RE: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports

RE: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports

[YhLu]

Don't always blame BIOS, if you like you could use LinuxBIOS instead....

YH 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andi Kleen [mailto:ak@muc.de] 
> Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 9:50 AM
> To: Linus Torvalds
> Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org; Tech Support; 
> support@tyan.de; Andrew Morton; gl@fenedex.nl; 
> land@hetlageland.nl; hans@sww.nl; sww@sww.nl
> Subject: Re: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports
> 
> Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> writes:
> 
> > On Fri, 20 May 2005, Robert M. Stockmann wrote:
> >> 
> >> All problems of Tyan Opteron based machines silently locking up 
> >> during installation and/or during normal operation of 
> running Linux, 
> >> both 32bit and 64bit, without any display of kernel panic of any 
> >> other logging method, seem to be solved when switching off the 
> >> Parallel Port inside its BIOS.
> 
> The common Tyan problem case is when the machine has more 
> than 3GB of RAM and "memory remapping" is enabled to recover 
> the memory below the PCI memory hole. SOmething in that setup 
> leads to problems and random memory corruption. I suspect a 
> BIOS bug here.
> 
> Workaround is to not enable that option in the BIOS setup.
> 
> Then another older Tyan board (it might have been the K8W) 
> was *extremly* picky in what DIMMs it accepted and in what 
> slots because someone apparently didnt follow the AMD 
> specification for the memory controller trace lines fully. 
> That also caused common problems. 
> 
> 
> > Can you do an install with the thing turned off, and then
> >  - compile the kernel with CONFIG_PCI_DEBUG
> >  - boot with the parallel port enabled, and send as much of 
> the bootup 
> >    output (and /proc/iomem and /proc/ioport) as possible
> >  - boot with the parallel port disabled, and send the same 
> output for that 
> >    working case.
> >
> > I have no clue why the parallel port should matter, but it could 
> > change some resource allocation issues.
> 
> It is the first time I heard about such a issue so it cannot 
> be too wide spread anyways. 
> 
> -Andi
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe 
> linux-kernel" in the body of a message to 
> majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at  
> http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
> 

Re: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports

[Peter J. Stieber]

YhLu> Don't always blame BIOS, if you like you could
YhLu> use LinuxBIOS instead...

Just curious, but why isn't this project (LinuxBIOS) mentioned on the 
Tyan web site, or is it and I just missed it?

You do work for Tyan, right?

Pete

Re: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports

[Bill Davidsen]

Peter J. Stieber wrote:
> YhLu> Don't always blame BIOS, if you like you could
> YhLu> use LinuxBIOS instead...
> 
> Just curious, but why isn't this project (LinuxBIOS) mentioned on the 
> Tyan web site, or is it and I just missed it?
> 
> You do work for Tyan, right?

What has that to do with anything? I doubt that suggestions about boot 
options are on the website or come from the Tyan website, either.

Note: I'm not endorsing LinuxBIOS for Opteron, I haven't personally 
tried it. But the value of the suggestion depends on how it works, not 
who makes it. There appear to be a lot of reports of problems with 
Opteron lately, if the BIOS isn't buggy then the documentation may have 
lost in translation.
-- 
    -bill davidsen (davidsen@tmr.com)
"The secret to procrastination is to put things off until the
  last possible moment - but no longer"  -me

Re: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports

[Peter J. Stieber]

YhLu>>> Don't always blame BIOS, if you like you could
YhLu>>> use LinuxBIOS instead...

PJS>> Just curious, but why isn't this project (LinuxBIOS)
PJS>> mentioned on the Tyan web site, or is it and I
PJS>> just missed it?
PJS>>
PJS>> You do work for Tyan, right?

BD = Bill Davidsen
BD> What has that to do with anything? I doubt that suggestions
BD> about boot options are on the website or come from the
BD> Tyan website, either.
BD>
BD> Note: I'm not endorsing LinuxBIOS for Opteron, I haven't
BD> personally tried it. But the value of the suggestion depends
BD> on how it works, not who makes it. There appear to be a
BD> lot of reports of problems with Opteron lately, if the BIOS
BD> isn't buggy then the documentation may have lost in
BD> translation.

I have been having the "memory.c bad pmds" with a Tyan S2885 
motherboard.

https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2005-May/msg01690.html
http://www.lib.uaa.alaska.edu/linux-kernel/archive/2005-Week-19/1397.html

When Yhlu brought up the topic of LinuxBIOS, I thought he might be 
suggesting that this would prove there are no problems with the BIOS 
(i.e. the same problems would occur with LinuxBIOS as with the 
motherboards built-in BIOS). Looking at the LinuxBIOS web site, I got 
the impression (I may be wrong) that this was a Tyan supported effort. 
If that was the case I was wondering why Tyan didn't mention LinuxBIOS 
on their web site. It would make me more comfortable if this were a Tyan 
supported effort. That's why I asked the question.

I'm just trying anything I can to get rid of the bad pmd messages.

Pete 

Re: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports (badpmd)

[Christopher Warner]

Can you give any information on the badpmd problem? There is a thread
about the badpmd problem and a couple of patches you might want to use
to get some debug information. I also suspect that it might have
something to do with the actual motherboard but people have reported
badpmds on other mobos.

I've put it down for now but the more info the better :-)  I've
experienced problems with badpmds under load io, mem etc. Sometimes it
appears with little load.

On Thu, 2005-05-26 at 13:40 -0700, Peter J. Stieber wrote:
> YhLu>>> Don't always blame BIOS, if you like you could
> YhLu>>> use LinuxBIOS instead...
> 
> PJS>> Just curious, but why isn't this project (LinuxBIOS)
> PJS>> mentioned on the Tyan web site, or is it and I
> PJS>> just missed it?
> PJS>>
> PJS>> You do work for Tyan, right?
> 
> BD = Bill Davidsen
> BD> What has that to do with anything? I doubt that suggestions
> BD> about boot options are on the website or come from the
> BD> Tyan website, either.
> BD>
> BD> Note: I'm not endorsing LinuxBIOS for Opteron, I haven't
> BD> personally tried it. But the value of the suggestion depends
> BD> on how it works, not who makes it. There appear to be a
> BD> lot of reports of problems with Opteron lately, if the BIOS
> BD> isn't buggy then the documentation may have lost in
> BD> translation.
> 
> I have been having the "memory.c bad pmds" with a Tyan S2885 
> motherboard.
> 
> https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2005-May/msg01690.html
> http://www.lib.uaa.alaska.edu/linux-kernel/archive/2005-Week-19/1397.html
> 
> When Yhlu brought up the topic of LinuxBIOS, I thought he might be 
> suggesting that this would prove there are no problems with the BIOS 
> (i.e. the same problems would occur with LinuxBIOS as with the 
> motherboards built-in BIOS). Looking at the LinuxBIOS web site, I got 
> the impression (I may be wrong) that this was a Tyan supported effort. 
> If that was the case I was wondering why Tyan didn't mention LinuxBIOS 
> on their web site. It would make me more comfortable if this were a Tyan 
> supported effort. That's why I asked the question.
> 
> I'm just trying anything I can to get rid of the bad pmd messages.
> 
> Pete 
> 
> 
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/

Re: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports (badpmd)

[Christopher Warner]

Just read the other existing thread linked. Is everyone running the same
model opteron on these Tyan boards (246)? To update even further.
Besides the parallel port problem I've sent back about 5 of these tyan
motherboards. A couple of then simply didn't have the gigabit network
adapters available via bios. In some cases linux loaded the drivers for
the adapters regardless of their setting in BIOS. In other cases they
simply were not available.

Also, are the processes you run swapping out/in memory repeatedly? Or
using a large amount of threading? Thread pools? I'm trying to get rid
of this problem myself. I've seen it extensively in 2.6.11.5 and not as
much in 2.6.11.8 but I haven't tested lately past .8

-Christopher Warner


On Thu, 2005-05-26 at 13:40 -0700, Peter J. Stieber wrote:
> YhLu>>> Don't always blame BIOS, if you like you could
> YhLu>>> use LinuxBIOS instead...
> 
> PJS>> Just curious, but why isn't this project (LinuxBIOS)
> PJS>> mentioned on the Tyan web site, or is it and I
> PJS>> just missed it?
> PJS>>
> PJS>> You do work for Tyan, right?
> 
> BD = Bill Davidsen
> BD> What has that to do with anything? I doubt that suggestions
> BD> about boot options are on the website or come from the
> BD> Tyan website, either.
> BD>
> BD> Note: I'm not endorsing LinuxBIOS for Opteron, I haven't
> BD> personally tried it. But the value of the suggestion depends
> BD> on how it works, not who makes it. There appear to be a
> BD> lot of reports of problems with Opteron lately, if the BIOS
> BD> isn't buggy then the documentation may have lost in
> BD> translation.
> 
> I have been having the "memory.c bad pmds" with a Tyan S2885 
> motherboard.
> 
> https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2005-May/msg01690.html
> http://www.lib.uaa.alaska.edu/linux-kernel/archive/2005-Week-19/1397.html
> 
> When Yhlu brought up the topic of LinuxBIOS, I thought he might be 
> suggesting that this would prove there are no problems with the BIOS 
> (i.e. the same problems would occur with LinuxBIOS as with the 
> motherboards built-in BIOS). Looking at the LinuxBIOS web site, I got 
> the impression (I may be wrong) that this was a Tyan supported effort. 
> If that was the case I was wondering why Tyan didn't mention LinuxBIOS 
> on their web site. It would make me more comfortable if this were a Tyan 
> supported effort. That's why I asked the question.
> 
> I'm just trying anything I can to get rid of the bad pmd messages.
> 
> Pete 
> 
> 
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/

Re: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports (badpmd)

[Joel Jaeggli]

On Thu, 26 May 2005, Christopher Warner wrote:

> Just read the other existing thread linked. Is everyone running the same
> model opteron on these Tyan boards (246)? To update even further.
> Besides the parallel port problem I've sent back about 5 of these tyan
> motherboards. A couple of then simply didn't have the gigabit network
> adapters available via bios. In some cases linux loaded the drivers for
> the adapters regardless of their setting in BIOS. In other cases they
> simply were not available.

I have 4 tyan s2882's. 2 with 244's and 2GB of ram and 2 with 246 and 4GB 
of ram. I don't appear to have bad parallel ports or bad ethernet 
interfaces. They're running fedora core 3's 2.6.11 x86_64 kernel
(2.6.11-1.14_FC3smp)... I cna't tell you what bios version off the top of 
my head but i can reboot one tomorrow if that helps.

