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Etch 2.6.18-5-486 stable but 2.6.18-5-686 crashes on PIII SMP???

From: Digby Tarvin <digbyt(at)acm.org>
Date: Wed Oct 31 2007 - 09:04:12 EDT

I have installed Etch using a recent netinstall on a Dell Precision 410, and had a lot of trouble initially with mysterious frequent 'segmentation fault' errors and total system freezes which required a reset.

After some trial and error and some advice from the net I discovered that if I installed the 2.6.18-5-486 kernel and booted that instead of the 2.6.18-5-686 kernel from the installer then all the instability went away.

However this leaves me without use of my second CPU and without access to a 'bigmem' kernel to access all of my ram :(

I am hoping that there might be some kernel experts out there that can offer some suggestions as to what might be going wrong with the 686 kernel, and which I might be able to try in order to resolve (or at least explain) the problem...

/proc/cpuinfo returns:

 processor       : 0
 vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
 cpu family      : 6
 model           : 7
 model name      : Pentium III (Katmai)
 stepping        : 2
 cpu MHz         : 447.728
 cache size      : 512 KB
 fdiv_bug        : no
 hlt_bug         : no
 f00f_bug        : no
 coma_bug        : no
 fpu             : yes
 fpu_exception   : yes
 cpuid level     : 2
 wp              : yes
 flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse
 bogomips        : 896.10

I tried booting the 686 kernel with the 'nosmp' option to see if there was a problem with the SMP implementation on this machine, but that made no difference (other than giving me a single processor).

Anyone come across anything like this? Any kernel experts with any idea what difference between these two kernels might explain this problem?

A 'diff config-2.6.18-5-486 config-2.6.18-5-686' produces

	4c4

	< # Tue Oct  2 23:31:31 2007

	---
	> # Tue Oct  2 23:31:49 2007
	24c24

	< CONFIG_BROKEN_ON_SMP=y

	---
	> CONFIG_LOCK_KERNEL=y
	40a41
	> CONFIG_CPUSETS=y
	72a74
	> CONFIG_STOP_MACHINE=y
	97c99

	< # CONFIG_SMP is not set

	---
	> CONFIG_SMP=y
	108c110

	< CONFIG_M486=y

	---
	> # CONFIG_M486 is not set
	112c114

	< # CONFIG_M686 is not set

	---
	> CONFIG_M686=y
	129c131

	< CONFIG_X86_GENERIC=y

	---
	> # CONFIG_X86_GENERIC is not set
	132c134

	< CONFIG_X86_L1_CACHE_SHIFT=7

	---
	> CONFIG_X86_L1_CACHE_SHIFT=5
	136d137

	< CONFIG_X86_F00F_BUG=y

	141,142c142,145

	< CONFIG_X86_ALIGNMENT_16=y
	< CONFIG_X86_INTEL_USERCOPY=y

	---
	> CONFIG_X86_CMPXCHG64=y
	> CONFIG_X86_GOOD_APIC=y
	> CONFIG_X86_USE_PPRO_CHECKSUM=y
	> CONFIG_X86_TSC=y
	143a147,149
	> CONFIG_NR_CPUS=8
	> CONFIG_SCHED_SMT=y
	> CONFIG_SCHED_MC=y
	147,148c153

	< CONFIG_X86_UP_APIC=y
	< CONFIG_X86_UP_IOAPIC=y

	---
	> # CONFIG_PREEMPT_BKL is not set
	151c156,158

	< # CONFIG_X86_MCE is not set

	---
	> CONFIG_X86_MCE=y
	> CONFIG_X86_MCE_NONFATAL=m
	> CONFIG_X86_MCE_P4THERMAL=y
	167,168c174,175

	< CONFIG_NOHIGHMEM=y
	< # CONFIG_HIGHMEM4G is not set

	---
	> # CONFIG_NOHIGHMEM is not set
	> CONFIG_HIGHMEM4G=y
	170a178
	> CONFIG_HIGHMEM=y
	183c191,192

	< CONFIG_MATH_EMULATION=y

	---
	> # CONFIG_HIGHPTE is not set
	> # CONFIG_MATH_EMULATION is not set
	185a195
	> CONFIG_IRQBALANCE=y
	193a204
	> # CONFIG_CRASH_DUMP is not set
	194a206
	> CONFIG_HOTPLUG_CPU=y
	195a208
	> CONFIG_ARCH_ENABLE_MEMORY_HOTPLUG=y
	204a218
	> CONFIG_SUSPEND_SMP=y
	220a235
	> CONFIG_ACPI_HOTPLUG_CPU=y
	253c268

	< CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_STAT_DETAILS=y

	---
	> # CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_STAT_DETAILS is not set
	306,313c321,322

	< CONFIG_EISA=y
	< CONFIG_EISA_VLB_PRIMING=y
	< CONFIG_EISA_PCI_EISA=y
	< CONFIG_EISA_VIRTUAL_ROOT=y
	< CONFIG_EISA_NAMES=y
	< CONFIG_MCA=y
	< CONFIG_MCA_LEGACY=y
	< # CONFIG_MCA_PROC_FS is not set

	---
	> # CONFIG_EISA is not set
	> # CONFIG_MCA is not set
	350c359

	< CONFIG_HOTPLUG_PCI_COMPAQ_NVRAM=y

	---
	> # CONFIG_HOTPLUG_PCI_COMPAQ_NVRAM is not set
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	762d770

