Control: reassign -1 src:linux Control: severity -1 wishlist On Mon, 2014-04-07 at 13:53 +0300, Toomas Tamm wrote: > Package: linux-image-3.2.0-4-686-pae > Severity: normal > > I was installing Debian onto an old system powered by the VIA C3 > (Nehemiah) CPU. Initially I was not aware that the CPU does not > support PAE. For the record, I booted off an USB stick using grub 1.99 > with intent to start FAI (Fully Automatic Installation). > > Observed behaviour: the 686-PAE kernel reboots the system immediately > after the "Uncompressing kernel" message flashes on the screen for an > extremely brief time, giving the operator no hint about what is wrong. > > Expected behaviour: the kernel should display a clear message that the > hardware does not support PAE (and consequently the 686-pae kernel), > and give the operator sufficient time to read it (possibly halting the > machine until power is turned off). > > Wishlist item: a suggestion that a "486" series kernel is required > might be displayed as well.
Debian installer uses a 486 kernel and will select the right kernel flavour for the system. There is no good way to deal with this in the kernel. The PAE flag is not set on the original Pentium M processors but apparently may work anyway, so if the 686-pae kernel would refuse to boot without this flag it would cause a regression for other users. Ben. -- Ben Hutchings Sturgeon's Law: Ninety percent of everything is crap.
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