Cannot boot 2.6.31 kernel without using 'acpi=off' parameter in grub

[Clay Weber]

I am unable to boot any 2.6.31 kernel in Karmic without passing "acpi=off" to grub.

My laptop is and old-ish Compaq Evo N610c

Previous kernels before 2.6.31 booted fine
And of course previous of Ubuntu booted fine as well

I an unable to see exactly where the problem is as the laptop locks up somewhere after running scripts/init-bottom, or at least thats is what shows on the screen at the time it locks up (and disabling quiet and splash in grub)

ProblemType: Bug
AplayDevices:
 **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: I82801CAICH3 [Intel 82801CA-ICH3], device 0: Intel ICH [Intel 82801CA-ICH3]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: testing 2401 F.... knotify4
                      testing 2421 F.... kmix
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'I82801CAICH3'/'Intel 82801CA-ICH3 with AD1886A at irq 11'
   Mixer name : 'Analog Devices AD1886A'
   Components : 'AC97a:41445363'
   Controls : 38
   Simple ctrls : 24
Date: Sat Aug 29 16:30:48 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=9987a594-ec47-41d6-bb4c-0b8e7ab4bdf2
Lsusb:
 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. USB-2.0 4-Port HUB
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
MachineType: Compaq Evo N610c
Package: linux-image-2.6.31-7-generic 2.6.31-7.27
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
 Socket 1:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
 Socket 1:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-7-generic root=UUID=9e7a20da-43fe-4a68-a912-a7f227031a9e ro acpi=off
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-7.27-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-backports-modules-2.6.31-7-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.16
RfKill:

SourcePackage: linux
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-7-generic i686
dmi.bios.date: 05/27/2004
dmi.bios.vendor: Compaq
dmi.bios.version: 68P4F Ver. F.1B
dmi.board.name: 07F4
dmi.board.vendor: Compaq
dmi.board.version: KBC Version .
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Compaq
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnCompaq:bvr68P4FVer.F.1B:bd05/27/2004:svnCompaq:pnEvoN610c:pvr:rvnCompaq:rn07F4:rvrKBCVersion.:cvnCompaq:ct10:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Evo N610c
dmi.sys.vendor: Compaq

[Clay Weber (claydoh)]

To clarify the bug a bit:

I cannot boot my kaptop from 9.10 live-cd without using the acpi=off option, else it locks up during the boot process.

The same occurs on an installed system. This is all since the 2.6.31 kernels were introduced.
The same or similar lockups happen with any distro using 2.6.31 kernels I have tried so far via live-cd

Is there a way to help determine whay this is, or to be able to get at the correct logs for this? It happens so early in the boot proccess I cannot get to any terminals or anything useful as far as I can see.

[Clay Weber (claydoh)]

I just discovered that passing nohz=off to grub allows booting

[swalker (sdwalker)]

nohz=off is also required to boot on a Dell Insprion 8500. I also haven't seen any non-CPU loaded random lockups with the option that I used to see frequently.

[swalker (sdwalker)]

Possibly fixed with http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=3e2ada5867b7e9fa0b296d30fa8f3726ebd0a8b7

[Laszlo Pandy (laszlok)]

I have the same Compaq Evo N610c and neither the live cd or karmic install will boot without acpi=off (or acpi=ht, which disables all acpi except hyperthreading). When turning off quiet and usplash the kernel messages seem to indicate that it locks up right after loading the ethernet drive, although that doesn't mean its the cause. When booting with pci=noacpi, it gets past the ethernet driver, but locks up right after loading AppArmor profiles.

[Clay Weber (claydoh)]

@ Laszlo Pandy: have you tried using 'nohz=off' ? It is working for me quite well

[Laszlo Pandy (laszlok)]

Yes after seeing your comment I tried nohz=off and it works quite well. Jockey is now able to detect and install the non-free driver for my external PC card wireless (not sure if is related to nohz, but it didn't want to enable it before) and suspend (and resume!) works correctly with nohz too.

[Clay Weber (claydoh)]

This is fixed for me with the 2.6.31-14.46 kernel

from http://changelogs.ubuntu.com/changelogs/pool/main/l/linux/linux_2.6.31-14.46/changelog :

 [ Upstream Kernel Changes ]

  * ACPI: Clarify resource conflict message
  * ACPI: fix Compaq Evo N800c (Pentium 4m) boot hang regression