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Problem activating multiple cores ONLY if I press any key before kernel is loaded

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nospamnoham at gmail

May 25, 2008, 8:39 PM

Post #1 of 9 (317 views)
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Problem activating multiple cores ONLY if I press any key before kernel is loaded

Hi,

This is 100% reproducible. I'm using a Shuttle SG33G5, Q9300 (45nm)
and Fedora 9 with kernel 2.6.25.3-18.fc9.i686.

When the PC boots up, if I don't press any key till I see "Redhat nash
version..." everything works fine (well, good enough).

But if I press a key during the boot and end up inside GRUB boot menu
and choose Linux (Linux is the default), the boot hangs after the line
"Booting the kernel." and before "Redhat nash..." is displayed.

So I went into GRUB and removed the "quiet" kernel option to see
what's happening. I saw some errors (posted at end of email) and I
waited for a while (1-2 mins?) and the boot continued. But only one
core was activated. I saw several such thread on many websites and
most suggested "noapic" and "nolapic" and some also suggested
"acpi=off".

If I added "noapic nolapic acpi=off" using the GRUB menu, the boots
succeeds 1 out of may be 5 times with all cores active.

Just using "acpi=off" or just "noapic nolapic" didn't help -- it could
have been intermittent, but I didn't try these many times.

I'm mailing LKML because the "fix" given in other websites is
intermittent and not always working.

This is a new PC and I have my old one which is my primary PC till I
get the new one working fine. So I'm willing to do any kind of tests
on my new PC. This might be a good test oppurtunity for kernel
programmers.

Please let me know if there is a known fix that work all the time or
if you are interested having your fix/patch tested on my PC.

Thanks,
SK
P.S: Relevant output of dmesg follows.

I see this in dmesg:
CPU 1 irqstacks, hard=c07ba000 soft=c079a000
Not responding.
Inquiring remote APIC #1...
... APIC #1 ID: failed
... APIC #1 VERSION: failed
... APIC #1 SPIV: failed
CPU #1 not responding - cannot use it.
Booting processor 1/2 ip 4000
Not responding.
Inquiring remote APIC #2...
... APIC #2 ID: failed
... APIC #2 VERSION: failed
... APIC #2 SPIV: failed
CPU #2 not responding - cannot use it.
Booting processor 1/3 ip 4000
Not responding.
Inquiring remote APIC #3...
... APIC #3 ID: failed
... APIC #3 VERSION: failed
... APIC #3 SPIV: failed
CPU #3 not responding - cannot use it.
Total of 1 processors activated (5015.39 BogoMIPS).
ENABLING IO-APIC IRQs
..TIMER: vector=0x31 apic1=0 pin1=2 apic2=-1 pin2=-1
Brought up 1 CPUs

Thanks,
SK
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jirislaby at gmail

May 26, 2008, 1:06 AM

Post #2 of 9 (303 views)
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Re: Problem activating multiple cores ONLY if I press any key before kernel is loaded [In reply to]

On 05/26/2008 05:39 AM, S K wrote:
> and Fedora 9 with kernel 2.6.25.3-18.fc9.i686.
[...]
> I see this in dmesg:
> CPU 1 irqstacks, hard=c07ba000 soft=c079a000
> Not responding.
> Inquiring remote APIC #1...
> ... APIC #1 ID: failed
> ... APIC #1 VERSION: failed
> ... APIC #1 SPIV: failed
> CPU #1 not responding - cannot use it.
> Booting processor 1/2 ip 4000
> Not responding.
> Inquiring remote APIC #2...
> ... APIC #2 ID: failed
> ... APIC #2 VERSION: failed
> ... APIC #2 SPIV: failed
> CPU #2 not responding - cannot use it.
> Booting processor 1/3 ip 4000
> Not responding.
> Inquiring remote APIC #3...
> ... APIC #3 ID: failed
> ... APIC #3 VERSION: failed
> ... APIC #3 SPIV: failed
> CPU #3 not responding - cannot use it.
> Total of 1 processors activated (5015.39 BogoMIPS).
> ENABLING IO-APIC IRQs
> ..TIMER: vector=0x31 apic1=0 pin1=2 apic2=-1 pin2=-1
> Brought up 1 CPUs

