Call for testing: 32-bit AMD CPU owners

[Adam Williamson]

On Wed, 2015-09-16 at 16:30 -0400, Felix Miata wrote:
> Adam Williamson composed on 2015-09-16 12:08 (UTC-0700):
> 
> > We've found an issue in Fedora 23 Beta testing which seems to
> > affect
> > AMD CPUs when booting the 32-bit images:
> 
> > https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1263762
> 
> > unfortunately, so far all those who've tested have only had 64-bit
> > CPUs. So we know there's a problem booting the 32-bit images on
> > some
> > 64-bit AMD CPUs, but we don't know yet if there's a problem booting
> > the 32-bit images on 32-bit AMD CPUs, which is obviously the main
> > reason we still keep the 32-bit images around (people with 64-bit
> > CPUs
> > can just use the 64-bit images).
> 
> > If anyone reading this has an old 32-bit AMD system - the last
> > range
> > of 32-bit AMD CPUs was the Athlon XPs from early 2003, anything
> > 'Athlon 64' or later is 64-bit - and it's not too much trouble,
> > could
> > you please grab a 23 Beta RC1 32-bit image and try booting it?
> > Here's
> > how you can do it, assuming you want to write to a USB stick
> > '/dev/sdc' (adjust for your USB stick's device node):
> 
> > wget https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/stage/23_Alpha_RC1/Server
> > /x86
> > _64/iso/Fedora-Server-netinst-x86_64-23_Alpha.iso
> > su
> > dd if=Fedora-Server-netinst-x86_64-23_Alpha.iso of=/dev/sdc
> 
> > then plug the USB stick into the test system and try booting it. If
> > you reach the installer, the test passed, no need to do anything
> > else.
> > If you hit a kernel panic (perhaps after a wait of a couple of
> > minutes) which looks something like
> > https://bugzilla.redhat.com/attachment.cgi?id=1074083 , the test
> > failed, please let us know that it failed, and tell us exactly what
> > CPU model you have. Thanks!
> 
> Is it necessary to use the image, or would my normal routine of
> loading the
> installation initrd, kernel and squashfs.img via Grub be sufficient
> for this
> need?

Can't say for sure, but it can't hurt to test it! Give it a shot.

> [why]I don't try to keep OM drives working, rarely having any use
> for them.
> One is installed where the OM drive tray cannot be physically opened
> enough
> to get a disc in or out. These old machines typically have slow USB,
> if boot
> from USB is even a support option. USB boot assumes I even have a
> USB stick
> to burn an image to. I have few. Their tiny size makes them a
> serious PITA to
> library, no room to write on them what's on the media.[/why]

Fair enough.
-- 
Adam Williamson
Fedora QA Community Monkey
IRC: adamw | Twitter: AdamW_Fedora | XMPP: adamw AT happyassassin . net
http://www.happyassassin.net