S.u.S.E. 5.3

[Glenn Holmer]

I'm trying to run the ancient SUSE 5.3 in a VM, but get this error on boot. I'd love to see it running again after all these years, but this is what I get:

Bad pmd in pte_alloc: 400000e7

Kernel panic: Failed to allocate buffer hash table

Anybody know what this means? Any hope of resolving it and having the VM run? I'm using KVM/QEMU.

--

Glenn Holmer (Linux registered user #16682)
"After the vintage season came the aftermath -- and Cenbe."

[Joe Baker's Remedy Report]

The error message:

Hi Glenn, here's chatGPT''s response....

Bad pmd in pte_alloc: 400000e7

Kernel panic: Failed to allocate buffer hash table

suggests that SUSE 5.3's kernel is encountering memory allocation issues, likely due to the way KVM/QEMU is handling memory management for this very old Linux distribution.

Possible Causes and Fixes:

1. Memory Allocation Issues

The kernel panic message indicates a problem with the buffer hash table, which is usually allocated at boot. This may be due to the amount of memory assigned to the VM.

Try reducing the allocated RAM: Older Linux distributions often had issues with too much RAM. Set the VM memory to 64MB or 128MB, as older Linux kernels (especially from the late 90s) often had issues with more than 512MB of RAM.

2. QEMU Machine Type

The hardware emulation mode may not be compatible with SUSE 5.3.

Try running it with an older emulated machine:

qemu-system-i386 -M pc-0.10 -m 64M -hda suse53.img

The -M pc-0.10 argument emulates an older PC model.

3. Disable Modern CPU Features

SUSE 5.3 may not recognize modern CPU instruction sets.

Try forcing an older CPU model:

qemu-system-i386 -cpu pentium -m 64M -hda suse53.img

You may also try 486 or pentium2 as alternatives.

4. BIOS vs UEFI

Make sure you’re using BIOS mode rather than UEFI.

Try booting with -bios bios.bin (a BIOS file from Bochs or SeaBIOS).

5. Kernel Boot Parameters

You might be able to bypass the buffer allocation failure by adding:

mem=64M

to the kernel boot parameters in GRUB/LILO.

6. QEMU Arguments Tweaks

If using QEMU 64-bit (qemu-system-x86_64), switch to qemu-system-i386 instead.

Disable KVM to run it in pure emulation mode:

qemu-system-i386 -m 64M -no-kvm -cpu pentium -hda suse53.img

7. Use an Older QEMU Version

Modern QEMU versions may have compatibility issues with old Linux kernels.

If none of the above work, try installing an older QEMU (e.g., version 2.x or earlier).

Summary:

Reduce RAM to 64MB or 128MB.

Use qemu-system-i386 instead of qemu-system-x86_64.

Try -cpu pentium or -cpu 486.

Force BIOS mode instead of UEFI.

Disable KVM (-no-kvm).

If you still have issues, let me know how far it gets in the boot process and if you see any other errors.

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[Glenn Holmer]

On Sat, Feb 15, 2025 at 8:08 AM Joe Baker's Remedy Report <jwb...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Glenn, here's chatGPT''s response....

Are you kidding?

 

[Joe Baker's Remedy Report]

No.  Why, do you think it strange I would try to help like this?  

Sometimes I don't understand the most obvious things.   

I hope you get that old distro running .  It would be great to see a screenshot of it.  

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Homepage: http://www.milwaukeelug.org/home
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