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#1 2011-09-24 02:40:02

schmidtbag
Member
From: NH, USA
Registered: 2011-02-08
Posts: 337

Boot failure with AMD core unlock *solved*

Before you criticize me for buying a triple core instead of a quad core, I want you to know that my situation seems to only conflict with Arch.

I have an AMD Athlon II x3.  If I unlock the 4th core, Linux live CDs boot up just fine, Windows XP boots fine, Windows 7 boots fine, and as long as any OS completely boots up it runs flawlessly for hours with constant load.  However, Arch will fail to boot IMMEDIATELY after unlocking cores. IIRC, the Arch setup CD also fails to boot.  I have a small feeling that GRUB has something to do with it, but whenever I attempt to install GRUB2 I'm never able to boot again.

As another note, I can't seem to get IOMMU to work with Arch.  With Debian based distros it works immediately, but I can't find anything on how to enable it with Arch.  I get this impression that there's a lot of missing Kernel entries in Arch which are causing these CPU problems, and possibly others.

Last edited by schmidtbag (2011-09-27 16:16:30)

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#2 2011-09-25 00:39:36

R00KIE
Forum Fellow
From: Between a computer and a chair
Registered: 2008-09-14
Posts: 4,734

Re: Boot failure with AMD core unlock *solved*

It may be that the disabled core has some fault that other OSes don't trigger. Triple core CPUs are Quad core CPUs where one faulty unit is disabled (automagic yield increase, aint that great tongue) or if you are lucky where one fully functional unit is disabled. Also judging by you signature you have overclocked it which doesn't help things.

As the say goes, you get what you pay for tongue


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#3 2011-09-25 01:00:37

schmidtbag
Member
From: NH, USA
Registered: 2011-02-08
Posts: 337

Re: Boot failure with AMD core unlock *solved*

as I've said before, other linux distros don't encounter this problem.  also, the problem still occurs regardless of clock speed.  I figured overclocking was a possible cause but it isn't.

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#4 2011-09-25 02:36:30

R00KIE
Forum Fellow
From: Between a computer and a chair
Registered: 2008-09-14
Posts: 4,734

Re: Boot failure with AMD core unlock *solved*

Not much of an idea then, get /proc/config.gz from the distros that work and the one from arch, compare them and see if you can spot what might be causing the problem. No other ideas here.


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#5 2011-09-25 03:20:47

schmidtbag
Member
From: NH, USA
Registered: 2011-02-08
Posts: 337

Re: Boot failure with AMD core unlock *solved*

R00KIE wrote:

Not much of an idea then, get /proc/config.gz from the distros that work and the one from arch, compare them and see if you can spot what might be causing the problem. No other ideas here.

debian doesn't have that file, did you mistake it for something different?

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#6 2011-09-25 03:57:13

fsckd
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Registered: 2009-06-15
Posts: 4,173

Re: Boot failure with AMD core unlock *solved*

That's the config of the current running kernel. In Debian you can find it under /boot.


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#7 2011-09-25 13:40:15

R00KIE
Forum Fellow
From: Between a computer and a chair
Registered: 2008-09-14
Posts: 4,734

Re: Boot failure with AMD core unlock *solved*

schmidtbag wrote:
R00KIE wrote:

Not much of an idea then, get /proc/config.gz from the distros that work and the one from arch, compare them and see if you can spot what might be causing the problem. No other ideas here.

debian doesn't have that file, did you mistake it for something different?

I know some distros don't have it but I wasn't aware debian is one of them (I use arch everyday and I try to manage a few centos boxes and that's all), that is an option can be enabled/disabled when building the kernel and it can be quite useful when trying to figure out why something doesn't work (such as seeing which drivers were built and which option was selected when there are multiple choices), however I guess it might have security implications since anyone can find out which options were selected when building the running kernel and some combinations may have yet uncovered/unpublished/undisclosed security exploits.


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#8 2011-09-26 19:02:02

schmidtbag
Member
From: NH, USA
Registered: 2011-02-08
Posts: 337

Re: Boot failure with AMD core unlock *solved*

wow that file is long.  any easy way to compare them?

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#9 2011-09-26 19:05:46

lifeafter2am
Member
From: 127.0.0.1
Registered: 2009-06-10
Posts: 1,332

Re: Boot failure with AMD core unlock *solved*

schmidtbag wrote:

wow that file is long.  any easy way to compare them?

diff, vimdiff, etc.


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#10 2011-09-27 00:19:04

schmidtbag
Member
From: NH, USA
Registered: 2011-02-08
Posts: 337

Re: Boot failure with AMD core unlock *solved*

They're almost completely different, so it doesn't really help to compare the 2.  I wonder though... my Windows install is 32 bit PAE.  The live CDs I tried are 32 bit, but my Arch setup is 64 bit.  It makes me think that maybe this disabled core is actually perfectly functional EXCEPT in 64 bit.

I'll try looking out for a light-weight graphical 64 bit live CD and see if that proves anything.

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#11 2011-09-27 16:15:52

schmidtbag
Member
From: NH, USA
Registered: 2011-02-08
Posts: 337

Re: Boot failure with AMD core unlock *solved*

So I have confirmed - the default in the 4th core relates to 64 bit.  The 64 bit live CD failed to boot at the exact same spot.

I suppose I could try booting up a 64 bit windows XP to see if that proves anything further but considering I use linux 95% of the time I'm on a computer, proving such a thing isn't really worth it.

Although comparing the config.gz files were so different that they were incomparable, they were the inspiration for me to make this test, so at least this wasn't a complete waste of time.

Thanks anyway.

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