Dear all!

I am running Mandrake Community 10.1 on one of my machines.
Everything works fine, but the mainboard in that pc doesn't support as
much ram as I'd like to have. So I need to replace the mainboard.

Up to now this a Gigabyte 586ATS, together with a Cyrix 200MHz cpu.
See below.

I switching to two different mainboards from Gigabyte, first I tried a
586 TX3 and afterwards I tried a 586 T2, each together with an intel
pentium 233mmx and afterwards an amd K2 300MHz.

When switching the machine on again, the BIOS of the mainboard is
loading, then lilo asks for 'normal boot' of 'fail safe' and up to
this point everything seems to be normal.

But in the moment when the kernel is being unpacked to be loaded and
executed, the system makes a reboot, just as if someone pressed the
reset button.

This procedure is repeating endlessly.

Well, I still try to avoid having to reinstall everything, but a
colleague told me that perhaps the installation procedure installed a
kernel version which is tailormade for cyrix processors and thus
refusing to run on an intel or amd cpu?!

Could this be true? Any idea what to do in that case?

Thankx in advance,
best regards,


/*----------------------------------------------------------------------

[root@linux boot]# cat /etc/release
Mandrakelinux release 10.1 (Community) for i586

[root@linux boot]# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : CyrixInstead
cpu family : 6
model : 2
model name : M II 2.5x Core/Bus Clock
stepping : 8
cpu MHz : 165.777
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu de tsc msr cx8 pge cmov mmx cyrix_arr
bogomips : 325.63

----------------------------------------------------------------------*/


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On Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:19:40 -0400, Markus R. Keßler wrote:

Quote:

I am running Mandrake Community 10.1 on one of my machines.

I'm sure you know that support for 10.1 ended a long time ago.

Mandriva (formerly Mandrake) is releasing 2009.0 tomorrow.

Quote:

Could this be true? Any idea what to do in that case?
[root@linux boot]# cat /etc/release
Mandrakelinux release 10.1 (Community) for i586

No. While you could custom compile a kernel for a specific cpu, the
Mandrake/Mandriva installer doesn't. Try passing the kernel option
"acpi=off", to see if that fixes the problem.

I'd wait a few days then download the 2009 Fall dvd (not the one version)
from http://www.mandriva.com/en/download/free

You'll find more people using the newsgroup alt.os.linux.mandriva. Articles
posted here are pretty rare now.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

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Hi Dave!

On Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:34:34 -0400, "David W. Hodgins"
wrote:

Quote:

On Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:19:40 -0400, Markus R. Keßler wrote:

I am running Mandrake Community 10.1 on one of my machines.

I'm sure you know that support for 10.1 ended a long time ago.
Mandriva (formerly Mandrake) is releasing 2009.0 tomorrow.

Yes, I know about it. I already got and installed Mandriva, but on
this machine I'd like to keep this older version.

Quote:

Could this be true? Any idea what to do in that case?
[root@linux boot]# cat /etc/release
Mandrakelinux release 10.1 (Community) for i586

No. While you could custom compile a kernel for a specific cpu, the
Mandrake/Mandriva installer doesn't. Try passing the kernel option
"acpi=off", to see if that fixes the problem.

You mean to append this option to the lilo.conf?


# File generated by DrakX/drakboot
# WARNING: do not forget to run lilo after modifying this file

default="linux"
boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
keytable=/boot/de-latin1.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=20
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="linux"
root=/dev/hda1
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=nomount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda5"
read-only
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="failsafe"
root=/dev/hda1
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="failsafe acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda5 devfs=nomount"
read-only
password="nihilexnihilo"


Any other suggestions for the case, that this doesn't solve the
problem?

Well, I think it is very suspicious that this occurs with multiple
mainboards except the one with the Cyrix processor...

Thanks again, best regards,

Markus

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On Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:21:33 -0400, Markus R. Keßler wrote:

Quote:

On Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:34:34 -0400, "David W. Hodgins"
dwhodgins@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:
Mandrake/Mandriva installer doesn't. Try passing the kernel option
"acpi=off", to see if that fixes the problem.

You mean to append this option to the lilo.conf?
append="devfs=nomount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda5"

Yes, or you can also pass it at boot time. On a processor that doesn't
support hyper-threading, acpi=ht should be the same as acpi=off, so
that doesn't seem to be a workaround that's going to work.

Try append="devfs=nomount acpi=off apic=off lapic=off".

Regards, Dave Hodgins

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On Friday 10 October 2008 20:16, someone identifying as *David W. Hodgins*
wrote in /alt.os.linux.mandrake:/


Ehm, Dave, that should more correctly be....

append="devfs=nomount acpi=off noapic nolapic"

As far as I know, the last two options you wrote here do not exist. Just a
FYI.


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*Aragorn*
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Hi Dave,

On Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:16:44 -0400, "David W. Hodgins"
wrote:

Quote:

On Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:21:33 -0400, Markus R. Keßler wrote:

On Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:34:34 -0400, "David W. Hodgins"
dwhodgins@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:
Mandrake/Mandriva installer doesn't. Try passing the kernel option
"acpi=off", to see if that fixes the problem.

You mean to append this option to the lilo.conf?
append="devfs=nomount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda5"

Yes, or you can also pass it at boot time. On a processor that doesn't
support hyper-threading, acpi=ht should be the same as acpi=off, so
that doesn't seem to be a workaround that's going to work.

Try append="devfs=nomount acpi=off apic=off lapic=off".

