be having problems and I'd guess that "pentiumpro" kernel optimizations are not
compatible with the K6.  You can test this by passing the init=/bin/bash option
on the GRUB command line:

In GRUB, (e)dit, goto line you want to change, (e)?edit, add "init=/bin/bash",
hit enter, then (b)oot.  I think that's how you do it.

Thanks for looking into it,

-- 
Daniel Robbins					<drobbins@gentoo.org>
President/CEO					http://www.gentoo.org 
Gentoo Technologies, Inc.			

Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo RC3 kernel booting with AMD K6

[Achim Gottinger]

drobbins@gentoo.org wrote:

> On Tue, Jan 09, 2001 at 08:39:45AM +0100, Achim Gottinger wrote:
>
> > I tested to install on a K6 yesterday too. The bootcd freezes after linuxrc
> > is finished So init gets not started.  I compiled everything here with
> > -mpentium not -mpentiumpro, so the optimization can not be the cause for
> > that. The tarnge thing is that older versions of gentoo worked fine on K6/2
> > machines here.
>
> Achim, remember that if for some reason the kernel is not compatible with the
> K6, /sbin/init will crash the first time it makes a call to an incompatible
> kernel function.  Maybe a good test would be to boot and run /bin/bash first
> rather than init to make sure everything works.

I tried a statically -m486 compiled init instead of the dynamic!! -mpentium
optimized one.
And saw the first "INIT ...." line then it freezes. I tried to use bash
(statically linked) instead
and it did not work. :-/.
I tried a kernel kompiled with -m486 without success.

>  If everything works (ls, man,
> etc) then it might be /sbin/init.  I see no special reason why init should
> be having problems and I'd guess that "pentiumpro" kernel optimizations are not
> compatible with the K6.  You can test this by passing the init=/bin/bash option
> on the GRUB command line:

> In GRUB, (e)dit, goto line you want to change, (e)?edit, add "init=/bin/bash",
> hit enter, then (b)oot.  I think that's how you do it.

This works for init but init=/linuxrc (as it is in the current bootdisk) does not
work! I tried init=/linuxrc2 once without success.
Take a look at /usr/src/linux/init/main.c
At the end of the function "do_basic_setup" is the call to /linuxrc so this is
hardcoded.
The calls to init are at the end of main().

>
>
> Thanks for looking into it,
>
> --
> Daniel Robbins                                  <drobbins@gentoo.org>
> President/CEO                                   http://www.gentoo.org
> Gentoo Technologies, Inc.
> _______________________________________________
> gentoo-dev mailing list
> gentoo-dev@gentoo.org
> http://www.gentoo.org/mailman/listinfo/gentoo-dev

Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo RC3 kernel booting with AMD K6

[drobbins]

On Tue, Jan 09, 2001 at 05:48:04PM +0100, Achim Gottinger wrote:

> This works for init but init=/linuxrc (as it is in the current bootdisk) does
> not work! I tried init=/linuxrc2 once without success.  Take a look at
> /usr/src/linux/init/main.c At the end of the function "do_basic_setup" is the
> call to /linuxrc so this is hardcoded.  The calls to init are at the end of
> main().

OK, I misunderstood the problem.  I thought people were running into the freeze
when they boot their fresh installed Gentoo Linux, but it's happening
immediately on the bootdisk. OK.  Just make sure you pop in a 486-optimized
bzImage at some point so you don't spend days on this only to find that it's a
kernel issue :)

-- 
Daniel Robbins					<drobbins@gentoo.org>
President/CEO					http://www.gentoo.org 
Gentoo Technologies, Inc.			

Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo RC3 kernel booting with AMD K6

[Achim Gottinger]

drobbins@gentoo.org wrote:

> On Tue, Jan 09, 2001 at 05:48:04PM +0100, Achim Gottinger wrote:
>
> > This works for init but init=/linuxrc (as it is in the current bootdisk) does
> > not work! I tried init=/linuxrc2 once without success.  Take a look at
> > /usr/src/linux/init/main.c At the end of the function "do_basic_setup" is the
> > call to /linuxrc so this is hardcoded.  The calls to init are at the end of
> > main().
>
> OK, I misunderstood the problem.  I thought people were running into the freeze
> when they boot their fresh installed Gentoo Linux, but it's happening
> immediately on the bootdisk. OK.  Just make sure you pop in a 486-optimized
> bzImage at some point so you don't spend days on this only to find that it's a
> kernel issue :)

I already tried a -m486 optimized kernel, same results freezes:-/

>
>
> --
> Daniel Robbins                                  <drobbins@gentoo.org>
> President/CEO                                   http://www.gentoo.org
> Gentoo Technologies, Inc.
> _______________________________________________
> gentoo-dev mailing list
> gentoo-dev@gentoo.org
> http://www.gentoo.org/mailman/listinfo/gentoo-dev

Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo RC3 kernel booting with AMD K6

[drobbins]

On Tue, Jan 09, 2001 at 06:07:14PM +0100, Achim Gottinger wrote:

> I already tried a -m486 optimized kernel, same results freezes:-/

Hmmm.  This cannot be a processor optimization issue, then.  All our apps are
compiled with -mpentium -O2, which will produce code that runs on a 486
(-march=pentium would break compatibility).

So I guess this is a confusing problem.

-- 
Daniel Robbins					<drobbins@gentoo.org>
President/CEO					http://www.gentoo.org 
Gentoo Technologies, Inc.			

Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo RC3 kernel booting with AMD K6

[Achim Gottinger]

drobbins@gentoo.org wrote:

> On Tue, Jan 09, 2001 at 06:07:14PM +0100, Achim Gottinger wrote:
>
> > I already tried a -m486 optimized kernel, same results freezes:-/
>
> Hmmm.  This cannot be a processor optimization issue, then.  All our apps are
> compiled with -mpentium -O2, which will produce code that runs on a 486
> (-march=pentium would break compatibility).

Hmm, I think this is the problem, I think i used -march=pentium here for some
packages.
But I did not use -march for the rc3 builds.

>
>
> So I guess this is a confusing problem.

Agree.

>
>
> --
> Daniel Robbins                                  <drobbins@gentoo.org>
> President/CEO                                   http://www.gentoo.org
> Gentoo Technologies, Inc.
> _______________________________________________
> gentoo-dev mailing list
> gentoo-dev@gentoo.org
> http://www.gentoo.org/mailman/listinfo/gentoo-dev