2.4 freezes on init

2.4 freezes on init

[Jakub Burgis]

Hi,
I'm getting problems booting any 2.4 kernel on my current machine, with
fairly consistent results - the system boots, starts to output the usual
information, but locks solid after init kicks in ("init 2.78 booting").
That line prints, the cursor moves to the next line, flashes a few
times, then vanishes. The system won't respond to any input, and needs a
cold reboot. Thinking a configuration issue, I've tried passing things
such as "init=/bin/bash" to the kernel, which seems to go okay - the
same line prints, and a simple bash prompt appears, cursor flashing and
ready. I press a key... freezes again. The keystroke doesn't get echoed
to the prompt.

This happens with the 2.4.3 kernel that Mandrake 8.0 defaults to (which
thankfully includes a 2.2.19 as well), as well as numerous others (I
believe I've tried 2.4.4, 2.4.6 and 2.4.7 in addition so far). 2.2
kernels boot and run perfectly.

I'm running with a 'classic' Athlon 700 on a Gateway 'Kadoka'
motherboard (what specs they provide are here:
http://www.gateway.com/support/techdocs/references/motherboard/0aasn/0aa
sn2.shtml). PS/2 keyboard, USB or PS/2 mouse (tried both). 256mb PC100
RAM, Voodoo3 3000 or ASUS GeForce2 64mb GTS (again, both have been used
just in case) on an AGP slot.
Filesystem is hda: hda1 hda2 <hda3 hda4 hda5 hda6 hda7>, which
translates to /boot, /, /usr, /var, /home and swap, all IDE.

However, I believe the kernel image that Mandrake 8's installer uses is
a 2.4 kernel, yet that works fine. Is this a configuration setting I
need to toggle, or am I stuck until I switch motherboard?

Regards,

--
Jakub Burgis

Re: 2.4 freezes on init

[Alan Cox]

> However, I believe the kernel image that Mandrake 8's installer uses is
> a 2.4 kernel, yet that works fine. Is this a configuration setting I
> need to toggle, or am I stuck until I switch motherboard?

In the Red Hat case we have seen cases where the installer kernel worked and
not much else did. Install kernels are generally built with the very minimum
of reliance on bios features and for 386.

Typically that means they don't enable common problem items like APM, ACPI
and Athlon optimisation in conjunction with VIA chipsets.

Alan