Re: [gentoo-user] gentoo-sources-2.6.35-r12 causes kernel panic

[Petri Rosenström]

On Sat, Nov 27, 2010 at 8:50 PM, Mark Knecht <markknecht@×××××.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 27, 2010 at 10:29 AM, Mick <michaelkintzios@×××××.com> wrote:
>> On Saturday 27 November 2010 17:53:21 Mark Knecht wrote:
>>> On Sat, Nov 27, 2010 at 9:17 AM, Mick <michaelkintzios@×××××.com> wrote:
>>> > On Saturday 27 November 2010 15:17:43 Mark Knecht wrote:
>>> >> On Sat, Nov 27, 2010 at 6:59 AM, Mick <michaelkintzios@×××××.com> wrote:
>>> >> > I haven't had much luck with the 2.6.35 version of kernels - they have
>>> >> > cause panics on two different x86 boxen.
>>> >> >
>>> >> > Now that 2.6.35 has gone stable so I tried it again and I'm getting a
>>> >> > kernel panic complaining about VFS unable to mount root fs:
>>> >> > ==================================
>>> >> > VFS:  Cannot open root device "sda3" or unknown-block(0,0)
>>> >> > Please append a correct "root=" boot option; here are the available
>>> >> > partitions: Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs
>>> >> > on unknown-block(0,0) Pid: 1, comm: swapper Not tainted
>>> >> > 2.6.35-gentoo-r12 #2
>>> >> > Call Trace:
>>> >> >  [<c14b3530>] ? panic+0x5f/0xc6
>>> >> >  [<c1693c68>] ? mount_block_root+0x1c2/0x245
>>> >> >  [<c1002930>] ? do_signal+0x766/0x7f2
>>> >> >  [<c1693d31>] ? mount_root+0x46/0x5a
>>> >> >  [<c1693e8b>] ? prepare_namespace+0x146/0x182
>>> >> >  [<c1093203>] ? sys_access+0x1f/0x23
>>> >> >  [<c16933f1>] ? kernel_init+0x1a9/0x1b7
>>> >> >  [<c1693248>] ? kernel_init+0x0/0x1b7
>>> >> >  [<c10030b6>] ? kernel_thread_helper+0x6/0x10
>>> >> > panic occurred, switching back to text console
>>> >> > ==================================
>>> >>
>>> >> <SNIP>
>>> >>
>>> >> > Am I missing something obvious to make the 2.6.35 series work with my
>>> >> > boxen?
>>> >>
>>> >>    OK, there's so many possibilities for what causes this. Basic
>>> >> confusion ensues...
>>> >>
>>> >> 1) When booting, if you look carefully, is the initial kernel seeing
>>> >> _any_ disks? Sometimes they fly bye and are hard to catch. If it is
>>> >> then is it showing sda3?
>>> >
>>> > The moment the monitor comes on it's already crashed - the first line
>>> > under the penguins shows:
>>> >
>>> > Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
>>> >
>>> > so I assume that any probing of drives has already happened.
>>> >
>>> >> 2) What sort of file system did you put on sda3? I assume this is
>>> >> built into the kernel if this is an upgrade?
>>> >
>>> > reiserfs built into the kernel and unchanged for the last umpteen kernel
>>> > series.
>>> >
>>> >> 3) Post the appropriate part of grub.conf to show how you are booting.
>>> >
>>> > title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.35-r12
>>> > root (hd0,5)
>>> > kernel /kernel-2.6.35-gentoo-r12 root=/dev/sda3
>>> >
>>> > The 2.6.34-r12 uses the same stanza except for *.35 being replaced with
>>> > *.34
>>> >
>>> >> 4) Post fstab
>>> >
>>> > /dev/sda6     /boot      ext2            noauto,noatime          1 1
>>> > /dev/sda3     /          reiserfs        noatime                 0 1
>>> > /dev/sda2     none       swap            sw                      0 0
>>> > [snip]
>>> >
>>> > I'll now build the kernel on the second x86 box and see what happens
>>> > there. --
>>> > Regards,
>>> > Mick
>>>
>>> Yeah, all makes sense what you've done and I can only offer one more
>>> thing for you to look at.
>>>
>>> I skipped from 2.6.33 to 2.6.36 so I cannot say anything specific
>>> about the *.35 series, but one thing I've suffered with on my 2.6.36
>>> build is that if I have a specific USB hub hooked up my machine won't
>>> complete a boot. I have to disconnect this USB hub prior to boot and
>>> then hook it back up after the boot completes.
>>>
>>> I've not had time to look for the cause so I only hook it up to use
>>> it. After boot there are no other problems I've seen.
>>>
>>> I was assuming that maybe there's some difference in the USB stuff
>>> that I hadn't discovered yet, and since you see a crash at a USB step
>>> possibly it's similar and I never saw it at *.35 because I never used
>>> that series?
>>>
>>> Good luck and I wish I could be of more help.
>>
>> Thanks for trying to help me Mark, I'm surprised this problem is not more
>> widespread.
>>
>> My second x86 machine also fails with the same kernel panic.  :-(
>>
>> Because this is a slower machine I had a moment to see the initial messages
>> before the penguin showed up.
>>
>> It said:
>>
>> ERROR:  Unable to locate IOAPIC for GSI4
>>
>> This is repeated a number of times and then the penguin pops up before the
>> kernel crashes a dozen lines further down.  It seems that this is a regression
>> error, which I hope has been taken care of in later kernels:
>>
>> http://kerneltrap.org/mailarchive/linux-kernel/2010/7/8/4591800
>> --
>> Regards,
>> Mick
>>
>
> If you can then give 2.6.36 a try. Possibly it's in by now? That
> thread ends without (by my reading anyway) any particular conclusion
> about a fix.
>
> - Mark
>
>

Hi Mick,

You didn't show CONFIG_ATA_PIIX in your kernel config... Or atleast I
didn't find it.

CONFIG_ATA_PIIX=y
Device Drivers  --->Serial ATA and Parallel ATA drivers  --->Intel
ESB, ICH, PIIX3, PIIX4 PATA/SATA support

Best regards
Petri