I tried it but without success. So, finally, I booted from the
installation cd and made a "system upgrade" - just to see what the
installation procedure will change.

Obviously there are different kernel versions - the kernel for Cyrix
differs from the one for intel. - As soon as I'll have the time I'd
like to see if the one for Intel also supports AMD.

Well, during system update the installation procedure created a new
kernel and wrote a new entry to /etc/lilo.conf.

I adapted it to get a working conf file with 2 entries, one for
default booting and one for "failsafe":


# # File generated by DrakX/drakboot
# # WARNING: do not forget to run lilo after modifying this file
#
# default="linux-i586-up-1GB"
# boot=/dev/hda
# map=/boot/map
# keytable=/boot/de-latin1.klt
# prompt
# nowarn
# timeout=20
# message=/boot/message
# menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
# image=/boot/vmlinuz-i586-up-1GB
# label="linux-i586-up-1GB"
# root=/dev/hda1
# initrd=/boot/initrd-i586-up-1GB.img
# append="devfs=nomount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda5"
# read-only
# image=/boot/vmlinuz-i586-up-1GB
# label="failsafe"
# root=/dev/hda1
# initrd=/boot/initrd-i586-up-1GB.img
# append="failsafe acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda5 devfs=nomount"
# password="nemoscit"
# read-only


It is still not clear to me, why the new kernel is called "up-1GB" - I
testes the new mainboard carrying the Intel processor together with
exactly the same amount of ram as I had together with the Cyrix
processor, but it also refused to work.

Well, at least it works now and it was an exciting experiment

Thanks again,
best regards,

Markus

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On Sunday 12 October 2008 01:48, someone identifying as *Markus R. Ke?ler*
wrote in /alt.os.linux.mandrake:/


The last two options were incorrect - see my reply to Dave.


You have to be careful here as some Cyrix processors that were sold as i586
were actually i486 processors internally but were intended to fit in i586
motherboard sockets, and so the i586 code won't work on them.

Unfortunately I don't remember any details, though. Perhaps you can find
more information about this subject on Tom's Hardware Page.


It didn't create kernel, it installed it.


Uniprocessor kernel with support for 1 GB of RAM. In other words, it
doesn't have symmetric multiprocessing/multithreading/multicore support and
it's a 32-bit kernel that doesn't support the full 4 GB addressable by
32-bit.


"Refused to work" is too vague a description, I'm afraid. More detailed
help requires more detailed information from the person requesting the
help.

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On Sunday 12 October 2008 19:05, someone identifying as *Markus R. Ke?ler*
wrote in /alt.os.linux.mandrake:/


http://www.tomshardware.com


A kernel is not created from scratch. It must be configured and then built.
The Mandriva guys do that for you, and in the process they add some patches
to them which add features not found in the vanilla kernel as it comes from
Linus Torvalds & friends. Some of these may be experimental, while others
are backported patches from a later vanilla kernel.


Could be an incompatibility of some sorts with the motherboard chipset or
possibly even the hard disk controller. There used to be some problems
with certain VIA chipsets, but I don't recall the details.


I'd run a diagnostic on that motherboard if I were you. Try by
running /memtest86/ first. It's a kernel image that tests your RAM. Let
it run for at least a whole day.

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*Aragorn*
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Hi Aragorn,

thanks for your hints!

On Sun, 12 Oct 2008 14:55:53 +0200, Aragorn
wrote:

[..]

Quote:

Try append="devfs=nomount acpi=off apic=off lapic=off".

I tried it but without success.

The last two options were incorrect - see my reply to Dave.

Thanks, I already saw it and used the corrected command line.

Quote:

Unfortunately I don't remember any details, though. Perhaps you can find
more information about this subject on Tom's Hardware Page.

Could you give a hint where to find this page?

Quote:

Well, during system update the installation procedure created a new
kernel and wrote a new entry to /etc/lilo.conf.

It didn't create kernel, it installed it.

Maybe, I just didn't find an "arsenal" of installable kernels on the
installation cd. Also, in the source directory on the linux box some
header and other files had changed. So, this was my assumption

[..]

Quote:

...] - I testes the new mainboard carrying the Intel processor together
with exactly the same amount of ram as I had together with the Cyrix
processor, but it also refused to work.

"Refused to work" is too vague a description, I'm afraid. More detailed
help requires more detailed information from the person requesting the
help.

Not only the Cyrix, but also the AMD processor made a reset just in
the moment when the kernel was uncompressed and loaded into memory.
I.e., after lilo was invoked and the selection was done, for instance
there was a message like:

# loading failsafe.....................
# Bios date check sucessful

Just one second later the VGA card's BIOS appeared and everything was
repeated from the beginining - "ringboot"

Best regards,

Markus

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On Sun, 12 Oct 2008 13:05:28 -0400, Markus R. Keßler wrote:

Quote:

there was a message like:

# loading failsafe.....................
# Bios date check sucessful

That would have been "Bios data check ..."

Quote:

Just one second later the VGA card's BIOS appeared and everything was
repeated from the beginining - "ringboot"

Just tried booting with vga=ask, to slow things down. The first message
after the bios data check relates to probing the edd, with a message
to use edd=off, to disable.

From /usr/src/linux/Documentation/kernel-parameters ...
EDD BIOS Enhanced Disk Drive Services (EDD) is enabled
edd= [EDD]
Format: {"off" | "on" | "skip[mbr]"}

Try edd=off.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

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