On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 16:30:53 +0200 Ondrej Zary <linux@rainbow-software.org> wrote:
>
> cat /proc/apm produces oops on my DTK notebook. Using "apm=broken-psr" kernel 
> parameter fixes that but I lose the battery info. I'd like to have the 
> battery info (and it works fine in Windows) so I want to debug it and 
> (hopefully) fix.

Is there some reason you can't (or don't want to) use ACPI on this machine?

> The oops:
> # cat /proc/apm
> <1>BUG: unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 00005e88
                                                                        ^^^^
Looks like it tried to access through the stack pointer while executeing 16 bit code.

>  printing eip:
> 00002f9d
> *pre = 00000000
> Oops: 0002 [#4]
> Modules linked in:
> CPU:    0
> EIP:    00c0:[<00002f9d>]    Not tainted VLI
          ^^^^
This is the APM BIOS 16 bit code segment.
 
> EFLAGS: 00010017   (2.6.17-5-dtk #23)
> EIP is at 0x2f94
> eax: 00000033   ebx: 00000001   ecx: 00000000   edx: 00000000
> esi: c10a1000   edi: 00000014   ebp: c4755e8a   esp: c4755e88
                                                           ^^^^
Accessing the stack while executing 16 bit code is never going to work.

> ds: 00c8   es: 0000   ss: 0068
> Process cat (pid: 1928, threadinfo=c4754000 task=c11240b0)
> Stack: 5e948001 5fc75e55 00005e94 000000c8 10000033 5ea800c0 00000001 530a0000
>        00000016 00b86017 00000000 0000530a c010830f 00000060 0000530a 00000033
>        0000007b 0000007b c0337368 00000000 c10a1000 00000000 00000000 00000282
> Call Trace:
>  <c010830f> apm_bios_call+0x68/0xba  <c0108728> apm_get_power_status+0x44/0x90
>  <c01091a0> apm_get_info+0x34/0xdc  <c01617dc> proc_file_read+0xda/0x22d
>  <c013b5a2> vfs_read+0x82/0x10e  <c013b873> sys_read+0x3c/0x62
>  <c0102397> syscall_call+0x7/0xb
> Code:  Bad EIP value.
> EIP: [<00002f9d>] 0x2f9d SS:ESP 0068:c4755e88
> 
> So it looks like it dies somewhere in the APM BIOS code. But how to find 
> exactly where and/or why? Maybe use GDB somehow (I've used it only for really 
> simple debugging yet).
> I've tried calling the APM 0x530A function from DOS (real mode, int 15h) and 
> single-stepping the BIOS APM code (using good old user-friendly Turbo 
> Debugger). Noticed some OUTs to 0xB1 (or something like that), then some PCI 
> accesses (0xCF8 and 0xCFC) and then IP ended in area of all zeros. When I 
> step over the int 15h call, it works fine - returns correct info.

APM BIOS's are often only tested in real mode as that will suffice for
older Windows systems.  If you machine is less than 6 years old, Windows
is almost certainly using ACPI and not APM.

If you really want this fixedm you will have to talk to your machine
menufacturer (or the BIOS manufacturer).

-- 
Cheers,
Stephen Rothwell                    sfr@canb.auug.org.au
http://www.canb.auug.org.au/~sfr/