From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S263303AbTK1SN1 (ORCPT ); Fri, 28 Nov 2003 13:13:27 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S263281AbTK1SN1 (ORCPT ); Fri, 28 Nov 2003 13:13:27 -0500 Received: from ppp-62-245-210-190.mnet-online.de ([62.245.210.190]:60555 "EHLO frodo.midearth.frodoid.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S263303AbTK1SNZ (ORCPT ); Fri, 28 Nov 2003 13:13:25 -0500 To: Alistair John Strachan Cc: ross.alexander@uk.neceur.com, "Brendan Howes" , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: NForce2 pseudoscience stability testing (2.6.0-test11) References: <200311281646.40171.s0348365@sms.ed.ac.uk> From: Julien Oster Organization: FRODOID.ORG X-Face: #C"_SRmka_V!KOD9IoD~=}8-P'ekRGm,8qOM6%?gaT(k:%{Y+\Cbt.$Zs<[X|e)?:O++jHKTA( Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 19:13:23 +0100 In-Reply-To: <200311281646.40171.s0348365@sms.ed.ac.uk> (Alistair John Strachan's message of "Fri, 28 Nov 2003 16:46:40 +0000") Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.1002 (Gnus v5.10.2) Emacs/21.2 (gnu/linux) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Alistair John Strachan writes: Hello Alistair, > It's evidently a configuration problem, albeit BIOS, mainboard revision, > memory quality, etc. because I and many others like me are able to run Linux > 2.4/2.6 with all the options you tested and still achieve absolute stability, > on the nForce 2 platform. No, it's most evidently a mainboard problem, as everybody using an ASUS A7N8X (Deluxe) reported so far that the mainboard will lock up completely unless you turn of ACPI, APIC and local APIC. There is no other possibility to work this lockup madness around, as many users of that mainboard including me really tried *everything*. We know that other NForce2 Mainboards don't have this kind of problem, but sadly that isn't of any help whatsoever for us A7N8X users. Unfortunately, my onboard SATA controller is significantly slower when using XT-PIC interrupts (and I don't have many of them which aren't crowded anyway). I can verify this by booting with ACPI and APIC enabled and doing a simple hdparm -t multiple times on my SATA softraid. I won't have much time to do this, though, since the mainboard loves locking up very soon especially by doing hdparm -t. HOWEVER, I tested it several times under Windows 2000 (I installed it solely for this purpose, my machine used to be completely Redmond free), and although Windows 2000 also routes the PCI interrupts via APIC and ACPI, there's no such lockup occuring. So, somehow, Linux should be able to allow the Asus A7N8X operate with APIC and ACPI and any help in finally getting it in an usable state would be strongly appreciated. I would have hacked the kernel myself, but unfortunately I have no clue of the ACPI and APIC/local APIC stuff in the kernel source. Regards, Julien