On Tue, 31 May 2016 16:14:58 -0400
Haines Brown <haines@???> wrote:

> I installed 64bit jessie on a new HDD, and initially used the 3.16.0
> kernel. Then I installed the 4.50 kernel and ran into trouble.
>

>   kernel:[25090.816205] NMI watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU #7
>       stuck for 22!s
>         [colord-sane:20969]

>
> This message is displayed every few seconds in whatever happens to
> have the focus and is accompanied with a beep. The keyboard and mouse
> hang so that I must do a hot reboot.
>
> Is this in fact a kernel bug?

I don't know, but what I *can* tell you is this:

My HP laptop, running 64 bit Void, hangs on boot with kernels in the
4.5 series. The specific mechanism by which they hang is that the call
to dmesg in one of the rc files puts out millions (yeah, millions) of
lines of outputs, so it hangs for who knows how long: hours, days,
weeks, I just don't know. If I comment out the call to dmesg in the rc
file, it boots seemingly normally with 4.5.x. However, if, in that os
session, I run dmesg, it outputs lines seemingly forever.

I'm supposed to report that to the kernel developers, right? Once I
have all the info on model, serial number, and other software, how do I
report it to the kernel developers?

[snip]

> Is there any reason not to purge Grub and install LILO in place of it?

One reason: If you need to boot UEFI.

SteveT

Steve Litt
May 2016 featured book: Rapid Learning for the 21st Century
http://www.troubleshooters.com/rl21