Ubuntu
base-installer package

SMP kernel not installed

Bug #38791 reported by Richard Laager on 2006-04-08

This bug report is a duplicate of: Bug #8096: No smp kernel installed for hypterthreading CPU. Edit Remove

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	base-installer (Ubuntu)	New	Medium	Unassigned

Bug Description

When I installed Breezy and then re-installed with Dapper, a UP kernel was installed. My machine has an Intel Core Duo chip, and so an SMP kernel should've been installed. Related to this... The installer only installed a 386 kernel, and it should've installed the 686 kernel.

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Dennis Kaarsemaker (dennis) wrote on 2006-04-08: Re: [Bug 38791] SMP kernel not installed

status Rejected

There is no room on the cds for more than one kernel

Dennis Kaarsemaker (dennis-merged) on 2006-04-08

Changed in debian-installer:
status:	Unconfirmed → Rejected

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Richard Laager (rlaager) wrote on 2006-04-08:

What about on the DVDs?

For the CDs (and DVDs, if they don't have any free space either), why not install an empty linux-686-smp with a version of 0 or similar and no dependencies? This would take up almost zero space on the CD. It'd do nothing. Since it'd be the latest available with just the CD, apt would be fine if I never connected to the network.

However, once I connected to the Internet, apt would automatically upgrade linux-686-smp to the latest version. In the process, it would add the real kernel and modules as part of the dependency resolution process.

There'd be no reason to install linux-386 in this case, as if I never connected to the network, there'd never be an upgrade. If I did, the linux-686-smp would take over.

Changed in debian-installer:
status:	Rejected → Unconfirmed

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Sitsofe Wheeler (sitsofe) wrote on 2006-04-09:

I believe in dapper there is no longer a separate SMP kernel as runtime patching can be done to support UP and SMP with the same kernel...

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Sitsofe Wheeler (sitsofe) wrote on 2006-04-09:

http://packages.ubuntu.com/changelogs/pool/main/l/linux-source-2.6.15/linux-source-2.6.15_2.6.15-2.2/changelog.html

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Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote on 2006-04-10:

On the DVDs, you will get a -686 kernel automatically.

As far as the rest goes, I'm sorry, but we've discussed this before and decided against it. The suggestion of installing a dummy linux-686-smp package is new and interesting, but I feel that installing a misleadingly-named package like that would be excessively confusing for those trying to diagnose kernel bugs, so I'd really rather not do that. As Sitsofe says, UP and SMP is now handled by the kernel at run-time (although I believe the -386 kernel remains UP-only).

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Richard Laager (rlaager) wrote on 2006-04-10:

Thinking out loud here:

How about "linux-686-smp-dummy" with an obvious description? The real "linux-686-smp" or "linux-686" could "Replaces: linux-686-smp-dummy" maybe. (I'm not sure of the specific semantics of Replaces.

Would it be possible to make hte 386 kernel SMP?

I can deal with the installer not doing an SMP kernel, but as Intel Core Duo chips become more popular, I think it's going to be a bigger issue for the average user. I'll let you know if I have any other interesting ideas to solve this problem.