[PlanetCCRMA] OT: FC5/6 on AMD K-6 500Mhz

[Ken Smith]

Fernando Lopez-Lezcano wrote:
> On Tue, 2007-05-01 at 18:16 +0100, Ken Smith wrote:
>   
>> Please accept my apologies in advance for this OT post. I'm a happy FC5 
>> CCRMA user with another problem. My local LUG's e-mail server is down 
>> ;-( otherwise I'd ask there, and I know there is a solid body of good 
>> RH/FC Linux knowledge here.
>>
>> I'm setting up a test system on an old box with a AMD 500Mhz K6 CPU & 
>> 512m of memory. I'd like to get it to FC5 or 6 to do my testing. One of 
>> the things I'd like to try is NetJack.
>>
>> It runs FC4 fine. The installer for FC5 & 6 crashes in the package 
>> selection process on either a clean install or an upgrade install. I 
>> tried a Yum FC4 -> FC5 upgrade from the repository and Yum segfaults, 
>> but not always in the same place. Once it got all the way to building 
>> the transaction to do the upgrade and then segfaulted. Sometimes I get 
>> Python error messages. The machine passes memtest86. Yumex does similar 
>> although sometimes it gives an "illegal instruction" error. The machine 
>> has an i586 kernel. Is the FC5 RPM build of Python i586 friendly?
>>     
>
> It smells to me like something wrong in the hardware. If it had not
> passed memtest86 I'd say it is bad memory (but memtest86 in fallible as
> well). Specially suspicious is that it not always fails in the same
> place, it should be repeatable. 
>
>   
>> Interestingly when booting the FC6 Live CD it crashes on the 
>> "Uncompressing Linux" stage during the boot. No error message - it just 
>> returns to the BIOS. It does the same if I boot a hard disk with an FC6 
>> system installed via another box.  (Possibly because there is a i686 
>> kernel there). 
>>     
>
> Yes, most possibly that's the reason. 
>
>   
>> It runs Knoppix with a 2.6.14 kernel without problems.
>>
>> Is the K6 CPU really i586 class? I've switched off the CPU's internal 
>> cache as suggested in a hardware compatibility guide I read.
>>     
>
> I'm not 100% sure but I think a K6 should boot a i586 kernel. 
>
> I just install fc6 on a PIII machine with no problems (at least major). 
> -- Fernando
>
>
>
>   
Thanks for the reply Fernando, similarly I have a FC5 running on a PII 
450 without problems.

I agree its either hardware or the K6 isn't really i586

:-)

Ken

-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.