Messages in this thread | | | From | "Rafael J. Wysocki" <> | Subject | Re: Regressions in the last kernels | Date | Sat, 14 Jun 2008 22:25:12 +0200 |
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On Saturday, 14 of June 2008, werner wrote: > During preparation and own testing for my distro; installation on computers > for neighbours, by reclamations by users, I learned about the following > problems of 2.6.26-rcX : > > 1) When compiling for i486, one cannot select/configurate more memory than > 4 GB, menuconfig don't show items with higher values. My own computer/server > has 8 GB, but when I compile the kernel with 4 GB and i486 then 'free' shows > only 3.2 GB (no shared grafics, the grafic card has its own memory) ...
I've just created the Bugzilla entry at: http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10912 for this problem. Please add yourself to the CC list in there and please file a separate bug for the CD issue.
> 2) On some laptops, especially IBM/Centrinho laptops, 2.6.26-rcX dont find > the CD devices, nor that from what was booted. This problem is independend > on the edd problem. It wasn't present at the 2.6.25-rc9 kernel or earliers > (i didn't test it on 2.6.25 defin.), but it's present at 2.6.26-rc4 and -rc5 > (-rc6 i didnt test). Just because of this problem it wasnt possible to > install something on this kind laptop, and I had yesterday to make a new > Install .iso with an older kernel as alternative: > ftp://ftp.uni-siegen.de/pub/sys-linux/SYS_Linux-0.23-rc3.iso > > Exactly happens the following: BIOS finds correctly the CD drive for > booting and boots, but later Linux dont find it (only older kernels), on some > laptops. I insert in the drive the Install DVD: It boots, loads > the kernel and the initrd correctly. This is the small install / rescue > system. However, although everything present in /dev, inclusive the device > nodes /dev/hdb etc (but empty), Linux don't find /dev/hdb f.ex. for mount > it or calling with hdparm or anyhow else. Thus, also the system installation > fails, because the packages or lzma-zipped system cannot be readed from the > same CD what was used for boot and what BIOS found/managed ... With > exactly the same system/initrd, configuration etc everything the same but > just change to an older kernel, everything works normally; thus this is a > kernel regression
This looks like it might have been fixed already. Which -rc kernels have you tried so far?
> *** At this point, I want to suggest, that Linux should have a special devide > node /dev/<anyname> on what one can mount ANYWAY and ANYHOW that boot device > what BIOS used and understood to boot from, even when the hardware detection > of Linux fails completely. When bios managed it to read that device and to > load the kernel and the initrd , then Linux should manage it too, to read > from the same CD other files. This is necessary in order to perform the > installation anyway, even when Linux dont find hardware or the boot CD. ***
You can use the /dev/disk/by-id/* things for that I think.
Thanks, Rafael
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