I am facing something similar. I am already struggling with an issue on this Tyan S3970 (Ubuntu 12.04.03 fully updated), which I am in the process of reporting here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1217229
I have a pair of system disks (raid/luks) which I am able to boot. I have a pair of data disks (raid) which, when attacked to the sata controller (along with the system disks) lead to a boot failure and drops me into busybox. When I hit control-d to continue the boot, I get stuff that looks like: BUG: soft lockup - CUP#7 stuck for 23s! [kworker/7:0:469] BUG: soft lockup - CUP#7 stuck for 22s! [kworker/7:0:469] INFO: rcu_sched self-detected stall on CUP { 7} (t=15000 jiffies) INFO: rcu_sched detected stalls on CPUs/tasks; { 7} (detected by 2, t=15004 jiffies) INFO: Stall ended before state dump start I have posted pictures of my screen. The first pic is of one boot. The second pair is of a second boot, both using Ctl-D from busybox: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/whypnvtkzkdyx3p/u3bnQQBqjb One more piece of information: When I first booted with all 4 disks attached (zero'th boot, if you like), I was successful. I tried to mount the data disks and got a degraded array. That was odd, as I checked and the disk health was reported as good/healthy for both disks. Also, I had been watching the disks and there has been no sign of either disk developing problems. It's when I shut down and rebooted that I found myself getting dropped into busybox and took the first picture. More information on my machine is located at the above bug report. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1011914 Title: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#0 stuck for 23s! [kworker/0:3:566]; RIP: 0010:[<ffffffffa00c9d73>] [<ffffffffa00c9d73>] mei_timer+0xc3/0x260 [mei] To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1011914/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs