On Mon, 12 Jul 2004 22:49:31 +0100
Barry Dunn [off-list ref] wrote:
I'm trying to boot from a usb flash memory stick on my laptop (so I
can encrypt the whole drive), it works fine in all the usb ports with
acpi=off in the boot parameters, but with acpi enabled it usually
hangs at the line "ACPI: Subsystem revision 20040326". I say usually
because that's the case in 4 of the 5 usb ports, but curiously it
tends to stutter on a bit further in the remaining port, and twice
(out of dozens of attempts with different parameters etc) it has
successfully booted from that port with acpi enabled. It's random
however, and I couldn't reproduce either success.
With acpi debug enabled, in the 'good' port it hangs either at
"Executing all Device _STA and_INI methods:" or "Completing
Region/Field/Buffer/Package initialization:", in the other ports it
hangs at "ACPI Namespace successfully loaded at root c0495a3c".
The second time it worked, I'd noticed a small pause not normally
there (less than 5 seconds) after the line "Uncompressing Linux... Ok,
booting the kernel", which makes me suspect the speed of the flash
drive (from which an initrd is loaded) is the problem, and that
perhaps that early delay was what enabled it to boot. Doubly so
because booting from a (obviously faster) usb hard drive enclosure
works fine with acpi in all usb ports.
<snip>
Seems obvious now I suppose, but I can confirm the speed of the boot
media was causing the hang with acpi enabled. The usb stick I was using
is a PQI Traveling Disk, and I recently got a newer one of the same
model. On checking with hdparm -t it turns out the new one is a bit
faster, averaging 7.6 mb/sec while the one I was using averages 4.8
mb/sec. Well, that bit extra makes all the difference, the faster one
boots no problem with acpi enabled, every time, while the slower one
almost always hangs on acpi, regardless of options like nolapic noapic
pci=noacpi acpi=noirq etc (but boots ok with acpi off). In all cases a
4mb initrd is being used, I guess getting that loaded fast enough is
where the problem lies?
Anyway, if anyone's having a similar problem, just buy a new stick
with "Plus" wrote on it.. well, worked for me. :)
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