Hi, I have Gentoo 1.4 rc1 (with all updates applied) intalled on my portable ThinkPad (ALI-15x3 based). I try to boot LiveCD 1.4rc2 basic-x86 but boot process hangs just after "Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting the kernel.\n" None of the boot options help. Same with latest experimental LiveCD. LiveCD 1.4rc1 works just fine. I coppied the "gentoo" kernel from LiveCD to my HDD boot partition and found out that with grub it actualy boots OK but only if NO BOOT OPTIONS ARE SPECIFIED. As soon as I append just any kernel boot option, it hangs the same way. Hope in 1.4 final release this issue will be resolved. Dafo.
thats kind of a strange one, ill look into it
Some interesting additional test results follow: I tested several of the latest LiveCDs on two IBM Servers x-series 240. They both failed to boot the same way just like my portable. I emerge-ed latest gentoo-sources - 2.4.20-gentoo-r1. After configuring and compiling it with safe enough configuration it failed to boot. Vanilla-sources worked OK. Then I checked the so called "optimization patches" included in the gentoo-sources and xfs-sources (xfs-sources are used in LiveCD). The problem is definitely caused by "gcc31-compile-optimizations" patch. Avoiding just this patch makes kernel work fine. I thing this issue should be raised to the appropriate gentoo-sources maintainer. It's not just LiveCD issue. I'll be glad to help with more info if needed.
I was able to reproduce the same boot behaviour on an IBM Thinkpad i1200 (C550/96MB/4G). The installer freezes immediatelly after "Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting the kernel." It happens with 1.4rc3 and rc2, while 1.4rc1 works fine. I tried all boot parameters but nothing worked. As to the claim that the CD should boot normally *without* any boot options: I tried mounting the .ISO CD image on a running Linux box with 'mount -o loop gentoo-basic-x86-1.4_rc3.iso gentoo' and copying the contents of 'gentoo' to another directory 'iso'. I edited 'iso/gentoo/isolinux/isolinux.cfg' and then removed the 'acpi=off' line and wrote the image back using 'mkisofs -o gentoo-basic-x86-1.4_rc3-custom.iso -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table iso'. This did *not* resolve the boot issue. Besides, in 1.4rc1 the default image actually uses 'noacpi' as a boot option and seems to have no problem with it.
This problem is caused by '-O3' optimization option when compiling the kernel. LiveCD 1.4-rc1 kernel is compiled with -Os or -O2 and works fine. '-O3' turns 'rename-registers' and 'inline-functions' optimizations on. The latter is the tricky one. Before compiling the kernel, just edit 'arch/i386/Makefile' and add '-fno-inline-functions' at the end of the CFLAGS line that corresponds to your processor selection. However I would like to draw developer's and maintainer's attention to something I consider more important. When compiling kernel the user can experiment and correct things like these. Unfortunately with LiveCD the user can't do anything. Why LiveCD's kernel is so heavily and risky optimized? Who needs that? In Gentoo's "how to install" web page it's stated that x86 LiveCD is supposed to boot on almost any x86 system. I understand that it's impossible for LiveCD to support everything which is x86. There will always be issues with some specific systems. But making LiveCD more compatible by avoiding risky and absolutely unnecessary speed optimizations is something we can do. Regards, Dafo
I am having the same problem on an IBM Aptiva E series 545 with a Pentium III 450 (intel 440ZX chipset.) I am using the livecd for installing gentoo - version 1.4 rc3.
your correct, we do not need gcc opts on the livecd , they are now yanked.
Likewise when booting 1.4rc3 and 1.4rc2 (both basic and 3stages) on an IBM ThinkPad i1200 notebook (C550/5G/96MB). The installer freezes at "Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting the kernel.". Tried all suggested kernel parameters to no avail. Also, tried extracting the iso, modifying isolinux config to remove any parameters passed to kernel and then rebuilt the whole iso (with isolinux) but it didn't work either. 1.4rc1 works fine.
I uploaded a livecd lastnight, www.gentoo.org/~livewire/livecd-experimental-4-06-03.iso. this will probaly be -rc4 unless something is found. All the gcc3.1 opt patches were removed before compile...
Finaly it's ok. "experimental-4-06-03" works fine. Thanks, Bob. There is just one small issue. I don't think it's important but I'll post it here just as a feedback: At boot 'hwsetup' crashes this way: Oops: 0000 CPU: 0 EIP: 0010:[<c0117809>] Tainted: GF EFLAGS: 00010206 eax: 00000001 ebx: c6cc6230 ecx: 6d2f6269 edx: c889e2e4 esi: 00000000 edi: c63eddc0 ebp: c63eddc0 esp: c6fe9f2c ds: 0018 es: 0018 ss: 0018 Process hwsetup (pid: 4641, stackpage=c6fe9000) Stack: c01720e6 6d2f6269 c6cc6230 c5f939e0 c0172a6a c6cc6230 c03331a0 c5f939e0 c63eddc0 ffffffe9 c77b6410 c0132818 c63eddc0 c5f939e0 00000800 c6fe4000 bffffc94 bffffb98 c013274e c7725ba0 c77b6410 00000800 c7725ba0 c77b6410 Call Trace: [<c01720e6>] [<c0172a6a>] [<c0132818>] [<c013274e>] [<c0132a91>] [<c0108a07>] Code: 8b 51 14 f7 c2 02 00 00 00 74 04 31 c0 c3 90 ff 41 10 83 ca Segmentation fault If I start 'hwsetup' in my runnning gentoo installation with 2.4.20-gentoo-r2 it doesn't crash. Should I open a new bug report with more details? Regards, Dafo.
