2.4.6: Machine Check Exception: 0x 106BE0 (type 0x 9).

[David Thor Bragason]

Hello,

I wrote to this list the other day about how I didn't get 2.4.5 to boot on
my Compaq LTE 5200 laptop. This is a Pentium 120MHz, 72MB RAM with an
OPTi Viper chipset. The strange thing is, all kernels up to 2.4.4
(inclusive) compile and run flawlessly on this machine. Only when I tried
to upgrade to 2.4.5 did I get what looks like a hardware problem, and the
machine does not boot. There is nothing wrong with the kernel
configuration, and I tried gcc 2.95, 3.0, and, to be absolutely sure,
2.91.66 (the recommended compiler). I then had the same problem with a
2.4.6pre kernel, and, today, with the 2.4.6.

The error message I'm getting now is:

CPU#0:  Machine Check Exception:  0x  106BE0  (type 0x   9).

This line is repeated over and over again (with the spaces).

There are some lines that fly by before that, though, and I went to some
lengths trying to capture them the other day. (They scroll by too fast to
be seen.) First I tried to set CONFIG_LP_CONSOLE and pass the appropriate
line to lilo, but nothing came out of
the printer. Then I tried lkcd (the kernel debugging patch/tool), but it
seems that the machine hangs too early in the boot process for that tool
to work. If the message above doesn't mean anything to anyone, I guess
I'll have to rent a videocamera and tape my laptop trying to boot :)

I stress that 2.4.4 still compiles and runs without a problem. Does this
make any sense for a hardware problem? Was there any new hardware (cpu)
check introduced in 2.4.5? I'd be very grateful for any tips,
and could you please cc: them to me, as I don't subscribe to this
list. Thanks!

David Bragason,  <bragason at uni-freiburg dot de>