A lot of Athlon XP users have encountered "illegal instruction" problems when they try to use nano, top or try compiling certain things with a 2.4.20 kernel. They can't even start installing from a 1.4RC2+ LiveCD since it is a 2.4.20 kernel. Everything is working fine with a 2.4.19 kernel. The problem lies in the 2.4.20 kernel code, and the solution is the following patch : --- arch/i386/kernel/setup.c.orig 2003-02-03 13:26:38.000000000 +0100 +++ arch/i386/kernel/setup.c 2003-02-14 14:14:12.000000000 +0100 @@ -1421,7 +1421,7 @@ * If the BIOS didn't enable it already, enable it * here. */ - if (c->x86_model == 6 || c->x86_model == 7) { + if (c->x86_model >= 6 && c->x86_model <= 10) { if (!test_bit(X86_FEATURE_XMM, &c->x86_capability)) { printk(KERN_INFO The following web forums topics discussed the issue and the solution : http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=42459 http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=41092 The patch is from : http://lkml.org/archive/2003/2/20/182/index.html I think this patch should be included in gentoo-sources and in the kernel used in the 1.4 LiveCDs... it would avoid MANY problems for us Athlon-XP users. It seems like it will be included in 2.4.21, but maybe it will be necessary to check. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Use a Athlon XP Thoroughbred with stepping 8, 9 or 10 2. Boot Gentoo LiveCD 1.4RC2 or later 3. Try to run "nano" Actual Results: nano dies with "Illegal instruction" Expected Results: It should not display Illegal instruction :) Proposed patch is included in bug description.
Atually this bug does not seem to be confined to Athlon XP's. I have an older Athlon 800 and I had the same Illegal Instruction exception when the new kernel 2.4.20-r3 booted. Awkwardly, my newer AThlon XP 2600 did not have a problem with the kernel upgrade. Hope this helps a bit.
Looks like the patch has been included in gentoo-sources-2.4.20-r5. This bug should be set to FIXED, or maybe you should wait for the next LiveCD release...
*** Bug 18811 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
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