Donald Tripp wrote:
> I have a node in our cluster, running SL43, that all of a sudden is
> refusing to boot. It boots from either PXE or hard drive, but fails at
> "freeing unused kernel memory".  Any ideas? I tried re-seating all the
> cards in the machine, as well as the memory, and removed the cmos
> battery to clear that.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> - Don

Is it having it's output redirected to a console server?
And/or have you waited for a long time for it to finish?
And/or have you actually run a memory check on the memory?

One of the problems we've had is that people are looking at a video 
monitor, when everything is actually going towards the serial output. 
That "freeing unused kernel memory" is often where it switches to 
sending the output to both, to just sending it to the serial console 
output.  And if there is something wrong with the disk, where it's 
sitting there waiting for something, then it never comes out.

Another thing that's happened is that it sit's there on "freeing unused 
kernel memory" and I don't have time for it for one reason or another, 
leave it, come back an hour or two later, and it's booted.  I have to 
admit, I've never investigated why.  (Hey, I was too busy to look at it 
before, I was still too busy and just grateful it finished.)

And third, doing a memory check is always good to do when you have any 
questions about memory.  On all the S.L. 4.x installer CD's there is 
memtest86, I'm not positive about which version.  Just boot up one of 
those CD's, and at the bootup screen type in memtest86 and check your 
memory.

Troy
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Troy Dawson  [log in to unmask]  (630)840-6468
Fermilab  ComputingDivision/CSS  CSI Group
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