[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

[Chris Bainbridge]

> That said, they deliberatly broke the Pentium-M by checking for the
PAE flag.

And this breaks upgrades, hopefully this will be fixed so upgrades get
blocked before systems get broken, see bug #1160346 ("do-release-upgrade
from Ubuntu 12.04 on Pentium-M fails, breaks system without any
warning")

> P.S. I didn't mean to sound to offensive, but no developer has responded with a
> very valid technical response. The only answers we have gotten 'its no longer
> supported, cus I said so'.

The technical discussion was at
http://ubuntu.5.x6.nabble.com/Dropping-i386-non-PAE-as-a-supported-
kernel-flavour-in-Precise-Pangolin-td731288i20.html  - the conclusion /
ultimate reason for dropping was:

"Dropping this flavour saves 5 minutes per build on a 4-way 80 thread 
server, which for some of the team can add up to quite a bit of time 
over the course of a day. Its one less variant that needs to be tested 
in Q/A, and its one less flavour we have to mess with in our meta and 
LBM packages. "

Also noted in same discussions on lubuntu list was that Ubuntu only
targets a 3 year hardware support window, so any hardware older than 3
years can be dropped. Ubuntu is not a distribution for old hardware.

Whether it was a good decision or not is a moot point now, it is done,
and for a Pentium-M user it is easier to choose a distribution that
still supports that CPU rather than try to install a distribution that
does not.

> So if this truely is about support, then stop supporting the 32 bit
architecture.

I am sure it is being considered for the same reasons, Apple already
dropped 32-bit, and Windows 8 will be the last 32-bit release.

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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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