Just got confirmation from HP regarding X2APIC and PROLIANT SERVERS using Ubuntu Linux:
Before GEN8.. all Proliant Servers did NOT support X2APIC. They had firmware saying OS to NOT use X2APIC (and OS started supporting this by commit: 41750d3, already included in kernel 3.2). The thing is.. for these servers, opting out from X2APIC made them to use XAPIC IRQ remapping (not supported). ----- So, for Proliant Servers BEFORE GEN8 the recommended cmdline is this: "nox2apic intermap=off" Obs: nox2apic might not be needed since firmware is saying for Linux to optout from using x2apic. Anyway I prefer to recommend this flag to make sure kernels before 3.2 still work (not the case here). ----- AFTER GEN8 (inclusive), the firmware STILL says that X2APIC must not be used, but they ARE indeed supported by GEN8 (DL360, DL380). So proper cmdlines are: "intremap=no_x2apic_optout" # let X2APIC enabled with IRQ remapping OR "nox2apic intermap=off" # disable X2APIC AND IRQ remapping X2APIC for these machines ONLY differs from XAPIC in question of IRQ remapping (easier to implement). The other difference, where x2apic is capable of addressing more CPUs, is not needed cause # of CPUs is low enough. This points out to my last finding, regarding: *** cdcd629869fabcd38ebd24a03b0a05ec1cbcafb0 x86: Fix and improve cmpxchg_double{,_local}() |__> !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! fix several problems related to cmpxchg and 64bits !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! cmpxchg is where instruction pointer is at (looks like) on the analyzed dump. Problem here is that kernel version from the core was erased from ddebs.ubuntu and I'm using the "next" ddeb version. So I'm saying this is the "most likely" to be happening since I can't objdump binary used by analyzed system. Things to be done: 1) Provide hotfix with this fix: cdcd629869f 2) Wait for intel_idle problem observation (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1318551) 3) Recommend users either: "intremap=no_x2apic_optout" OR "nox2apic intermap=off" TOGETHER with "intel_idle.max_cstate=0" until we fix intel_idle. Thank you Rafael Tinoco -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Kernel Packages, which is subscribed to linux in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1398497 Title: HP Proliant Serverrs - DL360 and DL380 Gen8 - Precise Kernel Panic - General Protection Fault Status in linux package in Ubuntu: In Progress Status in linux source package in Precise: In Progress Bug description: It was brought to my attention the following situation: """ We massively upgraded our Ubuntu 12.04 servers (most of them are HP DL360p Gen8 or DL380 Gen8) to 3.2.0-67 kernel And in the last 2-3 days we already had to reboot 5 of them because they completely hang Some of them had the following messages under syslog : kernel: [384707.675479] general protection fault: 0000 [#5666] SMP others had : kernel: [950725.612724] BUG: unable to handle kernel paging request All of them have this also : your BIOS is broken and requested that x2apic be disabled """ Comments bellow To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1398497/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages Post to : kernel-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp