> I've been having problems lately with forgetting to unset SMP=1 which is
> enabled by default in the 2.1.x kernels, only to end up with an unusable
> kernel on my cpu/motherboard. I have a Tyan Tomcat IV (SMP capable)
> board, and a Cyrix 6x86L 166+ processor. When the SMP kernel starts it
> immediately oopses after detecting that the motherboard supports SMP,
> even though the processor does not. I have not been able to capture the
> oopses as they scroll by too fast and syslog has not started yet. Is
> there any way I can catch the oopses so I can figure out where it is
> crashing? At least it should determine that the mobo/cpu cannot run an
> SMP kernel and halt with a warning instead of producing the oopses.
I have spoken with Cyrix about SMP on the 6x86 and 6x86MX series of CPUs a
number of times in the past. Cyrix and AMD both use the OpenPic chipset
for SMP. In order to use a single Cyrix on an SMP board, you must compile
the kernel as single-CPU, and if necessary, set the motherboard to
single-CPU mode. The Tyan Tomcat series shouldn't require this, but you DO
need a single-CPU kernel. Either that or another Cyrix and a dual Socket7
OpenPic chipset motherboard. ;)
-Phillip R. Jaenke [InterNIC Handle: PRJ5] (kernel@prj.pcimporters.com)
MIS Department, PC Importers, Inc. 800.319.9284, x4262
Head of Development, The Improvement Linux Project.