> Also, are the processes you run swapping out/in memory repeatedly? Or
> using a large amount of threading? Thread pools? I'm trying to get rid
> of this problem myself. I've seen it extensively in 2.6.11.5 and not as
> much in 2.6.11.8 but I haven't tested lately past .8
>
> -Christopher Warner
>
>
> On Thu, 2005-05-26 at 13:40 -0700, Peter J. Stieber wrote:
>> YhLu>>> Don't always blame BIOS, if you like you could
>> YhLu>>> use LinuxBIOS instead...
>>
>> PJS>> Just curious, but why isn't this project (LinuxBIOS)
>> PJS>> mentioned on the Tyan web site, or is it and I
>> PJS>> just missed it?
>> PJS>>
>> PJS>> You do work for Tyan, right?
>>
>> BD = Bill Davidsen
>> BD> What has that to do with anything? I doubt that suggestions
>> BD> about boot options are on the website or come from the
>> BD> Tyan website, either.
>> BD>
>> BD> Note: I'm not endorsing LinuxBIOS for Opteron, I haven't
>> BD> personally tried it. But the value of the suggestion depends
>> BD> on how it works, not who makes it. There appear to be a
>> BD> lot of reports of problems with Opteron lately, if the BIOS
>> BD> isn't buggy then the documentation may have lost in
>> BD> translation.
>>
>> I have been having the "memory.c bad pmds" with a Tyan S2885
>> motherboard.
>>
>> https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2005-May/msg01690.html
>> http://www.lib.uaa.alaska.edu/linux-kernel/archive/2005-Week-19/1397.html
>>
>> When Yhlu brought up the topic of LinuxBIOS, I thought he might be
>> suggesting that this would prove there are no problems with the BIOS
>> (i.e. the same problems would occur with LinuxBIOS as with the
>> motherboards built-in BIOS). Looking at the LinuxBIOS web site, I got
>> the impression (I may be wrong) that this was a Tyan supported effort.
>> If that was the case I was wondering why Tyan didn't mention LinuxBIOS
>> on their web site. It would make me more comfortable if this were a Tyan
>> supported effort. That's why I asked the question.
>>
>> I'm just trying anything I can to get rid of the bad pmd messages.
>>
>> Pete
>>
>>
>> -
>> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
>> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
>> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>> Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
>
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
>

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Joel Jaeggli  	       Unix Consulting 	       joelja@darkwing.uoregon.edu 
GPG Key Fingerprint:     5C6E 0104 BAF0 40B0 5BD3 C38B F000 35AB B67F 56B2

Re: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports (badpmd)

[Peter J. Stieber]

PJS = Peter J. Stieber
PJS>> I have been having the "memory.c bad pmds" with
PJS>> a Tyan S2885 motherboard.
PJS>>
PJS>> https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2005-May/msg01690.html
PJS>> 
http://www.lib.uaa.alaska.edu/linux-kernel/archive/2005-Week-19/1397.html
PJS>>
PJS>> <Skip a lot>
PJS>> I'm just trying anything I can to get rid of the
PJS>> bad pmd messages.

CW=Christopher Warner
CW> Just read the other existing thread linked. Is
CW> everyone running the same model opteron on these
CW> Tyan boards (246)? To update even further. Besides
CW> the parallel port problem I've sent back about 5 of
CW> these tyan motherboards. A couple of then simply
CW> didn't have the gigabit network adapters available
CW> via bios. In some cases linux loaded the drivers for
CW> the adapters regardless of their setting in BIOS. In
CW> other cases they simply were not available.
CW>
CW> Also, are the processes you run swapping out/in memory
CW> repeatedly? Or using a large amount of threading?
CW> Thread pools? I'm trying to get rid of this problem
CW> myself. I've seen it extensively in 2.6.11.5 and not as
CW> much in 2.6.11.8 but I haven't tested lately past .8

I'm running two 244 processors not 246 processors. The process that 
causes problems is a bash shell script that builds a suite of codes. The 
scipt call other scripts that call autoreconfig then call configure and 
the cofigure dies sometimes. If I repeat the process it works. It might 
be swapping/paging related. I'm not sure how I could tell. I normally 
use stock Fedora distributions. I started seeing the problem in April 
after I installed 2.6.11-1.14_FC3smp. I'm currently running 
2.6.11-1.29_FC3smp provided by Dave Jones and I still see the problem.

Pete 

Re: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports (badpmd)

[Christopher Warner]

On Thu, 2005-05-26 at 21:41 -0700, Joel Jaeggli wrote:
> On Thu, 26 May 2005, Christopher Warner wrote:
> 
> > Just read the other existing thread linked. Is everyone running the same
> > model opteron on these Tyan boards (246)? To update even further.
> > Besides the parallel port problem I've sent back about 5 of these tyan
> > motherboards. A couple of then simply didn't have the gigabit network
> > adapters available via bios. In some cases linux loaded the drivers for
> > the adapters regardless of their setting in BIOS. In other cases they
> > simply were not available.
> 
> I have 4 tyan s2882's. 2 with 244's and 2GB of ram and 2 with 246 and 4GB 
> of ram. I don't appear to have bad parallel ports or bad ethernet 
> interfaces. They're running fedora core 3's 2.6.11 x86_64 kernel
> (2.6.11-1.14_FC3smp)... I cna't tell you what bios version off the top of 
> my head but i can reboot one tomorrow if that helps.

Not to interested in the BIOS versions anymore. As the tyan boards in
question have been rma'd I'm not exactly sure whats going on with them
now. The tyan boards I have in here right now appear to work properly
except for the pmd issue, i've noticed nothing wrong with them besides
that. 

What we need is to try and single out the variables that are causing the
badpmd's. Also the more people who report badpmd's with Andi Kleen's
intial patch the better. Especially on different archs; would also be
good. So far from lkml i'm only seeing Tyan S28* boards as of recent.

-Christopher Warner

Re: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports (badpmd)

[Peter J. Stieber]

CW = Christopher Warner
CW> The tyan boards I have in here right now appear to
CW> work properly except for the pmd issue, i've noticed
CW> nothing wrong with them besides that.

Same here.

CW> What we need is to try and single out the variables that
CW> are causing the badpmd's. Also the more people who
CW> report badpmd's with Andi Kleen's intial patch the better.
CW> Especially on different archs; would also be good. So
CW> far from lkml i'm only seeing Tyan S28* boards as of
CW> recent.

