On Wed, 26 Jul 2023, Dan Ritter wrote:
Tim Woodall wrote:
This is not a debian problem but I'm hoping the collective wisdom might
have some ideas.
One can be soft rebooted with no issues, the other hangs in the bios.
Anyone seen anything like this and what was the issue?
Both machines are running bullseye if there are things I can check while
booted.
It is most likely either a motherboard BIOS change or a BIOS
setting that differs; it is less likely to be a BMC firmware
difference, but that's possible.
Can you diff the output of dmidecode from each system?
-dsr-
Sorry for the delay, was travelling and only just had time to try this.
That was a good idea, unfortunately, it's not given me any hints:
--- dmi.good 2023-07-29 18:15:45.685631581 +0100
+++ dmi.bad 2023-07-29 18:15:38.793189732 +0100
@@ -127,12 +127,12 @@
Type Detail: Unknown
Speed: 1333 MT/s
Manufacturer: Kingston
- Serial Number: 141A8354
+ Serial Number: 112068F9
Asset Tag: A1_AssetTagNum0
Part Number: 99U5428-018.A00LF
Rank: 2
Configured Memory Speed: 1333 MT/s
- Minimum Voltage: 31.0 V
+ Minimum Voltage: 1.048 V
Maximum Voltage: 31.908 V
Configured Voltage: Unknown
@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@
Type Detail: Unknown
Speed: 1333 MT/s
Manufacturer: Kingston
- Serial Number: 151A4D52
+ Serial Number: 142054F9
Asset Tag: A1_AssetTagNum1
Part Number: 99U5428-018.A00LF
Rank: 2
@@ -191,7 +191,7 @@
Access Method: Memory-mapped physical 32-bit address
Access Address: 0xFFB40000
Status: Valid, Not Full
- Change Token: 0x0000022B
+ Change Token: 0x000002BB
Header Format: Type 1
Supported Log Type Descriptors: 25
Descriptor 1: Single-bit ECC memory error
The Serial Number changes are for the DIMMs in the system. That voltage
difference is "odd"
All four dimms have the same part number. The DIMMs in BANK1 have
Minimum Voltage: 32.332 V, Maximum Voltage: Unknown.
I don't know how to interpret that "Change Token" - which is part of the
System Event Log but I assume it's not relevant.
I've just discovered that I can record the boot.
Ignoring the flashing cursor in the top RH corner the boot sequence goes:
System Initializing...
For approx 9 seconds.
Followed by a single frame (in the capture at least) of:
AST1300/2300 VGA True Color Graphics and Video Accelerator
VBIOS Version 0.96.00
DRAM Size: 16MB
At which point there's a mode change and then the rest of the boot
proceeds.
When it fails to boot I get the "System Initializing..." screen with the
flashing cursor but this hangs indefinitely. I recorded for 2 minutes
and literally the only frames present are related to the flashing cursor
Which makes me suspect that the issue is somehow related to initializing
the video card.
I'll report back if I get to the bottom of this. Going to check the
bios settings related to video - perhaps there's a difference there. I
run both of these systems headless.
Tim.
