UDEV hangs on boot

[Frank DiPrete]

Is this an x86_64 or an i686?
Check your kernel config in /boot

My centOS 5.4 i686 machine running kernel 2.6.18-164.9.1.el5 has the 
following:

CONFIG_HIGHMEM4G=y
# CONFIG_HIGHMEM64G is not set




Jerry Feldman wrote:
> I'm trying to get one of our servers to boot with 64GB. The kernel
> boots, but "starting UDEV" hangs.
> This is an Intel whitebox with a Supermicro X7DB8+ MB currently flashed
> at BIOS 2.1a. The memories are 16 4GB DIMMS (Kingston) that have been
> certified by Supermicro. This occurs on both RHEL 5.2 and RHEL 5.3. I've
> got 3 other nearly identical servers running successfully. I've changed
> the PCI hole from 256MB to 1GB to 2GB.. This is a pulldown in the BIOS
> and I only have these choices (actually 512 also).
> 
> I've been doing more checking. Note that in RHEL you can turn on udev
> debugging as a kernel argument (udevdebug).
> I've determined that the culprit is udevsettle that resides in
> /sbin/start_udev. This is a hard hang, and setting a timeout value does
> nothing (eg. udevtimeout=180). With udevdebug set I have a number of
> messages showing that some of the udev tasks have completed, but I have
> not been able to track them to a device. The only way to access the
> script is to boot into the rescue. I've also determined that removing
> the additional 2 SATA drives makes no difference. I've disabled both the
> serial, parallel and floppy ports in the BIOS. I've also set the noapic
> and acpi=off kernel flags. Additionally, I've modified the
> /sbin/start_udev script replacing udevsettle with /bin/sleep, which also
> hangs.
> Setting the udevdebug flag causes a lot of messages to scroll by on the
> screen, but I don't see anything that would be a red flag. Additionally,
> I've set modprobedebug. This shows that there are several modules that
> have FATAL failures because of no file found.
> If I comment out /sbin/start_udev in rc.sysinit, I do get a somewhat
> working system, with no graphics (which is ok).
> 
> Some history, is that we were fiddling around and placed 1 1GB DIMM in
> each bank and we were able to boot.
> Additionally, we boot into the rescue with no problems.
> 
> One thing I am going to try on Monday is possibly trying to run a live
> CD (possibly Fedora), but in the long run I need to run either RHEL 5.2
> (preferred) or RHEL 5.3.
> 
> Just one more tidbit. I had another system that was using 16 1GB DIMMS,
> when I upgraded that, it had the same problem, but after I rebooted it,
> I was unable to get it back up, and when I did it would not recognize
> the 4GB DIMMS, but since I had another dead system (power supply and
> power switch), we moved the memories to that system.
> 
> Additionally, I di occasionally receive a checksum error on the BIOS
> (both machines), but not on every boot.
> 
> 
> 
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