Kernel Panic - Not Syncing Error

[gwalther]

followup to previous post using ..boot code...initcall_debug

i used this boot code and version 1.4..... to compare to what i get with version 2

all the same messages as near as i can tell until the point at which it panics in version 2.0
version 1.4  follows with green message..."booting tinycore

so ...looks like something bad is happening at loading or start of tinycore

[lkraemer]

gwalter, I get the exact same messages you're getting.

Photo #1 is with  debug only.
Photo #2 is with  debug initcall_debug

I did download Slitaz 2.0 and it boots and runs fine......and if I understand correctly
the origin of Tinycore is from Slitaz.  INTERESTING!

lkraemer

[lkraemer]

Here is photo #2.

lkraemer

[gwalther]

looks the same......maybe .....new and future versions are never  going to play well with our old pre 2000 girls (ie. laptops)     regadless of what we do....my laptop is older and slower then your s ( P120...64mb...no cdrom...no usb....720mb hdd)... don't think it is  lack   of memory ...... that's the problem....since you have much more......something at the start of tinycore.gz!!!!!...maybe it can't find image....no when I use version 2.0 bizImage it will find  version 1.4 tincycore...got to be at the start of  version 2 tinycore before it puts out message..."booting tinycore"

my old girl does boot and run ok with "damn small linux"...actually with frugal install and opera.uci it is an ok lite web browser...which was goal in trying small distros...I .just like tinycore size and idea more (I run tinycore version 2 on a old desktop and am really starting to like it more and  more ...in fact using it for this reply...I even got wireless and Xorg finally working...after quite a long learning curve)

don't want to give up....but

G

[roberts]

The major change in v2 is the upgrade in kernel.

It is really not too interesting to compare with other distros even ones that boot in similiar fashion, unless we are talking about the same kernel version.

Googling "2.6.29 kernel panic acpi" appears to further suggest the kernel version.

[curaga]

Are you able to compile the kernel? It would be worth a try to check if the latest 2.6.29 boots properly.

[lkraemer]

curaga,
While I don't know the capabilities of gwalther, I have never compiled a kernel........but, saying
that, if I were to have good instructions, and be led by someone who has done it before, I am
willing to try.  I have several questions that need to be answered before I start:

1.  What software needs to be installed for the Kernel compile?  All my Linux systems are 32 bit.
2.  Can I compile the kernel on my Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop for Tinycore?  Or do I have to
     use the old Compaq 1672 for that?
3.  If and when I get the kernel compiled, what are the next steps, for installing/testing with
     my Tinycore LiveCD?

It seems to me that a Tinycore Developer would compile the latest test kernel, and upload it where
gwalther and I could download it and follow a testing procedure to do some beta testing on our older
systems.  That makes much more sense to me, and it frees you up from having to answer stupid questions.

lkraemer

[curaga]

Yes, I thought that would be likely, but it never hurts to ask

http://www.ziddu.com/download/4947749/bzImage-2.6.29.4-tc-test.gz.html

This is the latest stable kernel, compiled with TC config but removed a lot of things (module, networking support among other things ) to make a fast build. It's only to test whether you can boot TC with it, and is likely to not be usable if it boots.

How to test - download, gunzip, and replace the bzImage of TC with this. Do take a backup of the old bzImage before this. Boot.

If you need to burn a CD, see the wiki on remastering for the mkisofs command.

[gwalther]

I tried the test bzImage from the quoted site;
(note I boot from dos using linld097)

heres what happened:

Test bzImage and version 2 tinycore.gz
kernel panic at almost same spot as previously seen...I did get this one additional message:
Input: AT Translated Set 2 Keyboard as /devices/platform/i8042/serio)/input/input0


Test bzImage and version 1.4 tinycore.gz
booted all the way thru with some additional messages about missing 6.29 libraries
I saw the message I noted above in the panic boot ....  Input: AT.etc......just before the green line saying "Booting tinycore" on this successful boot

I used boot code .........initcall_debug......so got lots of messages

[curaga]

Okay, so the kernel bug is still there for you gwalther. There's nothing we can do about it, I can only point to the kernel documentation (kernel-parameters.txt) and hope there's some option that can make the .29 kernel work with your hardware.

[gwalther]

Thanks for all the suggestions!
At some point I guess you have to admit your gear is just too old and move on.
G

[curaga]

These things happen every once in a while, for example 2.6.21 would just not boot on one of my laptops. Since debugging the regression was (and still would be) out of my skillset, I waited some kernel versions and things started working again. When the next kernel update happens for TC, that would be a good time to retry on your hardware

[fellow]

I've run into exactly the same problem like  gwalther  ... but having fallen in love with  TinyCore  ;-)  i just don't want to give up before having understood what is _rearly_ happening here.

So I would deeply appreciate if you like to answer my questions:

1) Why is the 2.6.29.x kernel _itself_ supposed to be the cause of the panic though it is able to boot with the 1.4.3 version of the tinycore-initramfs ?
Afaik the kernel _modules_ contained in this initramfs are associated with the older 2.6.26.x kernel so that they can NOT be employed by the newer .29.
This also implies that the newer .29 is able to boot "out of itself" only supported by some of its own _built-in_ modules ... what indeed works with my fairly ancient notebook.