	< CONFIG_DMASCC=m

	815d822

	< CONFIG_IRPORT_SIR=m

	820d826

	< # CONFIG_DONGLE_OLD is not set

	1210d1215

	< CONFIG_SCSI_AHA1740=m

	1215d1219

	< CONFIG_AIC7XXX_PROBE_EISA_VL=y

	1262d1265

	< CONFIG_SCSI_FD_MCS=m

	1267,1269d1269

	< CONFIG_SCSI_IBMMCA=m
	< CONFIG_IBMMCA_SCSI_ORDER_STANDARD=y
	< # CONFIG_IBMMCA_SCSI_DEV_RESET is not set

	1278d1277

	< CONFIG_SCSI_NCR_D700=m

	1287,1292d1285

	< CONFIG_SCSI_NCR_Q720=m
	< CONFIG_SCSI_NCR53C8XX_DEFAULT_TAGS=8
	< CONFIG_SCSI_NCR53C8XX_MAX_TAGS=4
	< CONFIG_SCSI_NCR53C8XX_SYNC=5
	< # CONFIG_SCSI_NCR53C8XX_PROFILE is not set
	< CONFIG_SCSI_MCA_53C9X=m

	1299,1300d1291

	< CONFIG_SCSI_SIM710=m
	< CONFIG_53C700_IO_MAPPED=y

	1328d1318

	< CONFIG_SBPCD=m

	1331d1320

	< CONFIG_CM206=m

	1334d1322

	< CONFIG_CDU31A=m

	1472,1473d1459

	< CONFIG_ELMC=m
	< CONFIG_ELMC_II=m

	1479d1464

	< CONFIG_ULTRAMCA=m

	1481d1465

	< CONFIG_ULTRA32=m

	1484d1467

	< CONFIG_NI5010=m

	1503d1485

	< CONFIG_PCMCIA_XIRTULIP=m

	1519,1520d1500

	< CONFIG_NE2_MCA=m
	< CONFIG_IBMLANA=m

	1534d1513

	< CONFIG_LNE390=m

	1538,1539d1516

	< CONFIG_NE3210=m
	< CONFIG_ES3210=m

	1601d1577

	< CONFIG_MADGEMC=m

	1811d1786

	< CONFIG_ISDN_DRV_LOOP=m

	1892,1893d1866

	< CONFIG_HYSDN=m
	< CONFIG_HYSDN_CAPI=y

	2047c2020

	< CONFIG_COMPUTONE=m

	---
	> # CONFIG_COMPUTONE is not set
	2051c2024

	< CONFIG_DIGIEPCA=m

	---
	> # CONFIG_DIGIEPCA is not set
	2053c2026

	< CONFIG_MOXA_INTELLIO=m

	---
	> # CONFIG_MOXA_INTELLIO is not set
	2060d2032

	< # CONFIG_RISCOM8 is not set

	2063,2064c2035

	< CONFIG_RIO=m
	< CONFIG_RIO_OLDPCI=y

	---
	> # CONFIG_RIO is not set
	2066,2067d2036

	< CONFIG_STALLION=m
	< CONFIG_ISTALLION=m

	2088d2056

	< CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_MCA=m

	2182,2206d2149

	< CONFIG_FTAPE=m
	< CONFIG_ZFTAPE=m
	< CONFIG_ZFT_DFLT_BLK_SZ=10240
	< 
	< #
	< # The compressor will be built as a module only!
	< #
	< CONFIG_ZFT_COMPRESSOR=m
	< CONFIG_FT_NR_BUFFERS=3
	< CONFIG_FT_PROC_FS=y
	< CONFIG_FT_NORMAL_DEBUG=y
	< # CONFIG_FT_FULL_DEBUG is not set
	< # CONFIG_FT_NO_TRACE is not set
	< # CONFIG_FT_NO_TRACE_AT_ALL is not set
	< 
	< #
	< # Hardware configuration
	< #
	< CONFIG_FT_STD_FDC=y
	< # CONFIG_FT_MACH2 is not set
	< # CONFIG_FT_PROBE_FC10 is not set
	< # CONFIG_FT_ALT_FDC is not set
	< CONFIG_FT_FDC_THR=8
	< CONFIG_FT_FDC_MAX_RATE=2000
	< CONFIG_FT_ALPHA_CLOCK=0

	2276c2219

	< CONFIG_I2C_ELEKTOR=m

	---
	> # CONFIG_I2C_ELEKTOR is not set
	2492c2435

	< CONFIG_USB_W9968CF=m

	---
	> # CONFIG_USB_W9968CF is not set
	3060c3003

	< CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_WHITEHEAT=m

	---
	> # CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_WHITEHEAT is not set
	3253c3196

	< CONFIG_EXT2_FS=y

	---
	> CONFIG_EXT2_FS=m
	3264c3207

	< CONFIG_FS_MBCACHE=y

	---
	> CONFIG_FS_MBCACHE=m
	3500c3443

	< CONFIG_LOG_BUF_SHIFT=14

	---
	> CONFIG_LOG_BUF_SHIFT=15
	3582a3526,3528
	> CONFIG_GENERIC_PENDING_IRQ=y
	> CONFIG_X86_SMP=y
	> CONFIG_X86_HT=y
	3583a3530
	> CONFIG_X86_TRAMPOLINE=y

Do you need help?

I suppose I could start building new kernels, starting with the 486 config and gruadually moving to the 686 till the problem comes back.

But I am not really sure what a lot of the options do and what combinations make sense, so I am hoping some kernel experts can give me some pointers on likely culprits.

Thanks,
DigbyT

-- 
Digby R. S. Tarvin                                          digbyt(at)digbyt.com
http://www.digbyt.com


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Received on Wed Oct 31 09:21:21 2007

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