I have a couple of VIA C7-based MiniITX systems: A VIA EN1200EG (VIA CN700 core logic) and a Jetway 1.5GHz board (VIA CX700 core logic). If I attempt to boot any 2.6.32 or 2.6.33 kernel built from gentoo-sources, the kernel seems to enter an infinite loop almost immediately on loading: If cpuset support is enabled, the console shows endlessly looping "Initializing cgroup subsys cpu" output, if cpuset support is disabled, the console repeatedly shows the version line (e.g. something similar to "Linux version 2.6.33-gentoo (stuart@mercury) (gcc version 4.3.4 (Gentoo 4.3.4 p1.0, pie-10.1.5) ) #1 Wed Mar 24 10:32:23 GMT 2010"). If timing information on printk's is enabled, the timer value output before the output never increments beyond 0. I have other systems (AMD64 Phenom-based systems, for example) which work entirely correctly with 2.6.33-gentoo - and I've reconfigured 2.6.33-gentoo kernels for the VIA systems multiple times to get a minimal setup, but I've still been unable to get it to boot at all. Even though all of these kernels are still ~x86, it's clearly important to fix this before they're marked stable. (I could understand the kernel to hit the first line of console output and freeze - but what could cause it to loop on that first line of output?)
# emerge --info Portage 2.1.7.17 (default/linux/x86/10.0/server, gcc-4.3.4, glibc-2.10.1-r1, 2.6.31-gentoo-r10 i686) ================================================================= System uname: Linux-2.6.31-gentoo-r10-i686-VIA_Esther_processor_1200MHz-with-gentoo-1.12.13 Timestamp of tree: Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:45:02 +0000 app-shells/bash: 4.0_p37 dev-java/java-config: 2.1.10 dev-lang/python: 2.6.4-r1 dev-python/pycrypto: 2.1.0_beta1 dev-util/cmake: 2.6.4-r3 sys-apps/baselayout: 1.12.13 sys-apps/sandbox: 1.6-r2 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.63-r1 sys-devel/automake: 1.6.3-r1, 1.8.5-r4, 1.9.6-r3, 1.10.3, 1.11.1 sys-devel/binutils: 2.18-r3 sys-devel/gcc: 4.3.4 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.1 sys-devel/libtool: 2.2.6b virtual/os-headers: 2.6.30-r1 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" ACCEPT_LICENSE="*" ACCEPT_PROPERTIES="*" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1 emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" ANT_HOME="/usr/share/ant" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" ARCH="x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-Os -march=i686 -mfpmath=sse -mmmx -msse -msse2 -msse3 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CLEAN_DELAY="5" COLLISION_IGNORE="/lib/modules" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /etc/env.d /lib/rcscripts/addons /var/bind /var/www/localhost/htdocs/wordpress" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/X11/xkb /etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/fonts /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/php/apache2-php5/ext-active/ /etc/php/cgi-php5/ext-active/ /etc/php/cli-php5/ext-active/ /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo" CVS_RSH="ssh" CXXFLAGS="-Os -march=i686 -mfpmath=sse -mmmx -msse -msse2 -msse3 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" EDITOR="/usr/bin/vim" ELIBC="glibc" EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--verbose" EMERGE_WARNING_DELAY="10" EPREFIX="" EROOT="/" FEATURES="assume-digests collision-protect distlocks fixpackages metadata-transfer news parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox sfperms splitdebug strict unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch userpriv usersandbox" FETCHCOMMAND="/usr/bin/wget -t 5 -T 60 --passive-ftp -O "${DISTDIR}/${FILE}" "${URI}"" FTP_PASSIVE="1" GCC_SPECS="" GENTOO_MIRRORS=" http://distfiles.gentoo.org http://gentoo.oregonstate.edu http://gentoo.osuosl.org http://www.mirror.ac.uk/sites/www.ibiblio.org/gentoo http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo " HOME="/root" INFOPATH="/usr/share/info:/usr/share/binutils-data/i686-pc-linux-gnu/2.18/info:/usr/share/gcc-data/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.3.4/info" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse evdev" INSTALL_MASK="AUTHORS.gz AUTHORS.bz2 BACKLOG.gz BACKLOG.bz2 BLURB.gz BLURB.bz2 CHANGELOG.gz CHANGELOG.bz2 Changelog.gz Changelog.bz2 ChangeLog.gz ChangeLog.bz2 ChangeLog.0.gz ChangeLog.1.gz CHANGES.gz CHANGES.bz2 Changes.gz Changes.bz2 COPYING.gz COPYING.bz2 Copying.gz Copying.bz2 CREDITS.gz CREDITS.bz2 INSTALL.gz INSTALL.bz2 MANIFEST.gz MANIFEST.bz2 NEWS.gz NEWS.bz2 PORTING.gz PORTING.bz2 THANKS.gz THANKS.bz2 TODO.gz TODO.bz2 WHATS_NEW.gz WHATS_NEW.bz2" I_KNOW_WHAT_I_AM_DOING="yes" JAVAC="/etc/java-config-2/current-system-vm/bin/javac" JAVA_HOME="/etc/java-config-2/current-system-vm" JDK_HOME="/etc/java-config-2/current-system-vm" KERNEL="linux" LADSPA_PATH="/usr/lib/ladspa" LANG="en_GB.UTF-8" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LC_COLLATE="C" LC_CTYPE="en_GB.UTF-8" LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1" LESS="-R -M --shift 5" LESSOPEN="|lesspipe.sh %s" LIBXCB_ALLOW_SLOPPY_LOCK="1" LINGUAS="en_GB en" LOGNAME="root" LS_COLORS="rs=0:di=01;34:ln=01;36:mh=00:pi=40;33:so=01;35:do=01;35:bd=40;33;01:cd=40;33;01:or=01;05;37;41:mi=01;05;37;41:su=37;41:sg=30;43:ca=30;41:tw=30;42:ow=34;42:st=37;44:ex=01;32:*.tar=01;31:*.tgz=01;31:*.arj=01;31:*.taz=01;31:*.lzh=01;31:*.lzma=01;31:*.tlz=01;31:*.txz=01;31:*.zip=01;31:*.z=01;31:*.Z=01;31:*.dz=01;31:*.gz=01;31:*.xz=01;31:*.bz2=01;31:*.bz=01;31:*.tbz=01;31:*.tbz2=01;31:*.tz=01;31:*.deb=01;31:*.rpm=01;31:*.jar=01;31:*.rar=01;31:*.ace=01;31:*.zoo=01;31:*.cpio=01;31:*.7z=01;31:*.rz=01;31:*.jpg=01;35:*.jpeg=01;35:*.gif=01;35:*.bmp=01;35:*.pbm=01;35:*.pgm=01;35:*.ppm=01;35:*.tga=01;35:*.xbm=01;35:*.xpm=01;35:*.tif=01;35:*.tiff=01;35:*.png=01;35:*.svg=01;35:*.svgz=01;35:*.mng=01;35:*.pcx=01;35:*.mov=01;35:*.mpg=01;35:*.mpeg=01;35:*.m2v=01;35:*.mkv=01;35:*.ogm=01;35:*.mp4=01;35:*.m4v=01;35:*.mp4v=01;35:*.vob=01;35:*.qt=01;35:*.nuv=01;35:*.wmv=01;35:*.asf=01;35:*.rm=01;35:*.rmvb=01;35:*.flc=01;35:*.avi=01;35:*.fli=01;35:*.flv=01;35:*.gl=01;35:*.dl=01;35:*.xcf=01;35:*.xwd=01;35:*.yuv=01;35:*.axv=01;35:*.anx=01;35:*.ogv=01;35:*.ogx=01;35:*.pdf=00;32:*.ps=00;32:*.txt=00;32:*.patch=00;32:*.diff=00;32:*.log=00;32:*.tex=00;32:*.doc=00;32:*.aac=00;36:*.au=00;36:*.flac=00;36:*.mid=00;36:*.midi=00;36:*.mka=00;36:*.mp3=00;36:*.mpc=00;36:*.ogg=00;36:*.ra=00;36:*.wav=00;36:*.axa=00;36:*.oga=00;36:*.spx=00;36:*.xspf=00;36:" MANPATH="/etc/java-config-2/current-system-vm/man:/usr/local/share/man:/usr/share/man:/usr/share/binutils-data/i686-pc-linux-gnu/2.18/man:/usr/share/gcc-data/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.3.4/man:/etc/java-config/system-vm/man/:/usr/lib/php5/man/" NETBEANS="apisupport cnd groovy gsf harness ide identity j2ee java mobility nb php profiler soa visualweb webcommon websvccommon xml" PAGER="/usr/bin/less" PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/opt/bin:/usr/i686-pc-linux-gnu/gcc-bin/4.3.4" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_ARCHLIST="ppc x86-openbsd ppc-openbsd ppc64 x86-winnt x86-fbsd ppc-aix alpha arm x86-freebsd s390 amd64 arm-linux x86-macos x64-openbsd ia64-hpux hppa x86-netbsd amd64-linux ia64-linux x86 sparc-solaris x64-freebsd sparc64-solaris x86-linux x64-macos sparc m68k-mint ia64 mips ppc-macos x86-interix hppa-hpux amd64-fbsd x64-solaris mips-irix m68k sh x86-solaris sparc-fbsd" PORTAGE_BINHOST_CHUNKSIZE="3000" PORTAGE_BIN_PATH="/usr/lib/portage/bin" PORTAGE_COMPRESS_EXCLUDE_SUFFIXES="css gif htm[l]? jp[e]?g js pdf png" PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/" PORTAGE_DEBUG="0" PORTAGE_DEPCACHEDIR="/var/cache/edb/dep" PORTAGE_ELOG_CLASSES="warn error log" PORTAGE_ELOG_MAILFROM="portage@localhost" PORTAGE_ELOG_MAILSUBJECT="[portage] ebuild log for ${PACKAGE} on ${HOST}" PORTAGE_ELOG_MAILURI="root" PORTAGE_ELOG_SYSTEM="save" PORTAGE_FETCH_CHECKSUM_TRY_MIRRORS="5" PORTAGE_FETCH_RESUME_MIN_SIZE="350K" PORTAGE_GID="250" PORTAGE_INST_GID="0" PORTAGE_INST_UID="0" PORTAGE_PYM_PATH="/usr/lib/portage/pym" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages" PORTAGE_RSYNC_RETRIES="3" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTAGE_TMPFS="/dev/shm" PORTAGE_VERBOSE="1" PORTAGE_WORKDIR_MODE="0700" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage" PORT_LOGDIR="/var/log/portage" PROFILE_ONLY_VARIABLES="ARCH ELIBC KERNEL USERLAND" PWD="/root" PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE="1" RESUMECOMMAND="/usr/bin/wget -c -t 5 -T 60 --passive-ftp -O "${DISTDIR}/${FILE}" "${URI}"" ROOT="/" ROOTPATH="/opt/bin:/usr/i686-pc-linux-gnu/gcc-bin/4.3.4" RPMDIR="/usr/portage/rpm" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby18" SHELL="/bin/bash" SHLVL="1" SYNC="rsync://rsync.europe.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" TERM="xterm-color" TMP="/tmp/.private/root" TMPDIR="/tmp/.private/root" USE="X acl adns alsa amrnb amrwb ao audit avahi bash-completion berkdb bzip2 caps chroot cli common-lisp cracklib crypt curl cxx dbus dri encode erandom faac faad fam ffmpeg fftw flac fontconfig fontforge gd gdbm gif glibc-omitfp gmp hpn iconv id3tag idea ieee1394 ipv6 ithreads java jpeg jpeg2k ladspa lame libedit libffi libsamplerate libwww linuxthreads-tls lm_sensors mad mailwrapper mmap mmx modules mp3 mudflap mysql ncurses network network-cron nls nptl nptlonly odbc ogg openmp pam pcre perl php png pppd pwdb python readline reflection rle rpc samba sasl schroedinger session slang slp sndfile speex spl sqlite sse sse2 ssl sysfs tcpd theora threads truetype unicode urandom userlocales vim-syntax vorbis wavpack x264 x86 xattr xcb xinetd xml xorg xpm xvid zlib" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1 emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse evdev" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LINGUAS="en_GB en" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby18" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="via vesa fbdev" USER="root" USERLAND="GNU" USE_EXPAND="ALSA_CARDS ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS APACHE2_MODULES APACHE2_MPMS CAMERAS CROSSCOMPILE_OPTS DVB_CARDS ELIBC FCDSL_CARDS FOO2ZJS_DEVICES FRITZCAPI_CARDS INPUT_DEVICES KERNEL LCD_DEVICES LINGUAS LIRC_DEVICES MISDN_CARDS NETBEANS_MODULES NGINX_MODULES_HTTP NGINX_MODULES_MAIL QEMU_SOFTMMU_TARGETS QEMU_USER_TARGETS RUBY_TARGETS SANE_BACKENDS USERLAND VIDEO_CARDS" USE_EXPAND_HIDDEN="CROSSCOMPILE_OPTS ELIBC KERNEL USERLAND" USE_ORDER="env:pkg:conf:defaults:pkginternal:env.d" VIDEO_CARDS="via vesa fbdev" _="/usr/bin/emerge" bash4="4.0.37(1)-release"
Created attachment 225301 [details] Failing config-2.6.33-gentoo for VIA C7
How you tried a vanilla sources kernel? 2.6.33.1. How are you copying over the .config, can you please attempt to build a kernel with a clean .config. This site might help: http://kmuto.jp/debian/hcl/
The HCL check outputs: 11060324 Yes VIA Technologies, Inc. CX700/VX700 Host Bridge via-agp v2.6.25- 11061324 VIA Technologies, Inc. CX700/VX700 Host Bridge 11062324 VIA Technologies, Inc. CX700/VX700 Host Bridge 11063324 VIA Technologies, Inc. CX700/VX700 Host Bridge 11064324 VIA Technologies, Inc. CX700/VX700 Host Bridge 11067324 VIA Technologies, Inc. CX700/VX700 Host Bridge 1106b198 Yes VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237/VX700 PCI Bridge via-agp v2.6.25- 11065324 Yes VIA Technologies, Inc. VX800 Serial ATA and EIDE Controller via82cxxx v2.6.25- 11063038 Yes VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller usb-uhci,uhci-hcd 11063038 Yes VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller usb-uhci,uhci-hcd 11063038 Yes VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller usb-uhci,uhci-hcd 11063104 Yes VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 ehci-hcd 11068324 Yes VIA Technologies, Inc. CX700/VX700 PCI to ISA Bridge i2c-viapro v2.6.25- 1106324e VIA Technologies, Inc. CX700/VX700 Internal Module Bus 1106324b VIA Technologies, Inc. CX700/VX700 Host Bridge 1106324a