You could try booting CONFIG_NR_CPUS=16 with maxcpus=8 (kernel command line
option).
If it boots you can then try bringing the rest of the cpus online manually
echo 1 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu8/online
...
echo 1 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu15/online
Might get a better OOPS/BUG_ON/etc report.
Max
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