Re: IO-APIC on nforce2 [PATCH] + [PATCH] for nmi_debug=1 + [PATCH]

[Craig Bradney]

On Mon, 2004-05-10 at 13:37, Ross Dickson wrote:
> Craig Bradney wrote
> 
> >Well.. 2.6.6 is released.. and THANK YOU Linus and all the patch 
> > writers.. we have nforce2 fixes in the released kernel now. I'm just 
> > waiting for a gentoo-dev-sources release now.. 
> > 
> >
> >
> >Craig 
> 
> MOMENT PLEASE.
> ALMOST complete nforce2 support. Job not done yet.

I was waiting for that...

> Unfortunately 2.6.6 still has the old check_timer code which inhibits
> nmi_watchdog=1 on all nforce2 from working by having timer_ack=1
> when checking io-apic pit routing.
> 
> It is a hardware issue - NOT A BUGGY BIOS ISSUE inside the integrated 
> nforce2 interrupt routing.
> 
> To my understanding IT WILL NEVER BE FIXED BY A BIOS REVISION and 
> after reading the 8259 datasheets I think it is a mistake within the
> existing code to have the timer_ack on there in the first place. 
> 
> I would still like to see Maciej's check_timer patch in the kernel. It was
> pulled after only a single user mobo complaint was posted yet it helps
> both nforce2 and ibm bios pc's. To my knowledge little effort was made
> by that user to accomodate the patch - it was just outright pulled in spite
> of its benefit to others?
> 
> Who do we ask to revisit this? Linus? the io-apic.c maintainer? or the one
> user with a complaint?
> 
> That patch that was dropped by Linus? after appearing in 2.6.3-mm3. 
> For those nforce2 users with problems of clock skew with the timer into pin0
> routing, that patch gave a virtual wire timer routing which worked well.

Why was it dropped?

> It also works around serious problems for ibm users who also want it in.
> http://linux.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/Kernel/2004-04/4421.html

It looks like theres IDE caching problems with the new flushing
mechanism on Maxtor 8mb cache drives.. of which I have 2, so, looks like
I'm awaiting 2.6.7 now anyway or a patch to remove it.

Craig

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