Syslinux - Jan 2005 - More on Problems with PXELinux and ramdisk not loading

Had to changed the Subject header because the mailing list software thought the
previous one ("so old bootloader" ...) was suspicious.

Just a backgrounder and a little more info I've gathered:

Trying to install Fedora Core 3 via PXE using DHCP-TFTP. Kernel loads but initrd
isn't used for rootfs.

The machine's an AMD Athlon 64-based box with 512MB physical memory (one DDR
DIMM), NVidia NFORCE4 4X-based mobo), built-in ethernet.

At the top of dmesg is the following:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
so old bootloader that it doesn't support commandline?!
Linux version 2.6.7-1.667 (bhcompile at dolly.build.redhat.com) (gcc version
3.4.2 20041017 (Red Hat 3.4.2-6.fc3)) #1 Tue Nov  2 14:50:10 EST 2004
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
 BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f800 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 000000000009f800 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000000f0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000001fff0000 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 000000001fff0000 - 000000001fff3000 (ACPI NVS)
 BIOS-e820: 000000001fff3000 - 0000000020000000 (ACPI data)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000c0000000 - 00000000d0000000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 00000000fec01000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000ffff0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
No mptable found.
initrd extends beyond end of memory (0xfffffdfb > 0x1fff0000)
disabling initrd
...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

As I mentioned the machine has 512MB (0x20000000 bytes) physical RAM. It seems
the BIOS is reporting some "reserved" chunks of "memory"
(dunno if it's really physically there) that can't be used and something
(the kernel or bootloader) keeps trying to put it at the top of physical memory
space.

Any insights on what I should do?
--

Richard Plana

> Any insights on what I should do?
Can you send us the pxelinux.cfg you use?

Regards,
Luciano Rocha

-- 
Consciousness: that annoying time between naps.

I use a simple pxelinux.cfg. I try several variations but they all come up with
the same result so I'll send the simplest:

pxelinux.cfg:
default linux
prompt 1
display pxeboot.msg
timeout 300
label linux
  kernel vmlinuz
  append initrd=initrd.img ramdisk_size=9216

I've tried it without ramdisk_size= and get the same results.
>From the logs I was looking at, it seems whatever is assigning the address
for initrd is searching for free memory from the top of the BIOS-stated memory
space but doesn't take into account it's usage. It COULD be a BIOS thing
(the BIOS shouldn't be reporting the higher addresses?) or the subsystem
responsible for picking the address for initrd to use isn't honoring the
"reserved" status of that memory block.
Honestly, these are all just guesses as I'm no hacker.

-----Original Message-----
From:	syslinux-bounces at zytor.com on behalf of Luciano Miguel Ferreira Rocha
Sent:	Sun 1/9/2005 3:05 PM
To:	syslinux at zytor.com
Cc:	
Subject:	Re: [syslinux] More on Problems with PXELinux and ramdisk not
loading
> Any insights on what I should do?
Can you send us the pxelinux.cfg you use?

Regards,
Luciano Rocha

-- 
Consciousness: that annoying time between naps.

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Richard Plana wrote:
> so old bootloader that it doesn't support commandline?!
> Linux version 2.6.7-1.667 (bhcompile at dolly.build.redhat.com) (gcc 
> version 3.4.2 20041017 (Red Hat 3.4.2-6.fc3)) #1 Tue Nov  2 14:50:10 EST 
> 2004
> BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
>  BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f800 (usable)
>  BIOS-e820: 000000000009f800 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
>  BIOS-e820: 00000000000f0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
>  BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000001fff0000 (usable)
>  BIOS-e820: 000000001fff0000 - 000000001fff3000 (ACPI NVS)
>  BIOS-e820: 000000001fff3000 - 0000000020000000 (ACPI data)
>  BIOS-e820: 00000000c0000000 - 00000000d0000000 (reserved)
>  BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 00000000fec01000 (reserved)
>  BIOS-e820: 00000000ffff0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
> No mptable found.
> initrd extends beyond end of memory (0xfffffdfb > 0x1fff0000)
> disabling initrd
> ...
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> As I mentioned the machine has 512MB (0x20000000 bytes) physical RAM. It 
> seems the BIOS is reporting some "reserved" chunks of
"memory" (dunno if
> it's really physically there) that can't be used and something (the
> kernel or bootloader) keeps trying to put it at the top of physical 
> memory space.
> 
> Any insights on what I should do?
Okay, this means it's my fault.  Bother; I have fixed it in 2.06-pre1. 
You may be able to work around the problem by specifying mem=0x1fff0000, 
or just get 2.06-pre1.

	-hpa

2.06-pre1 works well on my system. initrd now loads.

Thanks!


-----Original Message-----
From:	H. Peter Anvin [mailto:hpa at zytor.com]
Sent:	Sun 1/9/2005 11:20 PM
To:	Richard Plana
Cc:	SYSLINUX at zytor.com
Subject:	Re: More on Problems with PXELinux and ramdisk not loading
Richard Plana wrote:
> so old bootloader that it doesn't support commandline?!
> Linux version 2.6.7-1.667 (bhcompile at dolly.build.redhat.com) (gcc 
> version 3.4.2 20041017 (Red Hat 3.4.2-6.fc3)) #1 Tue Nov  2 14:50:10 EST 
> 2004
> BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
>  BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f800 (usable)
>  BIOS-e820: 000000000009f800 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
>  BIOS-e820: 00000000000f0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
>  BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000001fff0000 (usable)
>  BIOS-e820: 000000001fff0000 - 000000001fff3000 (ACPI NVS)
>  BIOS-e820: 000000001fff3000 - 0000000020000000 (ACPI data)
>  BIOS-e820: 00000000c0000000 - 00000000d0000000 (reserved)
>  BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 00000000fec01000 (reserved)
>  BIOS-e820: 00000000ffff0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
> No mptable found.
> initrd extends beyond end of memory (0xfffffdfb > 0x1fff0000)
> disabling initrd
> ...
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> As I mentioned the machine has 512MB (0x20000000 bytes) physical RAM. It 
> seems the BIOS is reporting some "reserved" chunks of
"memory" (dunno if
> it's really physically there) that can't be used and something (the
> kernel or bootloader) keeps trying to put it at the top of physical 
> memory space.
> 
> Any insights on what I should do?
Okay, this means it's my fault.  Bother; I have fixed it in 2.06-pre1. 
You may be able to work around the problem by specifying mem=0x1fff0000, 
or just get 2.06-pre1.

	-hpa