While the kernel is initializing the sata driver, I get BUG: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference and then a call stack that points to functions in in libata-core.c If I pass the kernel param 'noapic=TRUE' this doesn't happen. It's an ASUS P5NSLI Motherboard with 1G mem and a Core 2 Duo that I just installed into an otherwise healthy gentoo system. thanks in advance Interestingly, the 2005.1 install cd was able to boot. Am I missing some kernel parameters? Or do the install cd's turn off APIC for stability? Who do I go to to track this problem down? I've already googled quite a lot and found nothing. APIC and SMP are old enemies, I know that.
Well, I had this issue as well, and all I can tell you is that Asus BIOSes are broken. :) Do you have the latest one?
Hello I had the same problem with an ASUS pundit PI-AH2 with an AMD64 X2 CPU while I was trying to boot from the minimal install CD (and later from the 2.6.17-r8 Kernel I compiled). The boot process stopped when the different sata drivers where checked or it continued when I disabled it with the "nosata" boot option but got later a lot of problems when trying to access the network/lan by loading the "forcedeth" drivers. The system works perfectly after using the "noapic" boot option. I didn't have any such problems with my other machines which use an AMD Sempron 2600 or an Intel P4 extreme HT 3.0GHZ. Greetings! Stefano
Stefano: sounds like you have a different problem, at least I have no reason to believe from your description that its a kernel oops like the one described in the original report. jonathan: Please attach lspci output and a photo of the kernel crash
See comment #3