Kernel Panic on RHEL 4 CD

[Rick Stevens]

On Thu, 2006-11-23 at 07:53 -0500, Andrew Smith wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm trying to install RHEL 4 on an HP DL140 G3 with 2 dual core
> Xeon 5140 CPUs. I'm using the 64-bit version of the OS and the
> 4th update (most recent at the time of this post). The kernel
> panics immediately after beginning the boot from the cd, so
> no install is possible.
> 
> I tried the install with multiple media and multiple iso downloads.
> I also tried update 3 with the same results.
> 
> I have successfully put the 32-bit version of RHEL 4 on the machine
> and it runs fine but at half the speed of a 64-bit OS for number
> crunching.
> 
> I tried to install RHEL 5 beta, but the installer crashed during
> the install complaining that it couldn't find an xml file. I
> guess it is just too beta.
> 
> Questions:
> 
> 1) Is this a known bug? I can find only one other reference on
>     the net to a similar problem.

According to Red Hat, the DL140 G2 is certified, but not the G3.  See:

http://bugzilla.redhat.com/hwcert/list.cgi?product=Red+Hat+Hardware
+Certification&quicksearch=DL140

> 2) Has this problem been fixed with more recent kernels?

You'd have to check bugzilla for that.

> 3) Is there a way to install using the most recent kernel, instead
>     of the kernel on the most recent update cd? There have been
>     several kernel updates since the update 4 cd was released.

You didn't say what kind of panic you're seeing and that'd be quite
helpful.  Some things you might try would be adding any one or more of
the following options to the "boot:" command line:

	noapic
	nodma
	noprobe

e.g. "boot: linux noapic nodma"

And you might also want to try doing a text-mode install:

	boot: linux text

and append whatever options you feel are useful.  For a full list of
options, see:

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/x8664-multi-install-guide/ap-bootopts.html

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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
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