# Boot hangs @ NET: Registered protocol family 16

## quickshiftin

so, im putting together an embedded alix box.  i followed the article on the wiki, TinyGentoo;

now trying to get the box to boot yields a hang, after grub as the kernel is starting up.. take a look:

```
[    7.447973] CPU: AMD Geode(TM) Integrated Processor by AMD PCS stepping 02

[    7.468732] Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.

[    7.485030] Freeing SMP alternatives: 0k freed

[    7.559194] net_namespace: 236 bytes

[    7.571963] NET: Registered protocol family 16
```

it just sits there at that point.  i have little-to-no clue how to diagnose this problem, which is why im asking for help.

also, remember, im connected to this thing via serial port, so ive got grub and inittab on the box setup expose ttyS0 and ttyS1.

tia,

~quickshiftin`

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## Hu

If you compare the output you posted with the dmesg output from a similarly configured kernel on a working desktop or laptop, what are the next messages printed?  That will give us some clue about where the kernel must be hung, since it did not produce any further output.  We can then instrument the suspected functions with additional printk calls to narrow down the last action before the kernel hangs.

For me, the next messages printed are about ACPI.  Perhaps your alix box has broken ACPI support, and the kernel is hanging trying to process it.  You could try booting with noacpi on the kernel command line to suppress ACPI.  Doing so is generally not a good idea for long term use, but should be safe for testing.

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## quickshiftin

 *Hu wrote:*   

> If you compare the output you posted with the dmesg output from a similarly configured kernel on a working desktop or laptop, what are the next messages printed?  That will give us some clue about where the kernel must be hung, since it did not produce any further output.  We can then instrument the suspected functions with additional printk calls to narrow down the last action before the kernel hangs.
> 
> For me, the next messages printed are about ACPI.  Perhaps your alix box has broken ACPI support, and the kernel is hanging trying to process it.  You could try booting with noacpi on the kernel command line to suppress ACPI.  Doing so is generally not a good idea for long term use, but should be safe for testing.

 

i was talking w/ some folks on #gentoo-embedded today, great folks, btw  :Smile: 

anyway, they said the same thing, about ACPI.  so ive passed acpi=off to the kernel line in grub.conf.

actually, i remember them saying it might have something to do w/ the bios as well..  i was messing around w/ the bios configuration options (PC Engines tinyBIOS); and i seem to have jarred something loose!  its making it all the way to the call to init. shouldnt be long now.

~quickshiftin`

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