[CentOS] Kernel panic kickstarting to CentOS 4

[Johnny Hughes]

On Mon, 2007-02-05 at 13:50 -0800, Cynthia Kiser wrote:
> I have an older server I am trying to update to CentOS 4.3 but I can't
> get to the installer screen because the machine kernel panics when
> booted from the install CD. The error message I get is:
> 
> Kernel panic - not syncing: include/linux/smp_lock.h:25
> 	spin_unlock(kernel/sched.c:c035) not locked
> 
> The boot messages before this point are mainly to do with acpi
> including: 
> 
> acpi_ps_parse_anl
> acpi_?s_one_complete
> ...
> acpi_early_init
> start_kernel 
> Kernel panic ....
> 
> At a guess, I tried starting the installer with the options: 
> 	linux text acpi=off noprobe
> 
> I am not really clear on what part of the boot process is failing so I
> tried a number of random boot options including apm=off, noapic, apic,
> nomce. Nothing I tried change the error. (I also tried installing RHEL
> 4 but I got the same failure with less informative error reporting:
> Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill the idle task!)
> 
> I also tried changing my BIOS options - changing the interupt mode
> from APIC to PIC which, if I understand the manual correctly, seems to
> be AMIBIOS's version of turning off Plug and Play. Same error. 
> 
> Can anyone tell me what sort of thing is going wrong? Is the
> smp_lock.h stuff for dual processors? The motherboard I have would
> support 2 processors, but I only have one installed so don't see why I
> am in SMP code. Is there something I can do to get CentOS 4 to
> install? The only thing I can think of I haven't tried is to update
> the BIOS - mostly because the instructions are not very well
> translated so I am not completely sure how to use the Dual BIOS
> feature to roll back if the new BIOS version creates more problems
> than it solves.
> 
> Hardware: 
> 
> Motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-7VRXP
> http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ClassValue=Motherboard&ProductID=1762&ProductName=GA-7VRXP
> CPU is a single AMD XP2100+ 
> Disk is a normal IDE Maxtor
> Memory 3 G of DDR SDRAM
> 
> I can install CentOS 3.8 on this machine just fine, but I would like
> to move to CentOS 4 because that is what my beefier database machines
> are running (or will when I get the rest of them upgraded).
> 
> Thanks for any help folks can give me. 

I assume you are using the i386 install media ... and that you have
tested it.

Also, why not try 4.4 media, as there is support for more hardware in
the new kernel.

Also, verify that the motherboard has the latest BIOS (many acpi/apic
issues get fixed in bios upgrades).

try these options:

noapic noacpi

Thanks,
Johnny Hughes
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