Does the Dave Jones provided Fedora Core 3 kernel I'm running 
(2.6.11-1.29_FC3smp) have Andi's patch?

I guess that question was fo Dave ;-)

Pete 

Re: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports (badpmd)

[Dave Jones]

On Fri, May 27, 2005 at 10:26:41AM -0700, Peter J. Stieber wrote:
 > CW = Christopher Warner
 > CW> The tyan boards I have in here right now appear to
 > CW> work properly except for the pmd issue, i've noticed
 > CW> nothing wrong with them besides that.
 > 
 > Same here.
 > 
 > CW> What we need is to try and single out the variables that
 > CW> are causing the badpmd's. Also the more people who
 > CW> report badpmd's with Andi Kleen's intial patch the better.
 > CW> Especially on different archs; would also be good. So
 > CW> far from lkml i'm only seeing Tyan S28* boards as of
 > CW> recent.
 > 
 > Does the Dave Jones provided Fedora Core 3 kernel I'm running 
 > (2.6.11-1.29_FC3smp) have Andi's patch?
 > 
 > I guess that question was fo Dave ;-)

not the latest iteration no.

		Dave
 

Re: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports (badpmd)

[Peter J. Stieber]

CW = Christopher Warner
CW>>> The tyan boards I have in here right now appear to
CW>>> work properly except for the pmd issue, i've noticed
CW>>> nothing wrong with them besides that.

PS = Peter J. Stieber
PS>> Same here.

CW>>> What we need is to try and single out the variables that
CW>>> are causing the badpmd's. Also the more people who
CW>>> report badpmd's with Andi Kleen's intial patch the better.
CW>>> Especially on different archs; would also be good. So
CW>>> far from lkml i'm only seeing Tyan S28* boards as of
CW>>> recent.

PS>> Does the Dave Jones provided Fedora Core 3 kernel I'm running 
PS>> (2.6.11-1.29_FC3smp) have Andi's patch?
PS>> 
PS>> I guess that question was fo Dave ;-)

DJ = Dave Jones 
DJ> not the latest iteration no.

I'd be willing to try it if you could provide it Dave.
Pete

Re: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports (badpmd)

[Sergey S. Kostyliov]

On Friday 27 May 2005 14:49, Christopher Warner wrote:
> On Thu, 2005-05-26 at 21:41 -0700, Joel Jaeggli wrote:
> > On Thu, 26 May 2005, Christopher Warner wrote:
> > 
> > > Just read the other existing thread linked. Is everyone running the same
> > > model opteron on these Tyan boards (246)? To update even further.
> > > Besides the parallel port problem I've sent back about 5 of these tyan
> > > motherboards. A couple of then simply didn't have the gigabit network
> > > adapters available via bios. In some cases linux loaded the drivers for
> > > the adapters regardless of their setting in BIOS. In other cases they
> > > simply were not available.
> > 
> > I have 4 tyan s2882's. 2 with 244's and 2GB of ram and 2 with 246 and 4GB 
> > of ram. I don't appear to have bad parallel ports or bad ethernet 
> > interfaces. They're running fedora core 3's 2.6.11 x86_64 kernel
> > (2.6.11-1.14_FC3smp)... I cna't tell you what bios version off the top of 
> > my head but i can reboot one tomorrow if that helps.
> 
> Not to interested in the BIOS versions anymore. As the tyan boards in
> question have been rma'd I'm not exactly sure whats going on with them
> now. The tyan boards I have in here right now appear to work properly
> except for the pmd issue, i've noticed nothing wrong with them besides
> that. 
> 
> What we need is to try and single out the variables that are causing the
> badpmd's. Also the more people who report badpmd's with Andi Kleen's
> intial patch the better. Especially on different archs; would also be
> good. So far from lkml i'm only seeing Tyan S28* boards as of recent.
We have run into different problem (for our different from S28*arch)
for the box which had had badpmd issues with v2.6.11 (see:
    http://seclists.org/lists/linux-kernel/2005/May/6369.html)

with 2.6.12-rc5 we are always getting dozens of user-space segfaults:

grep[25377]: segfault at 0000000000014aa0 rip 00002aaaaad37130 rsp 00007fffffb13cb8 error4
grep[29940]: segfault at 0000000000014aa0 rip 00002aaaaad37130 rsp 00007fffff913428 error4
sed[5849] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffffb231d0 error:0
sed[27437] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7ffffff248c0 error:0
sed[27473] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffff923740 error:0
sed[27472] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffff923740 error:0
sed[28434] general protection rip:406965 rsp:7fffffb23f10 error:0
grep[32583]: segfault at 0000000000014aa0 rip 00002aaaaad37130 rsp 00007fffffd13b58 error4
sed[9074] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffffb248a0 error:0
sed[9546] general protection rip:406965 rsp:7fffffb23cc0 error:0
sed[4331] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffff922fb0 error:0
sed[17906] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffffd24b30 error:0
sed[17934] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffffd243a0 error:0
sed[19555] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffff924ad0 error:0
sed[20453] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7ffffff23010 error:0

during the build of mysql.

There also was an oops with v2.6.12-rc3 for the same box:
http://seclists.org/lists/linux-kernel/2005/May/6369.html

Box passed two iterations of memtest86 (unfortunately this
is a production box, so we can't wait for days).

