I can confirm this on some optiplex gx280's that I have.


Here is what I observe:

1.  Same behavior on genuine RHEL4 (no surprise)

2.  No problem with non-smp kernel.

3.  Apparently no problem when booting into runlevel 3 i.e. no X.

4.  With smp kernel, removing "quiet rhgb" from the end of the grub boot
line allows booting and X to start.  However, after first logout it
hangs when gdb tries to restart X.

For me also the workaround seems to be the non-smp kernel.  I haven't
tried to search bugzilla yet; there may be something there.



On Tue, 2005-10-11 at 09:12 -0500, Gregory Harris wrote:
> Folks,
> 
> A couple of interesting things to note:
> 
> (1)  I can boot the 2.6.9-22 kernel just fine.  It is just the 
> 2.6.9-22.smp kernel that has problems.
> 
> (2)  When booting the 2.6.9-22.smp kernel, the system starts up, and I 
> can ping the system UNTIL it leaves the graphical boot screen to go back 
> to the console to start gdm for logins.  Then the gdm screen is blank, 
> there is a flashing cursor up in the uppper-left-hand corner, and the 
> system immediately stops responding to pings and the keyboard/mouse are 
> locked.  The caps/num/scrolllock lights turn blank, and pressing the 
> numlock/capslock/scrolllock have no effect on their respective lights on 
> the keyboard.
> 
> (3)  If I enter the bios of these systems, and turn off the Exec Disable 
> memory protection, the system does boot up normally on the 2.6.9-22.smp 
> kernel, but does take a good deal of time to start the IIMF input server.
> 
> So at least for now it appears the workaround is to either run the non 
> smp kernel, or turn off the exec disable memory protection in the bios.
> 
> I know this new kernel did fix security problems with memory access on 
> multiple architectures.  It is possible the developers did not account 
> for the exec disable option in the bios.  Is this a 'bad' thing to have 
> turned on anyhow?
> 
> Gregory Harris wrote:
> > Nope, just plain OptiPlex GX280's.  Integrated graphics cards,  
> > integrated NICs, integrated sound.  All of them have the DVI  conversion 
> > adapter installed on them though, which the flat panels  use but the 
> > CRTs don't.  It seems to take forever to boot, but the  network adapter 
> > does get brought up but I can' t ping the systems  remotely.
> > 
> > On Oct 10, 2005, at 5:19 PM, Connie Sieh wrote:
> > 
> >> Gregory,
> >>
> >> Any "special" hardware on this Dell?
> >>
> >> -Connie Sieh
> >>
> >> On Mon, 10 Oct 2005, Gregory Harris
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>> Yeah, I felt dumb after I wrote that because I forgot about grub.
> >>> Anyhow, it's a rather interesting problem that a kernel update would
> >>> cause this much havoc.
> >>>
> >>> Thanks,
> >>> Greg
> >>>
> >>> On Oct 10, 2005, at 4:51 PM, Connie Sieh wrote:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>> Gregory,
> >>>>
> >>>> Grub should give you the option to boot the older kernel.
> >>>>
> >>>> -Connie Sieh
> >>>>
> >>>> On Mon, 10 Oct
> >>>> 2005, Gregory Harris wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>> Anybody else having serious problems with the 2.6.9-22 kernel that
> >>>>> just came out for SL4?
> >>>>>
> >>>>> I have yum set to autoupdate.  I have just found out that all of  the
> >>>>> 30 or so Dell Optiplex GX280's we have that have  been rebooted are
> >>>>> all hanging on boot.  There doesn't seem to be anyway to get to a
> >>>>> root console on them either, it doesn't bring up networking and  hangs
> >>>>> on the "setting up swap space" or it goes to a blank screen.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> At this point I don't see anyway to revert to the previous state
> >>>>> other than reinstalling.  It's not a big deal here though since we
> >>>>> use network home directories.  Just want to get the word out before
> >>>>> it bites someone else.
> 
-- 
John Franks <[log in to unmask]>