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* nmi_watchdog default setting on i386 and x86_64
@ 2006-05-22 23:48 Mike Mason
  2006-05-23 14:15 ` Mikael Pettersson
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 3+ messages in thread
From: Mike Mason @ 2006-05-22 23:48 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: linux-kernel

Does anybody know the reasoning behind having nmi_watchdog turned off by 
default on i386 and on by default on x86_64.  I've heard that i386 had 
problems with false positives in the past, but that local apic watchdog 
may make that concern obsolete.

Regards,
Mike Mason


^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread

* Re: nmi_watchdog default setting on i386 and x86_64
  2006-05-22 23:48 nmi_watchdog default setting on i386 and x86_64 Mike Mason
@ 2006-05-23 14:15 ` Mikael Pettersson
  2006-05-23 14:37   ` Andi Kleen
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 3+ messages in thread
From: Mikael Pettersson @ 2006-05-23 14:15 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Mike Mason; +Cc: linux-kernel

Mike Mason writes:
 > Does anybody know the reasoning behind having nmi_watchdog turned off by 
 > default on i386 and on by default on x86_64.  I've heard that i386 had 
 > problems with false positives in the past, but that local apic watchdog 
 > may make that concern obsolete.

On i386 the problems are mainly hardware and BIOS. In particular,
lots of Dell laptops have capable hardware but broken BIOSen that
hang the machines if we try to enable anything sending performance
counter interrupts via the local APIC.

/Mikael

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread

* Re: nmi_watchdog default setting on i386 and x86_64
  2006-05-23 14:15 ` Mikael Pettersson
@ 2006-05-23 14:37   ` Andi Kleen
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 3+ messages in thread
From: Andi Kleen @ 2006-05-23 14:37 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Mikael Pettersson; +Cc: linux-kernel, mmlnx

Mikael Pettersson <mikpe@csd.uu.se> writes:

> Mike Mason writes:
>  > Does anybody know the reasoning behind having nmi_watchdog turned off by 
>  > default on i386 and on by default on x86_64.  I've heard that i386 had 
>  > problems with false positives in the past, but that local apic watchdog 
>  > may make that concern obsolete.
> 
> On i386 the problems are mainly hardware and BIOS. In particular,
> lots of Dell laptops have capable hardware but broken BIOSen that
> hang the machines if we try to enable anything sending performance
> counter interrupts via the local APIC.

AFAIK that trouble was mostly when you forced the local APIC on against
the wishes of the BIOS. That was always a dumb idea and gladly
Linux doesn't try that by default anymore.

-Andi


^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2006-05-23 14:38 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 3+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
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2006-05-22 23:48 nmi_watchdog default setting on i386 and x86_64 Mike Mason
2006-05-23 14:15 ` Mikael Pettersson
2006-05-23 14:37   ` Andi Kleen

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