-- 
Sergey S. Kostyliov <rathamahata@ehouse.ru>
Jabber ID: rathamahata@jabber.org

Re: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports (badpmd)

[Sergey S. Kostyliov]

On Wednesday 01 June 2005 13:16, Sergey S. Kostyliov wrote:
> On Friday 27 May 2005 14:49, Christopher Warner wrote:
> > On Thu, 2005-05-26 at 21:41 -0700, Joel Jaeggli wrote:
> > > On Thu, 26 May 2005, Christopher Warner wrote:
> > > 
> > > > Just read the other existing thread linked. Is everyone running the same
> > > > model opteron on these Tyan boards (246)? To update even further.
> > > > Besides the parallel port problem I've sent back about 5 of these tyan
> > > > motherboards. A couple of then simply didn't have the gigabit network
> > > > adapters available via bios. In some cases linux loaded the drivers for
> > > > the adapters regardless of their setting in BIOS. In other cases they
> > > > simply were not available.
> > > 
> > > I have 4 tyan s2882's. 2 with 244's and 2GB of ram and 2 with 246 and 4GB 
> > > of ram. I don't appear to have bad parallel ports or bad ethernet 
> > > interfaces. They're running fedora core 3's 2.6.11 x86_64 kernel
> > > (2.6.11-1.14_FC3smp)... I cna't tell you what bios version off the top of 
> > > my head but i can reboot one tomorrow if that helps.
> > 
> > Not to interested in the BIOS versions anymore. As the tyan boards in
> > question have been rma'd I'm not exactly sure whats going on with them
> > now. The tyan boards I have in here right now appear to work properly
> > except for the pmd issue, i've noticed nothing wrong with them besides
> > that. 
> > 
> > What we need is to try and single out the variables that are causing the
> > badpmd's. Also the more people who report badpmd's with Andi Kleen's
> > intial patch the better. Especially on different archs; would also be
> > good. So far from lkml i'm only seeing Tyan S28* boards as of recent.
> We have run into different problem (for our different from S28*arch)
> for the box which had had badpmd issues with v2.6.11 (see:
>     http://seclists.org/lists/linux-kernel/2005/May/6369.html)
Oops, wrong link, right one is: http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/3/11/42

> 
> with 2.6.12-rc5 we are always getting dozens of user-space segfaults:
> 
> grep[25377]: segfault at 0000000000014aa0 rip 00002aaaaad37130 rsp 00007fffffb13cb8 error4
> grep[29940]: segfault at 0000000000014aa0 rip 00002aaaaad37130 rsp 00007fffff913428 error4
> sed[5849] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffffb231d0 error:0
> sed[27437] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7ffffff248c0 error:0
> sed[27473] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffff923740 error:0
> sed[27472] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffff923740 error:0
> sed[28434] general protection rip:406965 rsp:7fffffb23f10 error:0
> grep[32583]: segfault at 0000000000014aa0 rip 00002aaaaad37130 rsp 00007fffffd13b58 error4
> sed[9074] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffffb248a0 error:0
> sed[9546] general protection rip:406965 rsp:7fffffb23cc0 error:0
> sed[4331] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffff922fb0 error:0
> sed[17906] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffffd24b30 error:0
> sed[17934] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffffd243a0 error:0
> sed[19555] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffff924ad0 error:0
> sed[20453] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7ffffff23010 error:0
> 
> during the build of mysql.
> 
> There also was an oops with v2.6.12-rc3 for the same box:
> http://seclists.org/lists/linux-kernel/2005/May/6369.html
> 
> Box passed two iterations of memtest86 (unfortunately this
> is a production box, so we can't wait for days).
> 

-- 
Sergey S. Kostyliov <rathamahata@ehouse.ru>
Jabber ID: rathamahata@jabber.org

Re: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports (badpmd)

[Christopher Warner]

 > > What we need is to try and single out the variables that are causing the
> > > badpmd's. Also the more people who report badpmd's with Andi Kleen's
> > > intial patch the better. Especially on different archs; would also be
> > > good. So far from lkml i'm only seeing Tyan S28* boards as of recent.
> > We have run into different problem (for our different from S28*arch)
> > for the box which had had badpmd issues with v2.6.11 (see:
> >     http://seclists.org/lists/linux-kernel/2005/May/6369.html)
> Oops, wrong link, right one is: http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/3/11/42
> 
> > 
> > with 2.6.12-rc5 we are always getting dozens of user-space segfaults:
> > 
> > grep[25377]: segfault at 0000000000014aa0 rip 00002aaaaad37130 rsp 00007fffffb13cb8 error4
> > grep[29940]: segfault at 0000000000014aa0 rip 00002aaaaad37130 rsp 00007fffff913428 error4
> > sed[5849] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffffb231d0 error:0
> > sed[27437] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7ffffff248c0 error:0
> > sed[27473] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffff923740 error:0
> > sed[27472] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffff923740 error:0
> > sed[28434] general protection rip:406965 rsp:7fffffb23f10 error:0
> > grep[32583]: segfault at 0000000000014aa0 rip 00002aaaaad37130 rsp 00007fffffd13b58 error4
> > sed[9074] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffffb248a0 error:0
> > sed[9546] general protection rip:406965 rsp:7fffffb23cc0 error:0
> > sed[4331] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffff922fb0 error:0
> > sed[17906] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffffd24b30 error:0
> > sed[17934] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffffd243a0 error:0
> > sed[19555] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffff924ad0 error:0
> > sed[20453] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7ffffff23010 error:0
> > 
> > during the build of mysql.
> > 
> > There also was an oops with v2.6.12-rc3 for the same box:
> > http://seclists.org/lists/linux-kernel/2005/May/6369.html
> > 
> > Box passed two iterations of memtest86 (unfortunately this
> > is a production box, so we can't wait for days).
> > 
> 

Do you have any mobo/chipset information and are those amd64's opterons?

