Linux Always Rebooting - After One Minute

From: Steven J. Hathaway (shathawa_at_e-z.net)
Date: 12/30/03

  • Next message: Timo Voipio: "Re: Wireless PCI with DSL Connection" 
    Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2003 22:59:41 -0800

    Do I have a brain-dead BIOS in an E-Machines ETower 566i?

    Installed Disk Drives Are:

        IDE-1 Master = /dev/hda 8.4 GB Hard Drive
        IDE-1 Slave = /dev/hdb 4.2 GB Hard Drive

        IDE-2 Master = /dev/hdc ATAPI CDROM
        IDE-2 Slave = IOMEGA ZIP Drive

    I have no problems booting from /dev/hda, or chain-booting to /dev/hdb.

    If the Linux Root is on any primary partition or logical drive
    on device /dev/hda, there is no reboot problem.

    Every time I install Linux to the second hard drive /dev/hdb, and make
    any partition on that hard drive = Root, then the BIOS appears to
    recognize a system problem and causes a fatal reboot after one minute
    of system operation. This reboot problem is independent of whether
    the Linux kernel is loaded from a floppy, a file on /dev/hda, or
    chain-loaded on /dev/hdb. The problem exists with every Linux Kernel
    I've tried (2.0.x, 2.2.x, 2.4.5 - 2.4.23).

    If I have a good Linux root on /dev/hda, and then chroot to /dev/hdb,
    things work OK because /dev/hda still contains the valid baseline
    system.

    I have no problems using /dev/hdb partitions for data.

    I only have the one-minute to reboot for those times I attempt to use
    a partition on /dev/hdb for the active root partition for Linux.

    My next attempt is to use a RAMDISK based root and then perform a
    pivot-root operation to see if this will avoid the one-minute to
    reboot problem.

    Has anyone else seen this problem?

    What have you done to overcome the problem?

    Sincerely,
    Steven J. Hathaway

    Dec 29 20:16:00 srv12 kernel: PCI: Setting latency timer of device
    00:1f.5 to 64
    Dec 29 20:16:00 srv12 kernel: PCI: Setting latency timer of device
    00:1f.2 to 64

    P.S. I have seen the above lines in the /var/log/debug file.
    Would this give hints as to the problem and solution?

    How would I find the device to which the "latency timer" is associated?

  • Next message: Timo Voipio: "Re: Wireless PCI with DSL Connection"

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