Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1755885AbYJFXEQ (ORCPT ); Mon, 6 Oct 2008 19:04:16 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1752842AbYJFXEB (ORCPT ); Mon, 6 Oct 2008 19:04:01 -0400 Received: from one.firstfloor.org ([213.235.205.2]:39150 "EHLO one.firstfloor.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751117AbYJFXEA (ORCPT ); Mon, 6 Oct 2008 19:04:00 -0400 Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2008 01:10:02 +0200 From: Andi Kleen To: "Maciej W. Rozycki" Cc: Andi Kleen , Ingo Molnar , Linus Torvalds , "Rafael J. Wysocki" , Dmitry Torokhov , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Andrew Morton , Len Brown , Jason Vas Dias Subject: Re: [PATCH] x86 ACPI: Blacklist two HP machines with buggy BIOSes (Re: 2.6.27-rc8+ - first impressions) Message-ID: <20081006231002.GN3180@one.firstfloor.org> References: <20081005183603.GA3263@amd.corenet.prv> <200810060029.42471.rjw@sisk.pl> <20081006062235.GA2808@amd.corenet.prv> <200810061159.30103.rjw@sisk.pl> <20081006150055.GA16930@elte.hu> <87tzbpmocm.fsf@basil.nowhere.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1711 Lines: 42 On Mon, Oct 06, 2008 at 10:39:25PM +0100, Maciej W. Rozycki wrote: > On Mon, 6 Oct 2008, Andi Kleen wrote: > > > The real reason is actually a workaround in the BIOS for problems > > in the older Linux code that caused duplicated timer interrupts. The > > old Linux would fall into "enable both IO-APIC and 8259" fallback mode > > and the resulted in duplicated timer events, which made everything unhappy. > > They instead configured the northbridge in a way that one of the inputs > > is ignored. > > Hmm, working around Linux problems in the BIOS is a new and truly odd > concept to me. Except perhaps for the cheapest consumer parts and many laptops Linux is definitely on the radar now for many BIOS developers. > It's not that we are unresponsive or do not take > responsibility for our bugs, is it? These workarounds are not for mainline kernels but for specific distribution releases (as in "fixes SLES/RHEL x.y" instead of "fixes 2.6.xy") Even when the distributors update their kernels the old releases do not go away are still used and the workarounds get in. > > You won't be able to DMI list it, that workaround is widely used > > in lots of different systems. > > Well, perhaps, but the thermal trip point phenomenon seems unique to this > family of systems. The other aspects of the problem do not really matter > anymore as we seem to have addressed them robustly enough now. When you need DMI entries you clearly haven't. -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/