Thanks,
Christopher Warner

Re: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports (badpmd)

[Alexander Y. Fomichev]

On Wednesday 01 June 2005 17:51, Christopher Warner wrote:
>  > > What we need is to try and single out the variables that are causing
>  > > the
>  > >
> > > > badpmd's. Also the more people who report badpmd's with Andi Kleen's
> > > > intial patch the better. Especially on different archs; would also be
> > > > good. So far from lkml i'm only seeing Tyan S28* boards as of recent.
> > >
> > > We have run into different problem (for our different from S28*arch)
> > > for the box which had had badpmd issues with v2.6.11 (see:
> > >     http://seclists.org/lists/linux-kernel/2005/May/6369.html)
> >
> > Oops, wrong link, right one is: http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/3/11/42
> >
> > > with 2.6.12-rc5 we are always getting dozens of user-space segfaults:
> > >
> > > grep[25377]: segfault at 0000000000014aa0 rip 00002aaaaad37130 rsp
> > > 00007fffffb13cb8 error4 grep[29940]: segfault at 0000000000014aa0 rip
> > > 00002aaaaad37130 rsp 00007fffff913428 error4 sed[5849] general
> > > protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffffb231d0 error:0 sed[27437] general
> > > protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7ffffff248c0 error:0 sed[27473] general
> > > protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffff923740 error:0 sed[27472] general
> > > protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffff923740 error:0 sed[28434] general
> > > protection rip:406965 rsp:7fffffb23f10 error:0 grep[32583]: segfault at
> > > 0000000000014aa0 rip 00002aaaaad37130 rsp 00007fffffd13b58 error4
> > > sed[9074] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffffb248a0 error:0
> > > sed[9546] general protection rip:406965 rsp:7fffffb23cc0 error:0
> > > sed[4331] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffff922fb0 error:0
> > > sed[17906] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffffd24b30 error:0
> > > sed[17934] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffffd243a0 error:0
> > > sed[19555] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffff924ad0 error:0
> > > sed[20453] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7ffffff23010 error:0
> > >
> > > during the build of mysql.
> > >
> > > There also was an oops with v2.6.12-rc3 for the same box:
> > > http://seclists.org/lists/linux-kernel/2005/May/6369.html
> > >
> > > Box passed two iterations of memtest86 (unfortunately this
> > > is a production box, so we can't wait for days).
>
> Do you have any mobo/chipset information and are those amd64's opterons?
>

Yes, sure. This is  Dual Opteron 246 host, mobo -- Iwill DK8S2 
[AMD-8111/8131].

-- 
Best regards.
        Alexander Y. Fomichev <gluk@php4.ru>
        Public PGP key: http://sysadminday.org.ru/gluk.asc

Re: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports (badpmd)

[Christopher Warner]

On Thu, 2005-06-02 at 09:27 -0700, Peter J. Stieber wrote:
> CW = Christopher Warner
> CW>>>> The tyan boards I have in here right now appear to
> CW>>>> work properly except for the pmd issue, i've noticed
> CW>>>> nothing wrong with them besides that.
> 
> PS = Peter J. Stieber
> PS>>> Same here.
> 
> CW>>>> What we need is to try and single out the variables that
> CW>>>> are causing the badpmd's. Also the more people who
> CW>>>> report badpmd's with Andi Kleen's intial patch the better.
> CW>>>> Especially on different archs; would also be good. So
> CW>>>> far from lkml i'm only seeing Tyan S28* boards as of
> CW>>>> recent.
> 
> PS>>> Does the Dave Jones provided Fedora Core 3 kernel I'm running
> PS>>> (2.6.11-1.29_FC3smp) have Andi's patch?
> PS>>>
> PS>>> I guess that question was fo Dave ;-)
> 
> DJ = Dave Jones
> DJ>> not the latest iteration no.
> 
> PS> I'd be willing to try it if you could provide it Dave.
> 
> I (and others) have been running a new FC3 kernel provided by Dave 
> (2.6.11-1.31_FC3smp) for a while know and it seems to have fixed this 
> problem.
> 
> https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2005-June/msg00243.html
> https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2005-June/msg00246.html
> 
> Dave will have to comment with respect to what changes were made to this 
> version.
> Pete 

If it's just the 2.6.11.11 inclusion as Dave said then i'll upgrade and
see what happens if anything. Hopefully, it's beating a dead horse;
dead.

Thanks everyone for the help and thanks to Andi and whoever else
actually fixed it :-)

Christopher Warner

Re: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports (badpmd)

[Peter J. Stieber]

CW = Christopher Warner
CW>>>> The tyan boards I have in here right now appear to
CW>>>> work properly except for the pmd issue, i've noticed
CW>>>> nothing wrong with them besides that.

PS = Peter J. Stieber
PS>>> Same here.

CW>>>> What we need is to try and single out the variables that
CW>>>> are causing the badpmd's. Also the more people who
CW>>>> report badpmd's with Andi Kleen's intial patch the better.
CW>>>> Especially on different archs; would also be good. So
CW>>>> far from lkml i'm only seeing Tyan S28* boards as of
CW>>>> recent.

PS>>> Does the Dave Jones provided Fedora Core 3 kernel I'm running
PS>>> (2.6.11-1.29_FC3smp) have Andi's patch?
PS>>>
PS>>> I guess that question was fo Dave ;-)

DJ = Dave Jones
DJ>> not the latest iteration no.

PS> I'd be willing to try it if you could provide it Dave.