VIA Technologies, Inc. CX700/VX700 PCI to PCI Bridge 11063157 Yes VIA Technologies, Inc. CX700/VX700 [S3 UniChrome Pro] viafb v2.6.32- 11063119 Yes VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6120/VT6121/VT6122 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter via-velocity v2.6.25- 11063044 Yes VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6306 Fire II IEEE 1394 OHCI Link Layer Controller ohci1394 11063288 Yes VIA Technologies, Inc. VT1708/A [Azalia HDAC] (VIA High Definition Audio Controller) snd-hda-intel v2.6.25- ... which doesn't seem to indicate any problems. Yes, I was copying the old kernel's .config then running 'make oldconfig' and tweaking with 'make menuconfig' - as I've done with every kernel since at least 2.6.8 (or so). I'll give the vanilla sources a try. Lacking any firewire debug equipment (or similar) and given that the kernel seems to be getting stuck in an infinite loop when the first output is sent to the console, if there any way to enable any additional debug information to help identify what the problem is? It's worth pointing out that both of the affected systems are running headless with serial output using boot parameters 'earlycon=uart8250,io,0x2f8,9600n8 console=tty1 console=uart8250,io,0x2f8,9600n8' - whilst this has always worked for many kernels, might some recent change be causing this to trigger a problem?
Created attachment 230119 [details] 2.6.33-gentoo-r1 .config for VIA EN12000EG, fails on boot...
Created attachment 230123 [details] 2.6.33-gentoo-r1 .config for Jetway J7F5-M, almost identical: works Well, this is weird. I've now got a working configuration for my Jetway C7 board. The almost identical equivalent for the VIA board still fails as before, though (e.g. a serial console shows the kernel version and build-date line being endlessly repeated). Hopefully this demonstrates that I'm not completely crackers - I see nothing in the minor hardware differences between the boards and the minor differences in the .configs which should cause one to repeatedly fail and one to repeatedly work.
Created attachment 230127 [details] Failing config-2.6.32-gentoo-r7 for ALIX 2C3 And another fascinating thing I noticed yesterday: I also have a PC Engnes Alix 2C3 board (AMD Geode LX @ 500MHz, 256Mb fixed RAM, no on-board video) and this is affected by *exactly* the same problem! This should be a much simpler test-case: The ALIX is very simple hardware (relatively speaking) with no ACPI, APM, DMI, etc. - so hopefully this will make the problem easier to diagnose. Again, the symptom is the same: viewing the serial output, the kernel loops on the version/build-date line and never progresses.
Let me know if vanilla-sources-2.6.34 or 2.6.33 boots on the problematic systems.
Ah - this is interesting. gentoo-sources-2.6.34-r1 is also affected by the same problem - but I've discovered the trigger for the problem: One of my boxes is hanging periodically (or rebooting if softdog is running) and I rebooted it to a serial-console in order to diagnose the problem... and the same kernel which was working failed to boot with exactly the same symptoms! It turns out that the "earlycon" kernel parameter is the trigger for the failure, on vanilla-sources and gentoo-sources kernels. (It also turns out that I misunderstood the use of this option - I was under the impression that the "console" option would give a serial console, but "earlycon" was needed to see kernel messages during boot. It turns out that this isn't needed, and "console" is sufficient to capture standard output - with the benefit of not failing on boot) I don't know if there's a conflict having earlycon and console set to the same device (or I/O port) - but it is something that's worked on all 2.6.x kernels up to 2.6.31, but has been broken since.
Since we have determined a workaround of not using the earlycon parameter I'm going to mark this as fixed. If you want to pursue the reasons or further investigate please feel free to take this upstream.