Does it work with vanilla? If yes, contact your kernel provider (redhat bugzilla).
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davej at redhat

May 28, 2008, 11:35 AM

Post #3 of 9 (291 views)
Permalink

Re: Problem activating multiple cores ONLY if I press any key before kernel is loaded [In reply to]

On Mon, May 26, 2008 at 10:06:44AM +0200, Jiri Slaby wrote:
> On 05/26/2008 05:39 AM, S K wrote:
> > and Fedora 9 with kernel 2.6.25.3-18.fc9.i686.
> [...]
> > I see this in dmesg:
> > CPU 1 irqstacks, hard=c07ba000 soft=c079a000
> > Not responding.
> > Inquiring remote APIC #1...
> > ... APIC #1 ID: failed
> > ... APIC #1 VERSION: failed
> > ... APIC #1 SPIV: failed
> > CPU #1 not responding - cannot use it.
> > Booting processor 1/2 ip 4000
> > Not responding.
> > Inquiring remote APIC #2...
> > ... APIC #2 ID: failed
> > ... APIC #2 VERSION: failed
> > ... APIC #2 SPIV: failed
> > CPU #2 not responding - cannot use it.
> > Booting processor 1/3 ip 4000
> > Not responding.
> > Inquiring remote APIC #3...
> > ... APIC #3 ID: failed
> > ... APIC #3 VERSION: failed
> > ... APIC #3 SPIV: failed
> > CPU #3 not responding - cannot use it.
> > Total of 1 processors activated (5015.39 BogoMIPS).
> > ENABLING IO-APIC IRQs
> > ..TIMER: vector=0x31 apic1=0 pin1=2 apic2=-1 pin2=-1
> > Brought up 1 CPUs
>
> Does it work with vanilla? If yes, contact your kernel provider (redhat bugzilla).

Incredibly high chance that the answer is yes.
I don't recall any patches that could affect this, and in honesty filing
this at rh bugzilla is going to make me scratch my head, and then
ask people here like tglx & ingo to take a look, so other than for tracking
purposes, it's not likely to improve chances of it getting fixed.

Dave

--
http://www.codemonkey.org.uk
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nospamnoham at gmail

May 28, 2008, 7:53 PM

Post #4 of 9 (276 views)
Permalink

Re: Problem activating multiple cores ONLY if I press any key before kernel is loaded [In reply to]

Ah! I see you are from Redhat. So who, if any, would be likely to fix this?

This might not be the right list to ask this question, but since I
already started a thread -- how do I make sure the same config options
as the Fedora 9 kernel are turned on when I make a vanilla kernel
build? Well other than checking each one individually in menuconfig.

Thanks,
SK

On Wed, May 28, 2008 at 11:35 AM, Dave Jones <davej[at]redhat.com> wrote:
> On Mon, May 26, 2008 at 10:06:44AM +0200, Jiri Slaby wrote:
> > On 05/26/2008 05:39 AM, S K wrote:
> > > and Fedora 9 with kernel 2.6.25.3-18.fc9.i686.
> > [...]
> > > I see this in dmesg:
> > > CPU 1 irqstacks, hard=c07ba000 soft=c079a000
> > > Not responding.
> > > Inquiring remote APIC #1...
> > > ... APIC #1 ID: failed
> > > ... APIC #1 VERSION: failed
> > > ... APIC #1 SPIV: failed
> > > CPU #1 not responding - cannot use it.
> > > Booting processor 1/2 ip 4000
> > > Not responding.
> > > Inquiring remote APIC #2...
> > > ... APIC #2 ID: failed
> > > ... APIC #2 VERSION: failed
> > > ... APIC #2 SPIV: failed
> > > CPU #2 not responding - cannot use it.
> > > Booting processor 1/3 ip 4000
> > > Not responding.
> > > Inquiring remote APIC #3...
> > > ... APIC #3 ID: failed
> > > ... APIC #3 VERSION: failed
> > > ... APIC #3 SPIV: failed
> > > CPU #3 not responding - cannot use it.
> > > Total of 1 processors activated (5015.39 BogoMIPS).
> > > ENABLING IO-APIC IRQs
> > > ..TIMER: vector=0x31 apic1=0 pin1=2 apic2=-1 pin2=-1
> > > Brought up 1 CPUs
> >
> > Does it work with vanilla? If yes, contact your kernel provider (redhat bugzilla).
>
> Incredibly high chance that the answer is yes.
> I don't recall any patches that could affect this, and in honesty filing
> this at rh bugzilla is going to make me scratch my head, and then
> ask people here like tglx & ingo to take a look, so other than for tracking
> purposes, it's not likely to improve chances of it getting fixed.
>
> Dave
>
> --
> http://www.codemonkey.org.uk
>
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hancockr at shaw

