2.4.17 - hang after 'freeing unused kernel memory'

2.4.17 - hang after 'freeing unused kernel memory'

[Stepan Hluchan]

Hi all,

I have installed the RedHat 7.2 distro (I think it comes with
2.4.10-something
but that hangs too) on one machine A. and then transferred the HD to
another (machine B) where it should be used.   On machine A (Celeron 800Mhz)
it all boots up fine with any kernel, on machine B (P75 @ 100Mhz, ancient
BIOS
and mobo) it hangs after the message 'freeing up XX k unused kernel memory'.

I have compiled the 2.4.17, 2.4.0 kernels set to 'classic pentium', but both
would
hang...

What can be the cause for this?  (keep in mind it works fine on the newer
machine)

Thanks in advance,

Stepan


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Re: 2.4.17 - hang after 'freeing unused kernel memory'

[Tommy Reynolds]

On Sun, 6 Jan 2002, Stepan Hluchan wrote:

> I have installed the RedHat 7.2 distro (I think it comes with
> 2.4.10-something
> but that hangs too) on one machine A. and then transferred the HD to
> another (machine B) where it should be used.   On machine A (Celeron 800Mhz)
> it all boots up fine with any kernel, on machine B (P75 @ 100Mhz, ancient
> BIOS
> and mobo) it hangs after the message 'freeing up XX k unused kernel memory'.
> 
> I have compiled the 2.4.17, 2.4.0 kernels set to 'classic pentium', but both
> would
> hang...
> 
> What can be the cause for this?  (keep in mind it works fine on the newer
> machine)

Kernels hangs after the "freeing unused kernel memory" are the classic
symptom that the kernel has been compiled using the wrong CPU type.
Just for grins, try again using the next lower version of the CPU:
like a 586.  X86 CPU settings are mostly forward compatible, not
backwards compatible.

-- 
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Tommy Reynolds                               | mailto: <reynolds@redhat.com>
Red Hat, Inc., Embedded Development Services | Phone:  +1.256.704.9286
307 Wynn Drive NW, Huntsville, AL 35805 USA  | FAX:    +1.256.837.3839
Senior Software Developer                    | Mobile: +1.919.641.2923

Re: 2.4.17 - hang after 'freeing unused kernel memory'

[Mikael Pettersson]

On Sun, 6 Jan 2002 12:30:39 +0100, Stepan Hluchan wrote:
>I have installed the RedHat 7.2 distro (I think it comes with
>2.4.10-something
>but that hangs too) on one machine A. and then transferred the HD to
>another (machine B) where it should be used.   On machine A (Celeron 800Mhz)
>it all boots up fine with any kernel, on machine B (P75 @ 100Mhz, ancient
>BIOS
>and mobo) it hangs after the message 'freeing up XX k unused kernel memory'.
>
>I have compiled the 2.4.17, 2.4.0 kernels set to 'classic pentium', but both
>would
>hang...

User error. It's actually INIT that's hanging, not the kernel.
When you installed on machine A, RH chose glibc libraries optimised
for i686-class CPUs. These libraries WILL NOT RUN on anything less,
including the P5 classic in your machine B, due to their use of the
CMOV instruction.

Move the disk back to machine A. Manually install the plain i386 glibc
library (glibc-2.2.4-19.3.i386.rpm if you get it from the RH7.2 updates
sites). Then move the disk back to machine B.

/Mikael