I solved this with the "apic=bigsmp" kernel option; the i386 SMP kernel now boots fine and 16 cpu's show up. deb On Fri, 2006-02-03 at 16:32 -0700, Debbie Mazurek wrote: > On Mon, 2006-01-30 at 08:49 -0600, Troy Dawson wrote: > > Connie Sieh wrote: > > > On Fri, 27 Jan 2006, Debbie Mazurek wrote: > > > > > > > > >>Hi, > > >> > > >>I have a Dell Poweredge 6800, with 4 Intel 64 bit 7020-chipset dual-core > > >>CPU's. They also support hyperthreading. > > >> > > >>I can't get the 2.6.9-22.0.2 SMP x86 kernel to boot. The UP kernel > > >>boots fine. > > >> > > >>The x86_64 SMP kernel boots fine, but apparently only supports 8 cpu's - > > >>unfortunately hyperthreading *has to* work, for a research project. > > > > > > > > > The x86_64 kernel only supports 8 cpu's. The Upstream Vendor has implied > > > that Update 3 will enable 32 cpu's. > > > > > If you can't wait that long, and really don't need the 64 bit part, the > > i386 kernel does support 32 cpu's right now. > > That's what I thought - and that's what I'd like! > But - the SMP kernel will not boot. > The last message on the console, after finding initrd & linuz images, is > > Uncompressing Linux...... OK, booting the kernel > > and then stops. > The UP kernel boots fine, but I need the SMP. > > > > > > > Since our kernel is the same as RedHat's, we can use their 'hardware > > limitation' chart as found here > > > > http://www.redhat.com/en_us/USA/rhel/details/limits/ > > > > The line you are looking for is under > > Technology Limits (certified) > > Maximum Logical CPU's > > AMD64/EM64T > > > > > > > > >>I was under the impression that the x86 kernel *should* work on a 64-bit > > >>machine. Is this not the case? Any info or experiences would be > > >>appreciated. > > >> > > > > > > > > > It does work on a 8 cpu 64 bit machine. > > > > > > > > >>cheers, > > >>deb > > >> > > > > > > > > > -Connie Sieh > > > > -- d e b b i e m a z u r e k [log in to unmask] system admin . department of computer science . university of calgary