On Fri, 2005-01-14 at 15:00 -0600, akonstam@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote: > On Thu, Jan 13, 2005 at 07:50:27PM -0600, akonstam@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote: > > WE are attempting to configure a SCSI machine by loading a running > > system from a machine with only ide drives. Of course we have changed > > the grub to access SCSI drives. Also changed the fstab. The machine is > > a dual processor machine which is all SCSI. > > > > Now the machine when booting displays the FC2 grub choice screen. > > After the choice is made the kernel is accessed but then the machine > > goes into what seems to be an indefinite hang. But actually, after a > > half hour or an hour (we have not measured this accurately since it > > took so long) the machine continues its boot. Now in looking at the > > system files on the machine we find the strange fact that the /initrd > > file still seems to contain the files of the ram disk. It is not > > emptied as it should have been. > > > > The system logs shows nothing that indicates delay except the system > > keeps searching for ide drives that don't exist. > > We have done this process copying the system in this way several times > > before with earlier versions of linux but not we can't make it work. > > > > Can any one suggest anyplace we can look to identify the problem? > > -- > Well I am moving slowly towards solving the slow boot problem. Let me > add some facts another queston. The boot takes over an hour. All that > is produced after choosing a kernel in the grub menu is a dispaly od > the kernel line chosen and the initrd file chosen. And then for a hour > the machine sits ther with no disk activity what so ever. > > No once booted the display of demsg seems normal until ther is an > APIC error (40) on CPU 1 > > Now this machine has two Pentium III processors. Are not Pentium III > ipricessors P5's. If so Local APIC is disabled on p5-s. Is this a problem > or am I spinning my wheels? > -- If the grub screen sits there for an hour without any messages from the kernel, I suspect there is a problem with the boot loader or the BIOS. Will a rescue disk boot? If so you could try reinstalling grub on the target machine, but the fact that /initrd looks like it is a mount point for the ramdisk, possibly indicates that your initial start up is not working properly. I don't think this runs until after the kernel is loaded and running, but I don't know why it wouldn't work. There is the noapic kernel command line option. Also, if you hit 'a' at the grub menu you probably should remove rhgb and quiet from the boot options and add noapic. Was the machine you loaded the disk on a multiprocessor machine? If not, try copying a SMP kernel to the target and set it up in grub. Sorry, not much help. Bob...
