Unable to boot Dell PowerEdge R415 with i386 X-HWE lowlatency kernel

[Po-Hsu Lin]

This Dell PowerEdge R415 node, "gonzo", has difficulties to be deployed with X-HWE lowlatency i386 kernel (fail rate: 15 out of 19 attempts).

I have tried this manually in the following order:
1. Deploy this system with i386 Xenial lowlatency kernel
2. Reboot with X-HWE i386 generic kernel (linux-generic-hwe-16.04)
3. Reboot with X-HWE i386 lowlatency kernel (linux-lowlatency-hwe-16.04)

Result:
  * System can be booted with Xenial i386 lowlatency / X-HWE i386 generic kerne kernel.
  * System seems to be booting with X-HWE i386 lowlatency kernel, but you won't be able to login with SSH.

Maybe this is why the system can't enter the deployed state.

Tested on another Dell PowerEdge R310, "pepe", it can boot with the i386 lowlatency X-HWE kernel without any issue. So this is a bit HW-related.

Syslog for this failed boot attempt with X-HWE i386 lowlatency kernel:
http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/WzXjsk8gvc/

For debugging this issue, the IPMI does not help as it will just stop at "booting local disk". And the java console does not work.

To capture the syslog, you can do the following:
  1. Deploy this node with i386 Xenial lowlatency kernel
  2. Install the X-HWE i386 lowlatency kernel but don't reboot
  3. Force your grub NOT to boot with the X-HWE i386 lowlatency kernel, with this tool [1]
  4. After step 3, ask your system to boot to the X-HWE i386 lowlatency kernel once, with the same tool by passing the --once flag
  5. Reboot, once it hanged power cycle it, it will go back to the working kernel that you have configured in step 3.

[1] https://github.com/Cypresslin/grub_selector

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: linux-image-4.15.0-33-lowlatency 4.15.0-33.36~16.04.1
ProcVersionSignature: User Name 4.15.0-33.36~16.04.1-lowlatency 4.15.18
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-33-lowlatency i686
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.18
Architecture: i386
Date: Fri Sep 7 04:49:07 2018
SourcePackage: linux-hwe
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Ubuntu Kernel Bot (ubuntu-kernel-bot)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. While running an Ubuntu kernel (not a mainline or third-party kernel) please enter the following command in a terminal window:

apport-collect 1791275

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.