2) Why are you not concerned about the 2.x version of the tinycore-initramfs ?
Because only when this newer initramfs is used the panic occurs ...

3) Could you perhaps give me some hints if at all and then what i might try to change in the (already extracted) initramfs to cope with the panic ?
I already took a somewhat deeper look into  tc-config  of TC 2.x as the initial starting routine ... but up to now i could not dig out a difference compared to this routine of TC 1.4.3 which seems big enough to cause the panic ...

[curaga]

Hardware details?

1) We have now three reports in this thread with the same symptom, but they might all be different causes. Only one confirmed that the older initramfs boots. This could be hardware failure, kernel bug, gcc bug. Run memtest86+ just in case?

2) The K6-2 is a very... delicate processor. It's supposed to be a full 686, yet 686 code sometimes doesn't run on it. I've seen it myself, as well as a Via C3 not running 486 code despite being a 586.
About the Pentium laptop, it could be bad ram or something else.

3) Please post more info; your hardware, anything interesting in debug/initcall_debug messages?

[fellow]

Ooops, of course I should have detailed my hardware, i.e. what I mean by "fairly ancient notebook" :

Toshiba Satellite Pro 410CDT  dated from 1996  =:o)
Pentium 90 MHz
40 MB RAM  (max. equipped ;-)
60 GB E-IDE HD   (70x the capacity compared to the beginning)
no CD-ROM ... but fortunately a 16-bit PCMCIA Fast-EtherNet-Card
BIOS: PnP 1.0a, NOT supporting Int 13h Extensions (LBA)
(... which means that the BIOS (and "legacy" GRUB) is only happy if the
     HD has a /dev/hda1 of only 16MB inhabiting the /boot partition
 ... once having booted Linux and Win98 feel fine with additional /root and /home partitions
 ... but that's another quite lengthy story ...)

The minimum memory required during boot had risen from 32MB with TCL2.0 to 48MB with TCL2.1, which breaks my above mentioned RAM limit  :-(( .
So I concentrate on TCL2.0 at first ... being aware that for all following TCL releases I would anyway have to fix the initramfs tinycore.gz .

Meanwhile I've tried to dig even deeper :

To get a thorough _comparison_ between

TCL2.0  booting badly to a kernel panic
and
bzImage-2.0 + tinycore-1.4.3.gz  booting nicely  in this combination

I implemented a _serial_ terminal connection between the "culprit" and my Ubuntu desktop pc

(1) connecting a Null-Modem-Cable between both serial ports
      (btw. 3-wired was sufficient compared to lots of oversized proposed Null-Modem-Cables www...)
and
(2) setting up an appropriate GRUB's menu.lst on the "culprit" and employing minicom on Ubuntu desktop pc

(It just took a couple of hours till working smoothly ... incl. restoring my old soldering iron to life again ... ;-)

The entries in my grub's  menu.lst  give rise to the highest possible level of debugging :

title TinyCore bzImage-2.0 + tinycore-2.0.gz + debugging to SERIAL CONSOLE
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/bzImage-2.0 noscsi nousb noagp nofirewire acpi=off pci=off S debug loglevel=7 initcall_debug console=tty0 console=ttyS0
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/tinycore-2.0.gz

title TinyCore bzImage-2.0 + tinycore-1.4.3.gz + debugging to SERIAL CONSOLE
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/bzImage-2.0 noscsi nousb noagp nofirewire acpi=off pci=off S debug loglevel=7 initcall_debug console=tty0 console=ttyS0
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/tinycore-1.4.3.gz

Note: I just renamed the kernel and initramfs files with version suffixes to keep track of all the combinations I already tested ...

Attached is the comparison generated by

     diff -yW 200  minicom-output-file-of-bzImage-2.0+tinycore-1.4.3.gz-booting  minicom-output-file-of-TCL2.0-booting

Result :
Aside their different execution times all the initcalls are identical - even if their return code is _NOT_ 0 !
The combination of  bzImage-2.0+tinycore-1.4.3.gz  is even successful despite of FATAL errors due to missing an appropriate modules.dep file !
Immediately after the line  "Freeing unused kernel memory: 344k freed"  BusyBox' init process starts on the "exotic" combination side while a Kernel panic occurs on "standard" TCL2.0 side   :-((


calling  0xc0499c01 @ 1                                                                                  calling  0xc0499c01 @ 1
initcall 0xc0499c01 returned 0 after 22 usecs                                                 initcall 0xc0499c01 returned 0 after 22 usecs
async_waiting @ 1                                                                                            async_waiting @ 1
async_continuing @ 1 after 17 usec                                                                async_continuing @ 1 after 17 usec
Freeing unused kernel memory: 344k freed                                                    Freeing unused kernel memory: 344k freed

init started: BusyBox v1.13.3 (2009-03-18 12:08:31 PDT)                          |    Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!
starting pid 40, tty '': '/etc/init.d/rcS'                                                           <
Booting tinycore_1.4.3                                                                                <
Running Linux Kernel 2.6.29.1-tinycore.                                                      <
Starting udev daemon for hotplug support...input: PS/2 Generic Mouse    <
Done.                                                                                                          <
Boot options checked.                                                                                <


As you may imagine I'm somewhat helpless now ... =o-/

Any comments, hints, advice are welcome !
 

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