I (and others) have been running a new FC3 kernel provided by Dave 
(2.6.11-1.31_FC3smp) for a while know and it seems to have fixed this 
problem.

https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2005-June/msg00243.html
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2005-June/msg00246.html

Dave will have to comment with respect to what changes were made to this 
version.
Pete 

Re: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports (badpmd)

[Dave Jones]

On Thu, Jun 02, 2005 at 09:27:11AM -0700, Peter J. Stieber wrote:

 > I (and others) have been running a new FC3 kernel provided by Dave 
 > (2.6.11-1.31_FC3smp) for a while know and it seems to have fixed this 
 > problem.
 > 
 > https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2005-June/msg00243.html
 > https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2005-June/msg00246.html
 > 
 > Dave will have to comment with respect to what changes were made to this 
 > version.

2.6.11.11 inclusion.

		Dave

Re: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports (badpmd)

[Bongani Hlope]

On Wednesday 01 June 2005 11:16 am, Sergey S. Kostyliov wrote:
> On Friday 27 May 2005 14:49, Christopher Warner wrote:
> > What we need is to try and single out the variables that are causing the
> > badpmd's. Also the more people who report badpmd's with Andi Kleen's
> > intial patch the better. Especially on different archs; would also be
> > good. So far from lkml i'm only seeing Tyan S28* boards as of recent.
>
> We have run into different problem (for our different from S28*arch)
> for the box which had had badpmd issues with v2.6.11 (see:
>     http://seclists.org/lists/linux-kernel/2005/May/6369.html)
>
> with 2.6.12-rc5 we are always getting dozens of user-space segfaults:
>
> grep[25377]: segfault at 0000000000014aa0 rip 00002aaaaad37130 rsp
> 00007fffffb13cb8 error4 grep[29940]: segfault at 0000000000014aa0 rip
> 00002aaaaad37130 rsp 00007fffff913428 error4 sed[5849] general protection
> rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffffb231d0 error:0
> sed[27437] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7ffffff248c0 error:0
> sed[27473] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffff923740 error:0
> sed[27472] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffff923740 error:0
> sed[28434] general protection rip:406965 rsp:7fffffb23f10 error:0
> grep[32583]: segfault at 0000000000014aa0 rip 00002aaaaad37130 rsp
> 00007fffffd13b58 error4 sed[9074] general protection rip:40bac5
> rsp:7fffffb248a0 error:0
> sed[9546] general protection rip:406965 rsp:7fffffb23cc0 error:0
> sed[4331] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffff922fb0 error:0
> sed[17906] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffffd24b30 error:0
> sed[17934] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffffd243a0 error:0
> sed[19555] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7fffff924ad0 error:0
> sed[20453] general protection rip:40bac5 rsp:7ffffff23010 error:0
>
> during the build of mysql.
>
> There also was an oops with v2.6.12-rc3 for the same box:
> http://seclists.org/lists/linux-kernel/2005/May/6369.html
>
> Box passed two iterations of memtest86 (unfortunately this
> is a production box, so we can't wait for days).

I have a MSI board with Dual Opteron and I'm also getting a lot of these 
general protection errors, when compiling KDE and a few when compiling the 
kernel. They also seem to occur random. This occurs in kernel version 
2.6.12-rc*-mmX and 2.6.11-mm4. 2.6.10-rc1-mm4 is working fine.

rm[4297] general protection rip:2aaaaac32260 rsp:7fffff909b28 error:0
sed[25927] general protection rip:40870a rsp:7fffff919320 error:0
sed[6628] general protection rip:40870a rsp:7fffffd18610 error:0
sed[7468] general protection rip:40870a rsp:7fffffb1a020 error:0
sed[13251] general protection rip:40870a rsp:7fffffb197b0 error:0
sed[18727] general protection rip:40870a rsp:7fffffb19490 error:0
sed[19301] general protection rip:40870a rsp:7ffffff18680 error:0
sed[19895] general protection rip:40870a rsp:7ffffff19420 error:0
sed[8139] general protection rip:40870a rsp:7fffff918b80 error:0
sed[12275] general protection rip:40870a rsp:7fffff918c90 error:0
sed[12021] general protection rip:40870a rsp:7fffffb193d0 error:0
sed[14332] general protection rip:40870a rsp:7ffffff193d0 error:0
sed[14350] general protection rip:40870a rsp:7fffff9192c0 error:0
g++[21170] general protection rip:404c88 rsp:7ffffff16c10 error:0
sed[28312] general protection rip:40870a rsp:7fffffd18310 error:0
sed[21555] general protection rip:40870a rsp:7ffffff19210 error:0
sed[24421] general protection rip:40870a rsp:7fffffb196d0 error:0
sed[11782] general protection rip:40870a rsp:7ffffff184c0 error:0
sed[18738] general protection rip:40870a rsp:7fffffb192f0 error:0
sed[19054] general protection rip:40870a rsp:7fffff919930 error:0
sed[2726] general protection rip:40870a rsp:7ffffff196f0 error:0
sed[32070] general protection rip:40870a rsp:7fffffb19600 error:0


lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8385 [K8T800 AGP] Host Bridge 
(rev 01)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI bridge [K8T800 South]
00:05.0 Multimedia video controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture 
(rev 11)
00:05.1 Multimedia controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture (rev 
11)
00:08.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy (rev 04)
00:08.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy MIDI/Game port (rev 
04)
00:08.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Creative Labs SB Audigy FireWire Port (rev 04)
00:0b.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5705 Gigabit 
Ethernet (rev 03)
00:0f.0 RAID bus controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA RAID 
Controller (rev 80)
00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. 
VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 
Controller (rev 81)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 
Controller (rev 81)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 
Controller (rev 81)
00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [KT600/K8T800 
South]
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] 
HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] 
Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM 
Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] 
Miscellaneous Control
00:19.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] 
HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:19.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] 
Address Map
00:19.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM 
Controller
00:19.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] 
Miscellaneous Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV36 [GeForce FX 5700LE] 
(rev a1)


[bongani@bongani64 scripts]$ ./ver_linux
If some fields are empty or look unusual you may have an old version.
Compare to the current minimal requirements in Documentation/Changes.

