cannot boot 2.6.22-14 with Athlon 64, hangs/stops

[edA-qa]

My machine hangs during the boot process for kernel 2.6.22-14-generic. I have an Ahtlon 64 and it runs fine with kernel 2.6.15-26-386.

So far I have attempted all the following to no avail:
-switched from 386 to generic, seemed to help a bit
-recreated images initramfs -u -k all / update_grub
-removed potentially troublesome initrules (86-pcmia)
-disabling several USB devices
-acpi=false had no impact, but
-acpi_use_timer_override got my system to a BusyBox prompt eventually, but no further

I am unable to boot at all in that kernel, so the attached logs are for the 2.6.15-26-386 boot (otherwise the system is the same).

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=7.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=gutsy
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 7.10"

I have no /proc/version_signature

I recently followed the upgrade path 6.05 => 6.10 => 7.04 => 7.10. The only unfinished package is "cupsys" due to apparmor not intiailizing, which is of course due to the new kernel not loading which has the apparmor patch.

If somebody could tell me how to get cupsys running without apparmor I'd also be happy with that as a workaround for now.

[edA-qa (eda-qa)]

Further trying with "acpi=off" I saw some more errors before the initramfs/busybox prompt appears.

The SATA detection/negotation is taking a very long time, at (FDC 0 is apost-1991)... faile dto recover some devices... just before the prompt I see "ALERT: /dev/sda1 does not exist" which is what root is set to.

Booting a few more times and writing quickly I find ata problems:
  failed to set xfermode (err_mask_0x40)
  ata1.00: disabled

So the problem is somehow this kernel image doesn't want to recognize my SATA drives, and thus can't boot any further. Anything else I can check?

[edA-qa (eda-qa)]

I tried with option "irqpoll" and got further -- the disks were detected and boot continued, but this time it just stopped after the USB detection part.

[Dereck Wonnacott (dereck)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This bug did not have a package associated with it, which is important for ensuring that it gets looked at by the proper developers. You can learn more about finding the right package at [WWW] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage . I have classified this bug as a bug in the Linux kernel.

[edA-qa (eda-qa)]

Curiously the Mepis kernels work just fine on my machine, without needing any additional flags. I tried the Mepis 2.6.22 32-bit and 64-bit kernel (currently running on 64-bit).

I am still quite happy to try options with the Ubuntu kernels to help fix this defect though I might need to do it with a Live CD, or a boot disc.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi edA-qa,

I notice you are running the 7.10 Gutsy release. The Hardy Heron 8.04 Alpha series is currently under development and contains an updated version of the kernel. It would be helpful if you could test the latest Hardy Alpha release: http://www.ubuntu.com/testing . You should be able to then test the new kernel via the LiveCD. If you can, please verify if this bug still exists or not and report back your results. Thanks.

[edA-qa (eda-qa)]

I tried Alpha 6 and the 64-bit live CD boots, well, not quite.

If I accept the default options the screen goes blank and the booting process stops (I waited just to be sure, and it really has stopped, no activity, no progress).

If I modify the boot options to remove the "splash" and "quiet" options the live CD boots into Gnome without a problem.

I should note that if I boot with the Splash screen with the Mepis kernel it boots correctly, but the X display has a few odd artefacts -- which I suspect is either a bug in the radeon driver, or in the card itself (simply switching to a console and switching back fixes it). I mention this since perhaps it is related to the splash crashing the boot process in this new Ubuntu CD.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi edA-qa,

It seems this might be a bug with usplash rather than the kernel since you said you were able to boot fine when you removed the 'quiet' and 'splash' options. Care to take a look at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingUsplash and provide the appropriate debugging information? Thanks.

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

edA-qa : Can you provide the following informations?

   1.What is your actual screen resolution, as shown in System / Preferences / Screen Resolution
   2.The output of this command in a terminal : cat /etc/usplash.conf
   3.Attach your /boot/grub/menu.lst file

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

edA-qa : Can you provide the informations I asked in my last comment?

[edA-qa (eda-qa)]

Sorry, I will no longer be able to provide the requested information.

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

edA-qa : Thank you for your fast confirmation. Since important informations to triage and fix this bug are missing and that the attached logs does not identify your computer devices, I set this bug report to invalid but feel free to re-open it if you can provide needed informations.