Re: Error in register iTCO_wdt

Re: Error in register iTCO_wdt

[Wim Van Sebroeck]

Hi Marcos,

> Hi Wim!
> 
> I'm sending this email because I've seem a strange error messages
> about iTCO_wdt in the boot:
> 
> [   15.503489] iTCO_vendor_support: vendor-support=0
> [   15.512447] iTCO_wdt: Intel TCO WatchDog Timer Driver v1.07
> [   15.513535] iTCO_wdt: Found a ICH7 or ICH7R TCO device (Version=2,
> TCOBASE=0x0460)
> [   15.513548] iTCO_wdt: cannot register miscdev on minor=130 (err=-16)
> [   15.513774] iTCO_wdt: probe of iTCO_wdt failed with error -16
> 
> I don't know exactly how many time this warning appers, but I'm here
> to report this!

This is because you either have no /dev/watchdog file (major 10 minor 130)
or because another watchdog device is allready loaded.

> So, while finding what can be these warning, I saw a document writted
> by Wolfram talking about rework watchdog device drivers with watchdog
> framework. So, iTCO_wdt is outdated and needs these changes.
> 
> I'm doing some work(I'm not a kernel hacker yet, but I'm trying to be
> =D), and based in the Wolfram's documentation, and your documentation
> about watchdog kernel api, I have some changes.
> 
> The full diff is attached. This diff cause a lot of build errors, but,
> do you think I'm in the right direction? If you agree with the
> direction that this is going, I will continue to change this.
> 
> As I have this device, and I can test my changes, I believe this is a
> nice work to learn more about the kernel.
> 
> I will be very happy if I could, with you help, rework this driver.

I allready have a reworked/converted driver, but there are some other
dependancies to fix first. So no need to put time in doing a conversion
on iTCO_wdt.c

Kind regards,
Wim.