[Bug 930447] Re: Unable to start Ubuntu 12.04 live CD with syslinux loader on Pentium M x86 Laptop due to bug in PAE kernel, initramfs or syslinux

[sudodus]

Now, that we have launched Raring, it's time to start thinking about the
future of the Ubuntu family.

One thing that I hope we can achieve, is to make the next version able
to cooperate with Pentium M, that has no pae flag, but still the ability
to run i686-pae kernels of *ubuntu.

I have verified that it works for me in an IBM Thinkpad T42 to use the
fake-pae method for Pentium M CPUs by 7bit according to this link

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2113826

This is good, but it would be great if this feature could be included in
*ubuntu, so that people can install a new version directly, and avoid
installing 12.04, add the fake-pae and upgrade to newer versions.

I'm prepared to use my Thinkpad for testing, but I don't know enough to
find and change the code.

Maybe I can even try to compile the crucial package(s), if someone can
hold my hands until I get the tools installed to do it (compilers,
makefiles, source code packages etc.)

The fake-pae fix in the ubuntuforums thread is not for everyone,
but I think it would be fairly easy to enter some logic to make a
difference between the Pentium M CPUs, that support pae, and the other
non-pae CPUs. I can make such logic statements, but I need help to find
where to put them.

By the way, I think most if not all of the computers without pae, that are useful for
anything but 'retro playing', are laptops with Pentium M. And, I think
the objective of this task is not to stuff those old computers with more than 2
GB of RAM to exploit the pae feature, but to be able to run a new
*ubuntu version at all with the memory available, often around 1 GB.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/930447

Title:
  Unable to start Ubuntu 12.04 live CD with syslinux loader on Pentium M
  x86 Laptop due to bug in PAE kernel, initramfs or syslinux

Status in “linux” package in Ubuntu:
  Won't Fix
Status in “syslinux” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in Baltix GNU/Linux:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  Ubuntu 12.04 doesn't start from Desktop CD or USB with syslinux boot
  loader on Pentium M 1.6Ghz or faster Pentium M CPU - displays error
  message about missing PAE feature in CPU, but *the same* *Ubuntu
  12.04* Desktop CD/LiveUSB starts fine on *the same CPU* (and same PAE
  kernel) if GRUB boot loader is used, for example when WUBI or LiveUSB
  with GRUB boot loader, like Multisystem
  (http://liveusb.info/dotclear/index.php?pages/install ) is used!

  The error message is:
  "This kernel requires the following features not present on the CPU: pae.
  Unable to boot - please use a kernel appropriate for you CPU."

  THIS IS AN IMPORTANT REGRESSION! People are able to install and successfully use Ubuntu 12.04 on such pretty new hardware, like IBM Thinkpad T42 laptop with Pentium M 1700Mhz processor, but the bug in syslinux (or something related) forbids Ubuntu 12.04 installation.
  This bug is reproducible on lots of computers, there are several log files and /proc/cpuinfo file attached to this bugreport, AFAIK it's enough to reopen this bug.

  ---
  ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu4
  Architecture: i386
  CurrentDmesg: Error: command ['sh', '-c', 'dmesg | comm -13 --nocheck-order /var/log/dmesg -'] failed with exit code 1: comm: /var/log/dmesg: Permission denied
  MachineType: IBM 2373PPU
  dmi.bios.date: 06/18/2007
  dmi.bios.vendor: IBM
  dmi.bios.version: 1RETDRWW (3.23 )
  dmi.board.name: 2373PPU
  dmi.board.vendor: IBM
  dmi.board.version: Not Available
  dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
  dmi.chassis.type: 10
  dmi.chassis.vendor: IBM
  dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
  dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1RETDRWW(3.23):bd06/18/2007:svnIBM:pn2373PPU:pvrThinkPadT42:rvnIBM:rn2373PPU:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
  dmi.product.name: 2373PPU
  dmi.product.version: ThinkPad T42
  dmi.sys.vendor: IBM

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