Kernel Panic on DL140 G3

[JonasB]

Hello!

I have a DL140 G3 with Xeon 5110 1.6Ghz 64bit CPU and 2GB ram.
I got a Kernel Panic when I boot a 64bit Gentoo install CD. And also when I boot Suse 64bit install CD.

32bit install CDs works fine.

Is there anyone who managed to boot 64 bit Linux on these machines?

[Vitaly Karasik_1]

Jonas,

Xeon isn't 64-bit CPU, but 32 bit CPU with EMT64. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64 for details )
In short, you can install or 32bit distro, or x86-64 distro.
64-bit distro is for Itanium box.

Rgds,
Vitaly

[JonasB]

Hello Vitaly,

Thanks for you reply.
But both Gentoo AMD64 and Suse x86_64 fails to boot. Im not trying to boot IA64.

[Vitaly Karasik_1]

I see.

did you try SLES 10 ?

[JonasB]

Hello!

It's Opensuse 10.1
This one:

http://ftp.sunet.se/pub/os/Linux/distributions/opensuse/distribution//SL-10.1/iso/SUSE-Linux-10.1-GM-x86_64-mini.iso

[Vitaly Karasik_1]

I suggest you try RHEL (or free CentOS ) or SLES - these distros are certifed for DL140G3.

[JonasB]

I will try these tomorrow.
I heard that some early Xeon 5110 didn't support EMT64. Maybe I got one of them?

[Vitaly Karasik_1]

how can we check in linux if our CPU supports EMT64? to say the true, I don't know....

According to http://www.intel.com/products/processor/xeon/ , Xeon 5100 supports EMT64...

[Mike Stroyan · Accepted solution]

If you have a new enough kernel, (after May 2002), then the /proc/cpuinfo "flags" line will include an "lm" flag for CPUs that implement EM64T. The "lm" stands for "long mode". The bit is common to Intel and AMD CPUID mechanisms. It is documented on page 35 of http://download.intel.com/design/Xeon/applnots/24161831.pdf

[JonasB]

Thanks!

Im a little bit disapointed at HP. HP sell this server as EMT64 and ship with a CPU that don't have this capability. :(
Atleast it has virtualisation capabilities.

[Mike Stroyan]

I find it much more likely that the panic was caused by some kernel/driver problem with two particular 64-bit OS distributions on new hardware. All of the various CPUs available for the DL140 G3 are supposed to support EM64T.
64-bit versions of Redhat Enterprse Linux 3 and 4 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 and 10 are all certified on the DL140 G3. Those distributions do require a specific level of update or service pack to support that hardware.

[HannSMART]

I got the exact same problem today trying to install 64bit Centos 4.4.

Googling around I found the following:
Advisory: (Revision) Kernel Panic Occurs when Attempting to Boot Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (AMD64/EM64T) or SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 (AMD64/EM64T) on Certain ProLiant 100-Series Servers When 8042 Keyboard/Mouse Emulation is Enabled in BIOS
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&objectID=c00779523&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

This is a new advisory (2007-01-10). Haven't tried it yet but it could be related. Will attempt install again tomorrow with the listed workaround and see how it goes!

[Alpha977]

Hello JonasB!

I had same problem with another 32 and 64 bit server type.
The only distribution i find work fine was OpenSuse 10.
I work excpetially with RedHat but i've found familiar command and have rpm support.

Regards!

[HannSMART]

Turning off 8042 Keyboard/Mouse Emulation in the BIOS does indeed do the trick. In fact it is actually written in the bios option description: Disable for Red Hat 64 bit.