May 29, 2008, 8:37 PM

Post #5 of 9 (272 views)
Permalink

Re: Problem activating multiple cores ONLY if I press any key before kernel is loaded [In reply to]

S K wrote:
> Hi,
>
> This is 100% reproducible. I'm using a Shuttle SG33G5, Q9300 (45nm)
> and Fedora 9 with kernel 2.6.25.3-18.fc9.i686.
>
> When the PC boots up, if I don't press any key till I see "Redhat nash
> version..." everything works fine (well, good enough).
>
> But if I press a key during the boot and end up inside GRUB boot menu
> and choose Linux (Linux is the default), the boot hangs after the line
> "Booting the kernel." and before "Redhat nash..." is displayed.
>
> So I went into GRUB and removed the "quiet" kernel option to see
> what's happening. I saw some errors (posted at end of email) and I
> waited for a while (1-2 mins?) and the boot continued. But only one
> core was activated. I saw several such thread on many websites and
> most suggested "noapic" and "nolapic" and some also suggested
> "acpi=off".
>
> If I added "noapic nolapic acpi=off" using the GRUB menu, the boots
> succeeds 1 out of may be 5 times with all cores active.
>
> Just using "acpi=off" or just "noapic nolapic" didn't help -- it could
> have been intermittent, but I didn't try these many times.
>
> I'm mailing LKML because the "fix" given in other websites is
> intermittent and not always working.
>
> This is a new PC and I have my old one which is my primary PC till I
> get the new one working fine. So I'm willing to do any kind of tests
> on my new PC. This might be a good test oppurtunity for kernel
> programmers.
>
> Please let me know if there is a known fix that work all the time or
> if you are interested having your fix/patch tested on my PC.
>
> Thanks,
> SK
> P.S: Relevant output of dmesg follows.
>
> I see this in dmesg:
> CPU 1 irqstacks, hard=c07ba000 soft=c079a000
> Not responding.
> Inquiring remote APIC #1...
> .. APIC #1 ID: failed
> .. APIC #1 VERSION: failed
> .. APIC #1 SPIV: failed
> CPU #1 not responding - cannot use it.

Is this a USB keyboard? Might be that pressing keys before the kernel
does the USB handoff from BIOS/SMI causes the BIOS to do something that
screws things up..
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nospamnoham at gmail

May 29, 2008, 9:33 PM

Post #6 of 9 (270 views)
Permalink

Re: Problem activating multiple cores ONLY if I press any key before kernel is loaded [In reply to]

Linus Walleij, Yes, I know there are config files in the kernel
source/rpm! What I don't know is, whethere it's only one config file?
What is/are the name(s) of the config file(s)? I want also to make
sure I don't edit any auto generated config file.

Robert, Yes, it's a USB keyboard. You could be right. I want to pin
point the cause though.

