I am using RHEL5.3 on vmware version 1.06 build-91891. I compiled the kernel "linux-2.6.30.33" from source. During installation, I was getting an error message "No module dm-mem-cache found..." which was resolved. [see http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-16528]. Now, when I boot using this kernel I receive a message "MP-BIOS bug: 8254 timer not connected to IO-APIC"
Created attachment 22585 [details] screen shot showing error.
if i adding noapic after quiet, in grub, before booting. This error message is not displayed. If this is the solution to this problem. I would like to know the reason behind this problem.
It's not a bug in the kernel, but a bug in your BIOS. I had a motherboard with that error, and I didn't have problems, it seems that the kernel workarounds it.
My rhel also works fine, irrespective of this message. As I said earlier adding noapic removes this message. But I want to know if this is a kernel bug.
(In reply to comment #3) > It's not a bug in the kernel, but a bug in your BIOS. I had a motherboard > with > that error, and I didn't have problems, it seems that the kernel workarounds > it. My rhel also works fine, irrespective of this message. As I said earlier adding noapic removes this message. But I want to know if this is a kernel bug.
Agree with what Diego said in comment #3. On most boxes the 8254 timer can be routed to I/O APIC directly. But it seems that the 8254 timer is not routed to I/O APIC directly. Instead it is routed to I/O APIC through i8259. So I agree with what Diego said. It is a BIOS bug instead of kernel bug. Thanks.
Thank you both for replying promptly. I appreciate that you have given your valuable time to my query. Thanks again.