# Boot hangs at switching to clocksource

## sumnersaf

Hello all. I have been using Ubuntu for about a year now and I want to give Gentoo a try. I am having trouble getting the system to boot. Boot hangs at switching to clocksource. I have already been threw the forums and have already double checked that CONFIG_DEVTMPFS{,_MOUNT} is enabled. I am not sure where to go form here.

----------

## aCOSwt

1/ You can try booting with the notsc kernel commandline option.

2/ The real problem could well be, not with the tsc, but with the next operation off the boot process.

Most probably some driver's initialization.

=> Ensure that the kernel can find all the firmwares the modules might need. (Especially the graphic modules)

--Moved from Installing Gentoo to Kernel & Hardware.--

----------

## Hu

As aCOSwt hinted, the next stage for most people after this message is to initialize certain drivers that require firmware.  It is very common for people to file invalid reports that they have a tsc problem when the real problem is that they failed to provide adequate firmware.  Please wait 60 seconds for the firmware search to timeout.  After boot finishes, inspect dmesg to find which firmware files you are missing.

----------

## TomWij

Might be hanging somewhere else, you can boot with extra kernel parameters to figure that out: verbose debug ignore_loglevel

----------

## haarp

 *Hu wrote:*   

> As aCOSwt hinted, the next stage for most people after this message is to initialize certain drivers that require firmware.  It is very common for people to file invalid reports that they have a tsc problem when the real problem is that they failed to provide adequate firmware.

 

Wouldn't adding another line of log to the kernel initialization be a very good idea then? Something like "Initializing drivers with firmware...". That would prevent a lot of confusion and misreported bugs while helping with debugging. Should be a relatively simple patch, too.

----------

## Hu

The first line printed after the stall tells you what firmware was missing.  It is difficult to take back a message after printing it, so printing a notice that the kernel is about to probe for firmware, then another one when it succeeds, would double the firmware related output.

----------

