Boot process hangs with kernel oops and BUG() in apic.c:221

Support knowledgebase (disableapic)
Applies to

SuSE Linux: Version 7.2
This article refers to an older version of SuSE Linux. Therefore some of the informations given in this article may be outdated or the article may contain stale links.

Kernel: Version 2.4.4

Symptom:

The 2.4.4 kernel (the kernel that is booted from the first CD of SuSE Linux 7.2) crashes upon startup with the message
BUG() in apic.c:221

Cause:

Our 2.4.4 kernel is compiled with IO/APIC support also for uniprocessor machines, because some machines need this. However, if your uniprocessor BIOS provides a Multiprocessor table, but your CPU does not have a local APIC, the kernel will fail upon trying to initialize it and result in the above BUG(). This is known to happen on a Tyan board (add details) with a AMD-K6 processor.

Solution:

Boot the kernel with the option disableapic. You can do this by typing
linux disableapic
at the boot prompt, i.e. when boot: appears.

Note: This option has been added to our kernel and should not be confused with the standard kernel option noapic, which won't help in such cases.


Keywords: KERNEL, OOPS, BOOT, BUG, APIC, MICRONICS

SDB-disableapic, Copyright SuSE Linux AG, Nürnberg, Germany - Version: 28. Mai 2001
SuSE Linux AG - Last generated: 19. Jul 2001 by snbarth (sdb_gen 1.40.0)