Red Hat 7.2---Installed just fine, but kernel panics during boot...[UPDATED: Fixed it!]

[zsouthboy]

Here we go: in order for me to get this joker workin, I had to INSTALL red hat underclocked down to 800 and with all my bios settings at safe. It installed fine, and when I rebooted, it worked fine.

Then I tried overclocking and performance tweaking back to where I was(before i set everything to safe).

It won't boot for me unless i have "Enhance Chip Performance" disabled in the bios. Everything else is the same as I was using for win2k overclocking.

Again, thank you everyone who helped.

zs

[enhance chip performance has to do with the northbridge, not with my proc, so i think this one is a VIA issue, but I'm not complaining ]

 

[neuralfx]

are you dual booting, where did you install lilo ( mbr? ) , is this a fresh install. and at what point do you get a kernel panic ? ..
-neural

 

[Sunner]

How far does the botting go?

Generally the system starts typing info to the screen, hardware detection, mountings, etc etc, whats the last thing that happens before the panic?

 

[zsouthboy]

Ok. I'm trying to dual boot win2k with red hat linux 7.2.

I'm using GRUB bootloader, which is installed on the first sector of my boot drive(for compatibility w/ win 2k/NT)

I installed Linux on a separate drive, brand new fresh install.

The kernel panic happens near the end of the kernel booting up, it says that the kernel tried to kill the idle process, and a few other things, evidently it's getting through hardware detection just fine.


I'm currently installing linux again, in expert mode, and I'm seeing if I can find out what went wrong.

So, maybe I'm doing something wrong.

zs

 

[Sunner]

Would be very helpful if you could get the boot messages, by far the most common reason I've gotten kernel panics during boot is cause I've made some mistake in the bootloader config, making the root filesystem unavailable, which will cause a kernel panic.

Anyways, without any specific error messages, its almost impossible to help, unless playing the guessing game counts.

 

[zsouthboy]

Gimme a few minutes, I write 'em down for y'all.

zs

 

[zsouthboy]

Here we go:

Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 00005555
(NOTE: There were a couple of these, each had a different address)

I looked through all the numbers and crap, and saw that it was the process Kswapd.

Each time I try to boot, it seems like the error is different.

I'll write down any others that I get.


Any ideas just from this message?

zs

 

[zsouthboy]

Kswapd, is that the swap file perhaps? Maybe I created a wrong partition or something...

zs

 

[Nothinman]

The first one is the only relevant one, any after that who knows what happened because the panic could have corrupted system memory. Also clock everything back to normal, Linux doesn't generally take as well to overclocking as Windows.

Hit shift+pageup to see if you can find the very last thing that looks like it completed ok and possibly the real error message before the panic.

 

[zsouthboy]

Ok....I'll un-overclock everything(was 100000000% stable in win2k)

Gimme a few more minutes...

zs

 

[zsouthboy]

Same thing happens when it's not overclocked.

At the bottom of the page this time it said Kernel panic: Attempted to kill init!

HELP!(or should I call tech support?)

zs

[EDIT: shift+pageup doesn't work, sorry]

 

[zsouthboy]

Everyone go to bed already???

Ummmm.....if there's no ideas then I'll just call/email red hat and see what they can do.

I'm thinking that for some reason it doesn't like the VIA parts of my system, and i don't blame it [not flaming VIA]

zs

 

[zsouthboy]

I'm gonna try installing with just the linux drive in there, no win2k dual boot or anything.
I hope this works.

zs

 

[Nothinman]

Ok....I'll un-overclock everything(was 100000000% stable in win2k)

Like I said, what Windows likes doesn't matter.

Rerun the install with the sytstem clocked to normal it's possible something got corrupted during the install with it overclocked.

 

[Sunner]

Did you overclock by increasing the FSB by any chance, might be that the second HD doesnt handle the PCI speed very well.

 

[zsouthboy]

No my cpu is unlocked, so that was my overclock.

Yeah I just tried with the system to normal clocks and my mem set to SAFE. No avail.

I'm currently trying to install right now with only the linux drive in the sys, to see if that helps.

zs

[EDIT: I'm going to bed now.<yawn>] Try again tommarow I guess]

 

[neuralfx]

try again using lilo, instead of GRUB, and install into the MBR .. it 99% doesnt have anything to do with the fact that your using via ..
-neural

 

[HigherGround]

if you are reinstalling, make sure to do a consisency check on all the Linux drives. Additionally, if you have a 3.5" floppy, make a bootdisk, who knows, it might come in handy

 

[Armitage]

Ok, the problem is probably that some Via chipset motherboards have a hard time running an Athlon optimized kernel.
The RedHat 7.2 installer will install an Athlon optimized kernel when it detects an Athlon CPU.

