Re: SMP Woes

["Vladimir G. Ivanovic" <vladimir@leonora.org>]

I have an ASUS CUV4X-DLS dual-processor motherboard that I've been
running for three years (?).

I use grub; here is my grub.conf file:

   timeout=10
   splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
   default=0

   title Fedora Core (2.4.22-1.2179.nptlsmp)
           root (hd0,0)
           kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.22-1.2179.nptlsmp root=/dev/sda4 hdb=ide-scsi ide2=0x9400,0x9002 ide3=0x8800,0x8402
           initrd /initrd-2.4.22-1.2179.nptlsmp.img

   title Fedora Core (2.4.22-1.2174.nptlsmp)
           root (hd0,0)
           kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.22-1.2174.nptlsmp root=/dev/sda4 hdb=ide-scsi ide2=0x9400,0x9002 ide3=0x8800,0x8402
           initrd /initrd-2.4.22-1.2174.nptlsmp.img

   title Memtest86 v3.1
           kernel /memtest86-3.1

But to get Linux SMP to run, I had to turn off MPS 1.4 support in the
BIOS. I also turn off automatic IDE detection, but then enable the
Primary IDE channel. (I have an 133 MHz IDE controller hooked up to a
200 GB drive.)

Let me know if you want more details about my setup.

--- Vladimir

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vladimir G. Ivanovic                        http://leonora.org/~vladimir
2770 Cowper St.                                         vladimir@acm.org
Palo Alto, CA 94306-2447                                 +1 650 678 8014
------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>>>> "bh" == Bobby Hitt <Bob.Hitt@bscnet.com> writes:

    bh> Hello,
    bh> 
    bh> I recently posted this message to the linux-kernel list:
    bh> ------
    bh> I have an ASUS CUV4XD dual CPU mobo that I've been using with Window 2000
    bh> Professional for the last two years. It worked fine, W2K used both CPUs with
    bh> no problems whatsoever. I recently upgraded my W2K system, and decided to
    bh> use the ASUS board in a system I was building to use as a Linux gateway. The
    bh> problem I'm having is the system refuses to boot when I created a kernel
    bh> with SMP support. If I turn off SMP and rebuild the kernel, boots fine. I
    bh> have two other SMP systems, very old mother boards, 5+ years old. They both
    bh> run Linux fine with SMP. I even took the source tree from a working system,
    bh> built a new kernel, locks up on bootup. The last message displayed :
    bh> 
    bh> Total of 2 processors activated ( 3186.68 BogoMIPS)
    bh> Enabling IO-APIC IRQs
    bh> Setting 2 in the phys_id_present_map
    bh> .. changing IO-APIC physical APIC ID to 2 ... ok.
    bh> 
    bh> I contacted Alan Cox about this, he said he was working on his MBa and
    bh> hadn't been involved with kernel development for a while. He suggest adding:
    bh> 
    bh> append="noapic pci=usepirqmask"
    bh> 
    bh> to the lilo.conf file, which I did. No change.
    bh> 
    bh> Any body have similar problems or suggestions?
    bh> ------
    bh> 
    bh> This was for kernel 2.4.23.
    bh> 
    bh> I've since figured out that problem. I found that the BIOS had an option
    bh> "MPS 1/4 Support" which was checked. Turned that off, and now the system
    bh> boots fine, but now have a new problem with my RAID configuration. When
    bh> "raidstart /dev/md0" runs, it gives this error:
    bh> 
    bh> cannot determine md version: 6
    bh> 
    bh> The only thing I've done is to enable smp support in the kernel, which
    bh> brings up another issue. I had just installed the source tree for 2.4.26.
    bh> smp support was already checked, so all I did was to enable raid, reiserfs
    bh> support, etc. I didn't turn on anything un-necessary. With "vga=791" set in
    bh> the lilo.conf file, on reboot now all I get is a black screen and system
    bh> lockup. When I went back to turn off smp, now the build fails with lots of
    bh> "num_cpus" (or close to that) appear everywhere. The only way I can now
    bh> build a new kernel is to save my .config file, wipe the directory,
    bh> re-install the source tree, copy my .config file back and rebuild. With
    bh> regard to the display issue, I'll disable the display for now. The raid
    bh> issue is the main thing.
    bh> 
    bh> TIA,
    bh> 
    bh> Bobby
    bh> 
    bh> -
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    bh>