[CentOS] Centos 6.4 on Xserve, IPMI error

Tue Mar 31 00:43:26 UTC 2015
Sergio Rodrigues <sergio at slickdesign.net>

Arno B <centos at ...> writes:

> 
> Hello!
> 
> I'm trying to install Centos 6.4 64 bit on this Xserve:
>
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/xserve/specs/xserve-intel-xeon-2.8-eight-core-specs.html
> 
> I got a bootloader from:
>
http://blog.christophersmart.com/2009/07/23/linux-on-an-apple-xserve-efi-only-machine/
> as none of the official Centos releases (full, minimal, network 64 bit)
boot on this machine.
> They all crash when loading the bootx64.conf.
> 
> I have built a USB stick with a working bootx64.efi, grub.cfg, together
with an initrd and a vmlinuz
> from the isolinux folder.
> These seem to get me into booting a kernel until something called IPMI is
starting to throw
> errors at me:
> 
> Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 128x48
> fb0: VESA VGA frame buffer device
> ipmi message handler version 39.2
> IPMI System Interface driver.
> ipmi_si 0000:09:00.4: enable device (0002 -> 0003)
> ipmi_si 0000:09:00.4: PCI INT C -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
> ipmi_si: Adding PCI-specified kcs state machine
> ipmi_si 0000:09:00.7: enable device (0000 -> 0003)
> ipmi_si 0000:09:00.7: PCI INT D -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
> ipmi_si: Adding PCI-specified bt state machine
> ipmi_si: Trying PCI-specified kcs state machine at mem address 0x90841000,
slave address 0x0 irq 16
> IRQ 16/ipmi_si: IRQF_DISABLED is not guaranteed on shared IRQs
>    Using irq 16
> ipmi: Found new BMC (man_id: 0x00003f, prod_id: 0x0003, dev_id: 0x20)
> IPMI kcs interface initialized
> ipmi_si: Trying PCI-specified kcs state machine at mem address 0x90840000,
slave address 0x0 irq 17
> Refined TSC clocksource calibration: 2792.999 MHz.
> Switching to clocksource tsc
> IPMI BT: timeout in XACTION [ 	B_BUSY ] 1 retries left
> IPMI BT: timeout in XACTION [ 	B_BUSY ]
> failed 2 retries, sending error response
> IPMI: BT reset (takes 5 secs)
> IPMI BT: timeout in XACTION [ 	B_BUSY H2B ]
> failed 2 retries, sending error response
> IPMI: BT reset (takes 5 secs)
> IPMI BT: timeout in XACTION [ 	B_BUSY H2B ]
> failed 2 retries, sending error response
> IPMI: BT reset (takes 5 secs)
> IPMI BT: timeout in XACTION [ 	B_BUSY H2B ]
> failed 2 retries, sending error response
> IPMI: BT reset (takes 5 secs)
> IPMI BT: timeout in XACTION [ 	B_BUSY H2B ]
> failed 2 retries, sending error response
> IPMI: BT reset (takes 5 secs)
> 
> then the screen goes to black and the machine doesn't respond to anything
anymore...
> 
> Can anyone please help me with this? Maybe just point me in a direction
where to find a solution?
> I've been googling for a few days now without much results...
> 
> thanks in advance
> 
> Arno Beekman
> 

Just add ipmi_si.addrs=0x90841000 ipmi_si.irqs=16 to the kernel boot options

In Ubuntu add this to /etc/default/grub

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="ipmi_si.addrs=0x90841000 ipmi_si.irqs=16"

"The si_type may be either "kcs", "smic", or "bt".  If you leave it blank,
it defaults to "kcs"." source: http://openipmi.sourceforge.net/IPMI.txt

According to that only one can be used!

What happens is kcs loads then bt loads after and then it hangs and keeps
retrying, adding the mem addrs and irq solves this