Ubuntu

The kernel requires the following features not present on the CPU 0:6

Asked by Usability_seeker

Hi everybody,
I got this error message after successful Ubontu server v8.04:

The complete Message is: The kernel requires the following features not present on the CPU
0:6
Unable to boot - please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU

 This problem was reported before here and I found a nice man who suffered from frustration for many many hours and he explained the cause of this bug. His explanation is the following lines:

URL: https://lists.linux-foundation.org/pipermail/bugme-new/2008-February/017728.html

[[ The recipient of such a message needs to grep the source tree to figure out
that it's coming from arch/x86/boot/cpu.c, grok the source, trace the cryptic
numbers back to include/asm-x86/cpufeature_32.h, and read the comments to
figure out that 0:6 means PAE. Instead of cryptic numbers, the error message
should include a short description of the missing feature, something that helps
to determine which of the kernel configuration options caused the problem.]]

I may add that PEA stands for (Physical Address Extension) see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension.

If it was very complex to include some hardware test in the CD,is it also so difficult to put some text on http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download that informs the people about this requirement?

We know that there are many people how are working hard to make Linux survive. We are willing to help if you let us do so. Usability is the key problem in Linux and if it will not be solved very soon, this OS will be a history.

Regards

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A. Denton
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Best A. Denton (aquina) said : 		#1

Hello Usability_seeker,

(nice name btw.) I think you actually mess some things up. Don't let us start a debate on principles now, but I ask you to realize that most of us do all this in their spare time. GNU/Linux evolved because of a lack of real alternatives in the OS "market" and thus as a project normally doesn't want or just cannot compete in all aspects with commercial operating systems as for e.g. Microsoft Windows. However even Windows has it's cryptic error messages because it's either often too exhaustive for code writers to "understandably" document each possibly ocurring error message or just the fact that they never expect that you really gonna see it.

The reason for the error you received is simply that you tried to install PRECOMPILLED software. The architects (namely the Ubuntu development team) who chose that Kernel and all parts of software around it had to find a common denominator when bundling all this to a modern operating system distribution. If you had used maybe LFS, Gento or some other system which has to be assembled first and then compilled things hadn't get that worse.

Please note, that it' not the Ubuntu guys fault that you were not able to understand that errormessage you got. Blame the kernel developers or someone else for it. ;-) By the way PAE is an older technology from the 90's and I feel like you should upgrade your hardware with a new mainboard, CPU and RAM.

Revision history for this message
Usability_seeker (thabet) said : 		#2

Hi Aquina,
Thanks for taking the time to replay. One of the aims of this post was the hope that Google will hit this post more frequently which may save the time and effort of people facing the same problem and it wasn’t to blame anybody. In the time of posting I was in a very tired and in a very bad mood after many hours on the Internet which prevented me from formulating it in a better way. I am sorry for that.

I have witnessed IT departments wiping out Linux OS from there machines from many education institutes and public sectors here in Denmark. I think it is something worth to stand on and ask why? In my opinion the common reason in my humble investigation among my friends and colleagues was Usability; (e.g. ease of learning, ease of remembering and task support, etc).

These people are mainly students and employees in collages, universities and hospitals.
I like Linux and its principle of “Freedom of choice” I am looking forward to see it back.

I believe that Linux made by very clever people and many hard core programmers still using it. But how many are they? Do they present the whole society? Personally I do know what kernel means and why precompiled software does not work on a Pc while it might work if it is compiled on the same machine. Honestly and I do not have time to know. I am an ordinary user who likes a product and want to use it and would like to contribute to make it more interesting, pleasant and friendly to use.

Please if I was posting in the wrong place I will be very grateful if you direct me to a site that is concerned only/mainly in usability.

Best Regard

Revision history for this message
A. Denton (aquina) said : 		#3

:-)

I fear such a section does not exist neither on Launchpad nor on other web portals out there -- at least not in a way you'd expect it. Usability is a problem regarding software of our time. I'm currently studying applied computer sciences here in Germany and also had to attend to some GUI and design lectures. The bottom line is that there is truely a consensus on basic design principles for modern GUIs and GUI centric applications. The problem though is that there are various aspects of usability and - even worse - that different users have different ideas of what's uasble and waht's not. Iamge to give a system admin or a kernel hacker a point-to-click software for everything and oridinary users ONLY a shell and a 1000 p. manual. When I need to modify system files I use nano because it's more usable to me. I'd never ever use something like notepad or even OpenOpffice Writer (in plain textmode of course!) to achieve the same - though it would be possible.

The problem is that over the last decades more and more people got some basic understanding about computers the same way our fathers had maybe some knowledge on cars and engines... Installing an operating system is a complex process on it's own. People with basic understanding cannot complain about it being to difficult - they normally shouldn't do that. If they need to do so though they have to spend much time to get enough knowledge. Because you wnted to run a server you're also expected to have enough knowledge to help yourself in some situation. Remember: Every cloud has a silver lining. You have learned something about CPU and kernel architecture. ;-)

PS: I was using MS Windows derivates for 15 years and have to tell you it's totaly crap. Having bugs and fixing them in GNU/Linux is totally different. Flaws have a different quality too.

Revision history for this message
michail (mpaigni) said : 		#4

hi everyone

enjoyed the conversation you had

I just bumped on the same message during a VM creation
(FOG clone server - uses FEDORA or UBUNTU http://www.fogproject.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=36)

I simply turned on the feature "Enable PAE/NX" in VirtualBox 2.1.0
and the problem disappeared

-------------------------------------------
as for the open source debate, my opinion is that it is very silly in times of financial hardship to stuck with solutions costing thousand of euros when
there are OPEN SOURCe solutions costing 0 or less than 100euros!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
there is Openoffice (ok the sbase is still buggy but tell me how many ordinary users use MS Access or advanced math in excel....
some of them still ask the IT department how to forward an email.....outsss)

there is "the Dude" "Spiceworks" Hylafax Elastix OpenERP Jumla with all the free modules etc etc... so many fully operational projects
why not invest our time and money in people with know-how and skills instead of investing in licences and the bank accounts of a few billionaires?????????

dinosaurs will always extinct after major changes
in 100 years who is going to remember GM, ENRON, FORD....

regards
michail