Hello there,

I'm trying to upgrade a debian system (kernel 2.6.8) to a more powerful motherful with faster CPU (athlon -> p4). The objective is not to reinstall all the software + data import. To be safe, I've cloned (using norton ghost) the entire hard drive to a spare one and try it from there. So far so good, but when I try to boot up the cloned hard drive on the new motherboard, GRUB fails on me (repeated messages of GRUB). As another attemp, I boot up the new motherboard with a GRUB floppy (same cloned hard drive) but it gives kernel panic.

Any kind soul has any idea how to tackle this further along besides reinstalling the whole system? I was hoping the kernel can somehow re-detect the hardware configuration while retaining the software integrity. If any of the forum reader has any idea feel free to respond.

Thanks,

Gilbert.

You may have to install a different kernel as your most likely running one for an athon - hence the kernel panics on boot.

A detail lists of errors messages would an excellent start.

again, thanks for any help you could possibly offer!

kernel BUG at arch/i386/mm/init.c:573!
invalid operand: 0000 [#1]
PREEMPT
Modules linked in:
CPU: 0
EIP: 0060:[<c033db71>] Not tainted
EFLAGS: 00010246 (2.6.8-1-686)
EIP is at mem_init+0x11/0x200
eax: 00008000 ebx: 00000000 ecx: 0000000f edx: 00008000
esi: 00000000 edi: c0357120 ebp: 003a4007 esp: c032ffa0
ds: 007b es: 007b ss: 0068
Process swapper (pid: 0, threadinfo=c032e000 task=c02b9a40)
Stack: 003a4007 c124c100 0000007b 0000007b fffff00 c0340b8c 00000060 00000287
c02950e7 00000004 00000000 0000000e 0000000 00098000 c0357120 003a4007
c033072a c028ad3d c03585c0 c0351038 000000d c0330380 c03585c0 c010019f
Call Trace:
[<c0340b8c>] inode_init_early+0x6c/0x80
[<c033072a>] start_kernel+0x11a/0x1f0
[<c0330380>] unknown_bootoption+0x0/0x160
Code: 0f 0b 3d 02 a6 1b 29 c0 e8 82 94 ff ff 89 44 24 24 31 db e8
<0>Kernel panic: Attempted to kill the idle task!
In Idle task - not syncing

Your running an athlon optimized kernel on a P4 - it's going to fail!, install a p4 or i386 kernel and it should work

Please take this as an inquiry and not as an attempt to argue, but how are you coming to that conclusion based on the information he provided?

Is this error the one that happens when using the boot floppy or from booting from the hard drive? If I had a choice I'd like to see the errors from the hard drive boot attempts.

Even before that, I'd just double check that you have your master and slave jumpers correct.

Thanks.

ghight - no problems, I came to that conclusion based on the first few lines of the error messages he posted, the kernel can't detect a cpu, plus the kernel bug - first line... plus the fact that the box has gotten past the boot loader - its found the kernel and is attempting to boot it. Unfortunately ravebird hasn't given much info which doesn't help.

ravebird - can you please post the result of:

dpkg --get-selections | grep kernel

I'll agree that there is probably a hardware compatibility issue. I'm going to need more info to say for sure if its the CPU change that is causing the problem. Either way ravebird, I think you will have to look into your new hardware a little more and see if anybody else is running the same motherboard and having the same problem.

If you still have access to the old hardware, I'd drop your cloned drive in and see if it works. If so, you may want to install a second kernel that can handle the new hardware too.

Hey guys, thnanks so much for the replies - was busy at work and just spent Saturday figuring out the problem. It's simpler than we thought: the new system only has 256Mb while the old motherboard has 512Mb ! I put an extra 128Mb to the new system (note the total still wasn't 512) and the new system can boot all the way up to the KDE (no more errors nor panic). But I had to reinstall GRUB though. In summary this is what I did after the hard drive cloning:

1) upgrade the memory of the new motherboard to a total of 384Mb
2) use a bootable Debian Linux CD and reinstall GRUB (e.g. /usr/sbin/grub-install /dev/hda0)

Thanks again for the inputs!

Glad you figured it out. I'd say cloning the drive probably cause your Grub issue