Dell PowerEdge R630 won't boot with 4.4.0-168.197 and later

[Björn Tillenius]

One of our Dell R630 machines in our CI environment won't boot with the 4.4.0-168.197 kernel in xenial.

I've confirmed that it does boot with 4.4.0-166.195, but it won't boot with neither 4.4.0-168.197 nor 4.4.0-169.198. I haven't tried with 4.4.0-167.196, but I'll see if I can try with that one as well.

I can't give any error message. I first saw this when PXE booting the machine. I can see that it downloads the kernel and initrd, but then the machine just reboots.

I also tried installing xenial on the machine, and the same happens with grub. No output in the console after selecting the kernel in the grub menu, it just reboots.

I'm attaching the lshw outputs for the two Dell machines we have. natasha is the one that isn't working, while opelt works.

The machine is in our CI lab, and we can provide you access to it for more debugging.

[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 1852794

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.

[Björn Tillenius (bjornt)]

I can't attach any logs, since the system doesn't boot up enough to show anything useful.

[Khaled El Mously (kmously)]

Thanks for the info @Björn

I have a couple of initial questions

1) When you say "One of our Dell R630 machines in our CI environment won't boot with the 4.4.0-168.197 kernel in xenial." , does this mean that you have other Dell R360 machines that *do* boot with the new xenial kernels?

2) Can you clarify what you mean by "I also tried installing xenial on the machine, and the same happens with grub. No output in the console after selecting the kernel in the grub menu, it just reboots." ? How is "installing xenial" different from what you were doing prior to that? Is it a matter of booting from a live-usb vs booting from PXE ? If that's the case, do you know what kernel this xenial image was using? Did the live instance come up at all?

I think the easiest thing would be to try to bisect to find the offending commit. Attempting to boot the 4.4.0-167.196 kernel is a good idea, to help us know where to start bisection.

Thanks

[Terry Rudd (terrykrudd)]

Hello @Bjorn, we're trying to determine if we have a regression with this bug, could you please try and get back to us ASAP on the questions that khaled has asked for follow up on. Thanks

[Björn Tillenius (bjornt)]

Hi Khaled,

sorry for not answering earlier, I've been off sick.

1) Yes. We have two Dell R630 machines, natasha and opelt. The former (natasha) doesn't boot, while the latter (opelt) does boot. I've attached the lshw output for them both. They do have different CPUs, for examples.

2) It's a matter of booting from grub vs booting from lpxelinux. I mainly wanted to confirm that it's not an issue that's specific to lpxelinux. I used MAAS to do the installation, and I forced it to use 4.4.0-166.195 for the installation.

I'll see if I can try and boot it with 4.4.0-167.196 today.

[Björn Tillenius (bjornt)]

I set up the test system now again, and I can can confirm that 4.4.0-167.196 boots.

I can leave the system up for a while. I'll send details on how to access the system privately.