I would try underclocking the hell out of it (100 MHz FSB, 800 MHz CPU, conservative CAS, etc.) and see if you can get it to boot.
Once it boots, you need to install an i686 optimized kernel. You can do this with rpm.

You should go get the latest RedHat kernel anyway (2.4.9-7) or build the very latest kernel from kernel.org (2.4.17) if you're comfortable with that.
But I'd start with the i686 kernel rpm that you'll find on the install CD just to be sure.

I'd put money that this is your problem. I had the same thing on my Iwill KK266, and I know that mine won't run an Athlon optimized kernel when I build it myself.
The Athlon kernel optimizations don't buy you much over the 686 optimizations anyway.

Once the new kernel is installed, you can bump your settings back to what they should be. Don't be suprised if your system doesn't overclock as high under Linux as it does under Windows though. Linux tends to stress the hardware a bit more.

Good luck

edit: You might be able to boot from the CD in rescue mode to switch to a 686 kernel instead of underclocking it.

 

[zsouthboy]

Ok, I'm going to put all this input you guys gave me into this next install, it takes approx. 30 minutes to install b/c my dvd drive sorta died and my cd-burner is slow as, well, christmas

Thank you all.

zs

[If it works this time I'll tell y'all what I did so if someone else asks, we'll know what the problem is]

 

[zsouthboy]

<< I would try underclocking the hell out of it (100 MHz FSB, 800 MHz CPU, conservative CAS, etc.) and see if you can get it to boot. >>


w00t!

It worked. I underclocked down to 800 Mhz, lowered the voltage so I wouldn't fry my cpu, turned all the memory settings to safe, and loaded all the fail-safe defaults.

I got into gnome. So, what now? Install the 686 rpm? How do I do that?

zs

 

[Armitage]

<<

<< I would try underclocking the hell out of it (100 MHz FSB, 800 MHz CPU, conservative CAS, etc.) and see if you can get it to boot. >>


w00t!

It worked. I underclocked down to 800 Mhz, lowered the voltage so I wouldn't fry my cpu, turned all the memory settings to safe, and loaded all the fail-safe defaults.

I got into gnome. So, what now? Install the 686 rpm? How do I do that?

zs >>



Find the kernel rpms on your install CD. The path should be something like /mnt/cdrom/RedHat/RPMS/kernel-2.4*rpm
You may have to look a little, I don't have my CD handy. The one you want will have 686 somewhere in the file name.

Then you should be able to do something like this:
rpm -Uvh <filename>

Where filename is the name of the package you want to install.
The U option means upgrade, but since the versions of the package you are installing is not higher then what is already installed, it might not work.
In that case try adding the --oldpackage option before the file name. You might also try -Ivh instead of -Uvh and adding the --force or --nodeps options. It's been a few weeks since I ran into this, so I don't recall precisely howI did it, but I know I used RPM.

If you download the newer RedHat kernel rpm, the -Uvh should work just fine since the version number will be higher.

Another thing I don't remember: Whether rpm preserves the original kernel or not?
If it does, when Lilo or grub comes up, you'll have a choice of kernels to boot. Make sure you pick the right one.

 

[Nothinman]

and adding the --force or --nodeps options

Don't get in the bad habit of using --force and --nodeps, it defeats the purpose of a package manager. Instead try to satisfy the dependencies instead of blowing past them like a Windows install.

Of course that's not terribly applicable here because this is a kernel install, not a normal app.

And you may want to check out www.linuxdoc.org and www.linuxnewbie.org.

 

[Armitage]

<< and adding the --force or --nodeps options

Don't get in the bad habit of using --force and --nodeps, it defeats the purpose of a package manager. Instead try to satisfy the dependencies instead of blowing past them like a Windows install.

Of course that's not terribly applicable here because this is a kernel install, not a normal app.

And you may want to check out www.linuxdoc.org and www.linuxnewbie.org. >>



I agree completely, but I've seen enough broken packages that I've needed it a few times.
I really don't remember whether I needed any options on this kernel replace. I remember that it was very easy, so I don't think it was anything to exotic.

 

[zsouthboy]

I'm in mozilla right now typing this. I'm currently downloading the newest kernel, but I'm on dialup so its gonna take a few hours.


Thank you everybody for your help.

zs