Linux bongani64 2.6.12-rc6-mm1 #9 SMP Tue Jun 7 21:58:39 SAST 2005 x86_64 AMD 
Opteron(tm) Processor 244 unknown GNU/Linux

Gnu C                  3.4.3
Gnu make               3.80
binutils               2.15.92.0.2
util-linux             2.12a
mount                  2.12a
module-init-tools      3.0
e2fsprogs              1.36
reiserfsprogs          line
reiser4progs           line
nfs-utils              1.0.7
Linux C Library        2.3.4
Dynamic linker (ldd)   2.3.4
Procps                 3.2.5
Net-tools              1.60
Console-tools          0.2.3
Sh-utils               5.2.1
udev                   054
Modules Loaded         video thermal processor fan button ac isofs 
zlib_inflate udf snd_seq_dummy snd_seq_oss snd_seq_midi_event snd_seq 
snd_pcm_oss snd_mixer_oss snd_emu10k1 snd_rawmidi snd_seq_device 
snd_ac97_codec snd_pcm snd_timer snd_page_alloc snd_util_mem snd_hwdep snd 
soundcore tcp_bic i2c_isa i2c_viapro usbhid eth1394 tg3 ide_cd cdrom ohci1394 
ieee1394 loop nls_iso8859_1 nls_cp437 vfat fat tuner bttv video_buf 
firmware_class i2c_algo_bit v4l2_common btcx_risc tveeprom i2c_core videodev 
sata_via libata scsi_mod ehci_hcd uhci_hcd usbcore

Re: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports

[Andi Kleen]

Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> writes:

> On Fri, 20 May 2005, Robert M. Stockmann wrote:
>> 
>> All problems of Tyan Opteron based machines silently locking up during 
>> installation and/or during normal operation of running Linux, both 
>> 32bit and 64bit, without any display of kernel panic of any other 
>> logging method, seem to be solved when switching off the Parallel Port 
>> inside its BIOS.

The common Tyan problem case is when the machine has more than 3GB
of RAM and "memory remapping" is enabled to recover the memory
below the PCI memory hole. SOmething in that setup leads
to problems and random memory corruption. I suspect a BIOS bug
here.

Workaround is to not enable that option in the BIOS setup.

Then another older Tyan board (it might have been the K8W)
was *extremly* picky in what DIMMs it accepted and in what 
slots because someone apparently didnt follow the AMD specification for 
the memory controller trace lines fully. That also caused common problems. 


> Can you do an install with the thing turned off, and then 
>  - compile the kernel with CONFIG_PCI_DEBUG
>  - boot with the parallel port enabled, and send as much of the bootup 
>    output (and /proc/iomem and /proc/ioport) as possible
>  - boot with the parallel port disabled, and send the same output for that 
>    working case.
>
> I have no clue why the parallel port should matter, but it could change 
> some resource allocation issues.

It is the first time I heard about such a issue so it cannot be too
wide spread anyways. 

-Andi

Re: Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports

[Linus Torvalds]

On Fri, 20 May 2005, Robert M. Stockmann wrote:
> 
> All problems of Tyan Opteron based machines silently locking up during 
> installation and/or during normal operation of running Linux, both 
> 32bit and 64bit, without any display of kernel panic of any other 
> logging method, seem to be solved when switching off the Parallel Port 
> inside its BIOS.

Can you do an install with the thing turned off, and then 
 - compile the kernel with CONFIG_PCI_DEBUG
 - boot with the parallel port enabled, and send as much of the bootup 
   output (and /proc/iomem and /proc/ioport) as possible
 - boot with the parallel port disabled, and send the same output for that 
   working case.

I have no clue why the parallel port should matter, but it could change 
some resource allocation issues.

		Linus

Tyan Opteron boards and problems with parallel ports

[Robert M. Stockmann]

Hello,

To my dismay when arriving home i came to the conclusion that Tyan has 
switched off the parallel port by _default_ inside several BIOS releases 
in quite a number of her Opteron based motherboards.

This happens to be also the case with my Tyan Thunder K8W motherboard.

It also seems to a rather important issue when running a Linux 
distribution based on kernel 2.6.x on such a Tyan Opteron board.

Tyan switching off the Parallel Port is even also reported at the public
forum at amd.com :

http://forums.amd.com/lofiversion/index.php/t43260.html

Recently however when updating to the newest BIOS release for Tyan 
Opteron boards the parallel port seems to be switched on again inside 
the factory default settings. Exactly as we have seen with your Tyan 
Tomcat single Opteron CPU board.

The fact however that _all_ the various Linux distributions I have 
tested so far, both 32bit and 64bit AMD64, seem to have severe problems 
with the parallel port implementation of Tyan Opteron based boards, is 
so far _nowhere_ mentioned.

All problems of Tyan Opteron based machines silently locking up during 
installation and/or during normal operation of running Linux, both 
32bit and 64bit, without any display of kernel panic of any other 
logging method, seem to be solved when switching off the Parallel Port 
inside its BIOS.

So here my official complaint to Tyan and the Linux kernel developers 
to either make public notice of these problems, or preferably create a 
solution/workaround for this problem either in software or hardware or 
maybe inside a BIOS update.

Regards,

Robert M. Stockmann
-- 
Robert M. Stockmann - RHCE
Network Engineer - UNIX/Linux Specialist
crashrecovery.org  stock@stokkie.net