Messages in this thread |  | | | Subject | Problems w. RH 4.9.1 on Cyrix due to 2.0.31-pre10 and/or glibc/gcc | | Date | Sun, 26 Oct 1997 18:11:26 -0500 | | From | "Willem Riede <>" <> |
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On the redhat-mustang list, there have been a number of problems raised that may trace back to a problem in the kernel (please bear with me as I present the case and see my request at the end):
On Sun, 26 Oct 1997, Erik Troan <ewt@redhat.com> wrote: > On Sun, 26 Oct 1997, Willem Riede <wriede@monmouth.com> wrote: > > > If this is true, owners of Cyrix based PCs will NOT be able to upgrade to the > > next RedHat release! Note that I don't even get to the point where I can > > manipulate glibc/gcc - my upgrade fails before it does anything useful! > > > > Does anyone from RedHat care to comment? > > Sure. > > This is almost defintely a bproblem with the kernel we're using on > Cyrix and AMD processors which shows up under heavy load. We don't > have the expertise to fix this, so I strongly suggest that you > post something to the kernel list. If you want to verify that this > is the problem, boot a Mustang system with a 4.2 kernel and see if > that lets you build a new kernel under GCC. > > The chance that this is a gcc bug which only shows up on Cyrix processors > is slim to none. Almost by definition, anything that lets a user > process tell the difference between running on a Cyrix and Intel > processor is a kernel problem. > > Erik >
Other reports seem to implicate GCC 2.7.2.3, but for me the 31-pre10 kernel supplied to boot the mustang installation does not run. Here is my initial report of what happened:
------- I decided to try a hard-disk based upgrade to 4.9.1 of my 4.2 configuration (Cyrix P166+, 64 MB ram, two ide hard disks, ide-atapi CD-Rom, ide-atapi PD/CD drive - more about that last drive another time). I downloaded a mustang version of all the RPMS I have installed in ~/mustang/RedHat/RPMS, downloaded ~/mustang/RedHat/base (these are on hdb4), the boot.img and the supp.img, and put the latter two on floppies.
I boot from boot.img, and get to where it looks at the packages and I get complaints like:
package bootpc at line 16 does not exist
and 110 more like it (111 total if I counted right), ending with:
package faq at line 664 does not exist
I recall from several RedHat releases ago when I did a hard disk install that if you don't have all the packages on your hard disk (and I don't since I'm not interested to fetch those that I don't want to install over my modem line) that you have to run genhdlist yourself (which it does not say in the installation guide!). So I download genhdlist, but the downloaded version of genhdlist keeps complaining:
[wriede@linnie mustang]$ ./genhdlist bash: ./genhdlist: No such file or directory
in spite of
[wriede@linnie mustang]$ ls -l genhdlist -rwxr-xr-x 1 wriede wriede 191221 Oct 6 14:12 genhdlist
So I suspect a lib mismatch or something, so I set out to recompile genhdlist. Problem is, it needs gettext.o, but the gettext.c file is zero length on the RedHat ftp server. Not one to be stopped easily I see if I can find a gettext somewhere else, and I find a gettextstub.c in rpm-2.3.11.src.rpm.
Link that in, and the result will run, and produce a smaller hdlist. But when booting with that file in ~/mustang/RedHat/base yields the same set of errors of type
package bootpc at line 16 does not exist
So I put the downloaded hdlist back and see what happens if I ignore the error messages. Well, it gets to where it goes to check the installed packages (I tell it what my root partition is first - I have a 2.0.29 kernel based root and a 2.1.42 based root - I tell it to use the 2.0.29 one) and then install gives up with:
install exited abnormally -- received signal 11
And it goes into a shutdown (the output from that is staircased) ending with
you may safely reboot your system
But before I did that I first note what is on the other ttys:
Alt-F2 reveals nothing more than:
#
Alt-F3 output ends with:
* device hdb4 is already mounted -- using symlink * in ugFindUpgradePackages() with /tmp/rhimage/RedHat/base/hdlist * read config files * opened database * added lost files * found basic packages to upgrade * removed extra files which have moved * found packages with relocated files * closed RPM database
Alt-F4 output ends with
<5>RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0 <4>VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) <7>VFS: Disk change detected on device 02:00 <4>Adding Swap: 130748k swap-space (priority -1)
None of this looks too spectacular. I want to add that my hardware is rock-solid. I've compiled many kernels, and do not believe that the usual "sig 11 is a memory problem" applies.
Please tell me what I am doing wrong - or what experiment I could do to see what is wrong.
Thanks. Willem Riede.
------- end of included message Some information on my system:
[wriede@linnie wriede]$ cat /proc/cpuinfo processor : 0 cpu family : 5 model : 6x86 2x Core/Bus Clock vendor_id : CyrixInstead stepping : 1 rev 7 fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no sep_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 1 wp : yes flags : fpu bogomips : 106.50 [wriede@linnie wriede]$ cat /proc/meminfo MemTotal: 63128 kB MemFree: 3228 kB MemShared: 29428 kB Buffers: 10084 kB Cached: 15960 kB SwapTotal: 261496 kB SwapFree: 261476 kB [wriede@linnie wriede]$ cat /proc/pci PCI devices found: Bus 0, device 10, function 0: Ethernet controller: DEC DC21041 (rev 33). Medium devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. IRQ 10. Master Capable. Latency=32. I/O at 0x6000. Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xe2000000. Bus 0, device 9, function 0: VGA compatible controller: S3 Inc. Vision 968 (rev 0). Medium devsel. IRQ 11. Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xf8000000. Bus 0, device 7, function 1: IDE interface: Intel 82371SB Natoma/Triton II PIIX3 (rev 0). Medium devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. Master Capable. Latency=32. I/O at 0xf000. Bus 0, device 7, function 0: ISA bridge: Intel 82371SB Natoma/Triton II PIIX3 (rev 1). Medium devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. Master Capable. No bursts. Bus 0, device 0, function 0: Host bridge: Intel 82439HX Triton II (rev 1). Medium devsel. Master Capable. Latency=32. [wriede@linnie wriede]$
------ end of system info I don't have the knowledge to find out why this happens, which is why I turn to this list, but I'll be happy to perform any experiment that you think might help figure out why this happens.
Thanks. Willem Riede.
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