2.4.14 reboot on/before boot

2.4.14 reboot on/before boot

[John Madden]

Two machines, identical hardware (Dell 2450's, Dual PIII/667, 1gig ram).
One one, 2.4.14 boots and runs nicely, as one would expect.  On the other,
"as close to exact as I can imagine" compile configs, the machine reboots
just after LILO's "Loading Linux..."  Same version of LILO on both as well.

Has anyone else experienced this?  Any ideas on a fix?


Thanks,
  John





-- 
John Madden
UNIX Systems Engineer
Ivy Tech State College
jmadden@ivy.tec.in.us

Re: 2.4.14 reboot on/before boot

[Alan Cox]

> Two machines, identical hardware (Dell 2450's, Dual PIII/667, 1gig ram).
> One one, 2.4.14 boots and runs nicely, as one would expect.  On the other,
> "as close to exact as I can imagine" compile configs, the machine reboots
> just after LILO's "Loading Linux..."  Same version of LILO on both as well.
> 
> Has anyone else experienced this?  Any ideas on a fix?

Check they are the same BIOS. If so run memtest86 across them. The Lilo
load/unpack might be enough to stress memory and find real faults

Re: 2.4.14 reboot on/before boot

[John Madden]

>> Two machines, identical hardware (Dell 2450's, Dual PIII/667, 1gig
>> ram). One one, 2.4.14 boots and runs nicely, as one would expect.  On
>> the other, "as close to exact as I can imagine" compile configs, the
>> machine reboots just after LILO's "Loading Linux..."  Same version of
>> LILO on both as well.
>>
>> Has anyone else experienced this?  Any ideas on a fix?
>
> Check they are the same BIOS. If so run memtest86 across them. The Lilo
> load/unpack might be enough to stress memory and find real faults

Checked the BIOS versions and memtested the 'bad' machine, versions match,
no bad memory found.

I tried upgrading on multiple machines, some others failed, some didn't.  So
far, two of our 2450's take 2.4.14 without issue and three don't.

Working:
Dual PIII/667, 1gig, 3x18gb scsi, adaptec 7xxx
Dual PIII/1000, 1gig, 4x18gb scsi, ami megaraid

Not working:
Single PIII/667, 256mb, 2x18gb scsi, adaptec 7xxx
2 x (Dual PIII/667, 1gig, 3x18gb scsi, adaptec 7xxx)

All 5 machines have the same BIOS and 'backplane' rev.

In the 'not working' machines, all three do exactly the same thing: LILO ->
"Loading Linux.." (or something similar, text that flashes very quickly) ->
reboot.  All of these boxes have and are running 2.2.19 without so much as a
single crash (or any other issue, for that matter) since upgrading from
2.2.16.  I can swallow one machine having a fluky RAM issue, but not three.

I'm strongly considering dropping back to 2.2.20...

Thanks,
  John




-- 
John Madden
UNIX Systems Engineer
Ivy Tech State College
jmadden@ivy.tec.in.us