I'm hoping someone can clarify what's going on here. I've installed RHEL 3 with the aforementioned kernel on a 64-bit dual core Xeon box. Booting the SMP kernel results in a panic with the "no em64t cpu support in this kernel" message. However, booting the uniprocessor kernel not only runs fine, but shows two processors running in both top and /proc/cpuinfo.

Though uname -r shows kernel 2.4.21-37EL running, uname -a shows 2.4.21-37EL #1 SMP. It seems like the regular kernel is running both cores just fine even though everything I've read suggests that one must run an SMP kernel to get them both running. I've even checked the grub config to make sure the images weren't reversed. ;-) Can anyone help explain this apparent discrepancy? What am I missing?

Thanks all,
-D.

You are running an smp kernel, you just said so: "uname -a shows 2.4.21-37EL #1 SMP".

Well, I can accept that answer, but for the other evidence. Namely, the install placed the usual 2 kernels in the grub config, one explicitly labeled SMP, and one (the one I can boot) not. Also, uname -r doesn't report SMP. Not trying to be cheeky, just trying to get clear on this.

Thanks,
-D.

Then remove the kernel which is not right for your system very carefully;

rpm -qa | grep kernel

Then carefully remove the one you do not want;

rpm -e kernel<the rest from the output from the command used above here>

Also read the manpage for uname: man uname

A little exercise for you;

uname -s
uname -sr
unamr -srv

What does /proc/cpuinfo have to say ??? (presuming it exists in 2.4; haven't used it in gawd knows how long.)

Thanks Lenard, I follow what you're saying. For now, I've just set the grub default to pick the apparent uniprocessor kernel. I'm just trying to figure out why there would be effectively two SMP kernels with only one labeled up-front as such, typically these installs provide both an SMP and a uniprocessor option, do they not? Or are the image names perhaps just switched? That seems a bit wacky for a commercial package.

syg00, yeah it still exists back there.

processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 15
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU 5160 @ 3.00GHz
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 0
cpu cores : 2
runqueue : 0
stepping : 6
cpu MHz : 2992.498
cache size : 0 KB
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 10
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm ferr syscall lm sse3 monitor ds-cpl gv3 tm2
bogomips : 5976.88
clflush size : 64
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor : 1
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 15
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU 5160 @ 3.00GHz
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 1
cpu cores : 2
runqueue : 1
stepping : 6
cpu MHz : 2992.498
cache size : 0 KB
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 10
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm ferr syscall lm sse3 monitor ds-cpl gv3 tm2
bogomips : 5976.88
clflush size : 64
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

Well with RHEL5 Red Hat quit making non-smp kernels as all kernels are now smp. maybe this is now true for other versions of RHEL now also. The /proc/cpuinfo is showing that you are running an smp kernel. Maybe the grub entries are wrong, but only you have seen them. Any way since the default is set to boot to the good working kernel then you good to go.

As a suggestion you might want to remove the entry(ies) in grub.conf for the bad kernel(s), this way somebody cannot mistakenly select the wrong one.

Good idea, I probably will edit that out. Sorry though, I wasn't trying to be enigmatic. ;-) The grub.conf in question:

----------------------------------------------
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda6
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=1
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (2.4.21-37.ELsmp)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-37.ELsmp ro root=LABEL=/ hda=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-37.ELsmp.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES-up (2.4.21-37.EL)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-37.EL ro root=LABEL=/ hda=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.21-37.EL.img
------------------------------------------------

I just assumed from the names that ELsmp and EL referred to an SMP and non-SMP kernel, respectively.

Thanks all,
-D.