Re: [PATCH 4/4] pci/dmar: Tone down warnings about invalid BIOSDMAR tables

From: Ben Hutchings
Date: Sun Mar 21 2010 - 10:57:34 EST


On Sun, 2010-03-21 at 08:43 +0000, David Woodhouse wrote:
> On Sat, 2010-03-20 at 23:07 +0000, Ben Hutchings wrote:
> > We now know how to deal with these tables so that they are harmless.
> > Use the TAINT_FIRMWARE_WORKAROUND flag and don't say the BIOS is
> > 'broken' as this makes users think of hardware damage.
>
> Nack to the string change. If you see this message, it's because your
> BIOS is BROKEN, and this brokenness has caused us to have to disable the
> VT-d feature completely. The fuckwits obviously never tested it even as
> far as booting a VT-d enabled OS on it even onceÂ.
[...]

Are you saying that these bogus tables are found on boards that do have
VT-d hardware? I was working on the assumption that these tables result
from the OEM building a BIOS with VT-d support for a board where the
hardware is not present.

Ben.

--
Ben Hutchings
If you seem to know what you are doing, you'll be given more to do.

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