SMP _DEATH_

Richard B. Johnson (root@analogic.com)
Fri, 25 Apr 1997 14:48:31 -0400 (EDT)


I downloaded the latest linux-2.1.36 from Linus' site. This replaced the
linux-2.1.36 kernel that I made from 2.1.35 and the 'pre-release` patch
for 2.1.36. I expected that it would probably work. Not so.

The previous system size with all the patches and NE* Ethernet, aic7xxx SCSI
was 506 kb.

the new system (supposably the same) is 531 kb. This results in an error.
I don't know why this is an error because it certainly will fit on
a floppy and it will certainly fit between 1000:0 and 9000:FFFF in
real mode, when loaded. Nevertheless, I built bzImage instead.

objcopy -O binary -R .note -R .comment -S compressed/vmlinux compressed/vmlinux.out
tools/build bootsect setup compressed/vmlinux.out CURRENT > zImage
Root device is (8, 1)
Boot sector 512 bytes.
Setup is 1252 bytes.
System is 531 kB
System is too big
make[1]: *** [zImage] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.1.36/arch/i386/boot'
make: *** [zImage] Error 2

Building bzImage works. However, EVEN THOUGH I COPIED IT TO A FLOPPY,
somehow the boot sector of my hard disk got "reconfigured" so the
hard disk would not boot after I found that the new system would not
boot. This was a major pain in the ass because I was left with an
unbootable system even though I was careful to copy the new system
onto a floppy and not touch my hard disk. This is my "standard" script
that I use for testing kernels. I edited it change zImage to bzImage.
That is all.

# cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage .
# ROOTDEV=`df / | cut -d ' ' -f1 | sed -e1d`
# echo -n 'Setting root device as ' ; echo ${ROOTDEV}
# rdev -R bzImage 1
# rdev bzImage ${ROOTDEV}
# cp bzImage /dev/fd0

Anyway. The new SMP kernel will not boot. It crashes as soon as the
second CPU is initialized. This results in an immediate reboot.

Cheers,
Dick Johnson
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Richard B. Johnson
Project Engineer
Analogic Corporation
Voice : (508) 977-3000 ext. 3754
Fax : (508) 532-6097
Modem : (508) 977-6870
Ftp : ftp@boneserver.analogic.com
Email : rjohnson@analogic.com, johnson@analogic.com
Penguin : Linux version 2.1.35 on an i586 machine (66.15 BogoMips).
Warning : I read unsolicited mail for $350.00 per hour. Supply billing address.
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