Thanks,
SK

On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 8:37 PM, Robert Hancock <hancockr[at]shaw.ca> wrote:
> S K wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> This is 100% reproducible. I'm using a Shuttle SG33G5, Q9300 (45nm)
>> and Fedora 9 with kernel 2.6.25.3-18.fc9.i686.
>>
>> When the PC boots up, if I don't press any key till I see "Redhat nash
>> version..." everything works fine (well, good enough).
>>
>> But if I press a key during the boot and end up inside GRUB boot menu
>> and choose Linux (Linux is the default), the boot hangs after the line
>> "Booting the kernel." and before "Redhat nash..." is displayed.
>>
>> So I went into GRUB and removed the "quiet" kernel option to see
>> what's happening. I saw some errors (posted at end of email) and I
>> waited for a while (1-2 mins?) and the boot continued. But only one
>> core was activated. I saw several such thread on many websites and
>> most suggested "noapic" and "nolapic" and some also suggested
>> "acpi=off".
>>
>> If I added "noapic nolapic acpi=off" using the GRUB menu, the boots
>> succeeds 1 out of may be 5 times with all cores active.
>>
>> Just using "acpi=off" or just "noapic nolapic" didn't help -- it could
>> have been intermittent, but I didn't try these many times.
>>
>> I'm mailing LKML because the "fix" given in other websites is
>> intermittent and not always working.
>>
>> This is a new PC and I have my old one which is my primary PC till I
>> get the new one working fine. So I'm willing to do any kind of tests
>> on my new PC. This might be a good test oppurtunity for kernel
>> programmers.
>>
>> Please let me know if there is a known fix that work all the time or
>> if you are interested having your fix/patch tested on my PC.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> SK
>> P.S: Relevant output of dmesg follows.
>>
>> I see this in dmesg:
>> CPU 1 irqstacks, hard=c07ba000 soft=c079a000
>> Not responding.
>> Inquiring remote APIC #1...
>> .. APIC #1 ID: failed
>> .. APIC #1 VERSION: failed
>> .. APIC #1 SPIV: failed
>> CPU #1 not responding - cannot use it.
>
> Is this a USB keyboard? Might be that pressing keys before the kernel does
> the USB handoff from BIOS/SMI causes the BIOS to do something that screws
> things up..
>
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pavel at ucw

May 31, 2008, 12:25 AM

Post #7 of 9 (267 views)
Permalink

Re: Problem activating multiple cores ONLY if I press any key before kernel is loaded [In reply to]

On Sun 2008-05-25 20:39:10, S K wrote:
> Hi,
>
> This is 100% reproducible. I'm using a Shuttle SG33G5, Q9300 (45nm)
> and Fedora 9 with kernel 2.6.25.3-18.fc9.i686.
>
> When the PC boots up, if I don't press any key till I see "Redhat nash
> version..." everything works fine (well, good enough).
>
> But if I press a key during the boot and end up inside GRUB boot menu
> and choose Linux (Linux is the default), the boot hangs after the line
> "Booting the kernel." and before "Redhat nash..." is displayed.

USB keyboard? Try disabling usb legacy emulation in bios. If it helps,
make them fix their bios.

--
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(cesky, pictures) http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/picture/horses/blog.html
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nospamnoham at gmail

Jun 1, 2008, 2:29 PM

Post #8 of 9 (265 views)
Permalink

Re: Problem activating multiple cores ONLY if I press any key before kernel is loaded [In reply to]

Well, my BIOS doesn't seem to have that option :(. And even if I did,
wouldn't that mean GRUB won't work anyway? Or does GRUB handle USB
keyboards without any BIOS help?

Thanks,
SK

On Sat, May 31, 2008 at 12:25 AM, Pavel Machek <pavel[at]ucw.cz> wrote:
> On Sun 2008-05-25 20:39:10, S K wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> This is 100% reproducible. I'm using a Shuttle SG33G5, Q9300 (45nm)
>> and Fedora 9 with kernel 2.6.25.3-18.fc9.i686.
>>
>> When the PC boots up, if I don't press any key till I see "Redhat nash
>> version..." everything works fine (well, good enough).
>>
>> But if I press a key during the boot and end up inside GRUB boot menu
>> and choose Linux (Linux is the default), the boot hangs after the line
>> "Booting the kernel." and before "Redhat nash..." is displayed.
>
> USB keyboard? Try disabling usb legacy emulation in bios. If it helps,
> make them fix their bios.
>
> --
> (english) http://www.livejournal.com/~pavelmachek
> (cesky, pictures) http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/picture/horses/blog.html
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
> the body of a message to majordomo[at]vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
>
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pavel at suse

Jun 1, 2008, 3:10 PM

Post #9 of 9 (269 views)
Permalink

Re: Problem activating multiple cores ONLY if I press any key before kernel is loaded [In reply to]

On Sun 2008-06-01 14:29:15, S K wrote:
> Well, my BIOS doesn't seem to have that option :(. And even if I did,
> wouldn't that mean GRUB won't work anyway? Or does GRUB handle USB
> keyboards without any BIOS help?

Well, who needs keyboard in GRUB? ;-).

Try BIOS update, then.
Pavel

--
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