Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1161071AbVKXXfe (ORCPT ); Thu, 24 Nov 2005 18:35:34 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1161072AbVKXXfd (ORCPT ); Thu, 24 Nov 2005 18:35:33 -0500 Received: from ns1.suse.de ([195.135.220.2]:48333 "EHLO mx1.suse.de") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1161071AbVKXXfd (ORCPT ); Thu, 24 Nov 2005 18:35:33 -0500 Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2005 00:35:12 +0100 From: Andi Kleen To: thockin@hockin.org Cc: Alan Cox , Andi Kleen , "Eric W. Biederman" , Gerd Knorr , Linus Torvalds , Dave Jones , Zachary Amsden , Pavel Machek , Andrew Morton , Linux Kernel Mailing List , "H. Peter Anvin" , Zwane Mwaikambo , Pratap Subrahmanyam , Christopher Li , Ingo Molnar Subject: Re: [patch] SMP alternatives Message-ID: <20051124233511.GX20775@brahms.suse.de> References: <1132842847.13095.105.camel@localhost.localdomain> <20051124142200.GH20775@brahms.suse.de> <1132845324.13095.112.camel@localhost.localdomain> <20051124145518.GI20775@brahms.suse.de> <20051124153635.GJ20775@brahms.suse.de> <20051124191207.GB2468@hockin.org> <20051124191445.GR20775@brahms.suse.de> <1132873934.13095.138.camel@localhost.localdomain> <20051124224825.GA20892@hockin.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20051124224825.GA20892@hockin.org> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1781 Lines: 36 On Thu, Nov 24, 2005 at 02:48:25PM -0800, thockin@hockin.org wrote: > On Thu, Nov 24, 2005 at 11:12:14PM +0000, Alan Cox wrote: > > On Iau, 2005-11-24 at 20:14 +0100, Andi Kleen wrote: > > > I proposed something like that - best with an ASCII string > > > ("First DIMM on the top left corner") But getting such stuff into BIOS > > > is difficult and long winded. > > > > Propose it the desktop management people and get it into the DMI > > standard. They already have entries for each memory slot, they already > > have entries for descriptive strings for connectors. In fact you may > > well be able to 'bend' the spec enough to do it as is. > > There are enough fields that maybe one of them is loose enough to mean > this. It doesn't help us convince mobo vendors to support it, though. With arbitary desktop/laptop/etc. vendors it's pretty hopeless I agree. But I suspect there is a chance at least on the server side. There is only a limited number of companies working on server BIOSes for their boards and they tend to be more receptive to Linux's need because it's now a significant part of their market. And it's clearly an obviously useful "RAS feature" which is fully buzzword compatible and everything. IMHO it's time that Linux gets more proactive regarding talking to BIOS vendors. Perhaps a generic "BIOS writers guide for Linux" would be a good thing. I have at least one other extension I would like BIOS vendors to support. Just would need to come up with a writeup for a clearly defined specification. -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/