"Your BIOS is broken" bug!

knowayhack · 09-04-2013, 05:19 PM

Hi there,

I just installed Fedora 19 and both when I booted the live CD and for every boot since install (both before and after all the updates) I am greeted with an ABRT warning telling me that there is a problem with the kernel.

Upon further investigation I found the rather alarming message "Your BIOS is broken" in the ABRT tool.

Code:

dmesg | grep -i bios

gave me a bit more to go on:

Code:

[    0.000000] e820: BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000000057fff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000058000-0x0000000000058fff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000059000-0x000000000009efff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000000009f000-0x000000000009ffff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000100000-0x00000000a75a4fff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000a75a5000-0x00000000a75abfff] ACPI NVS
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000a75ac000-0x00000000a7e8cfff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000a7e8d000-0x00000000a80fcfff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000a80fd000-0x00000000b8381fff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000b8382000-0x00000000b8595fff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000b8596000-0x00000000b867efff] ACPI NVS
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000b867f000-0x00000000b8ffefff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000b8fff000-0x00000000b8ffffff] usable
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000b9800000-0x00000000bf9fffff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000f8000000-0x00000000fbffffff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000fec00000-0x00000000fec00fff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000fed00000-0x00000000fed03fff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000fed1c000-0x00000000fed1ffff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000fee00000-0x00000000fee00fff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000ff000000-0x00000000ffffffff] reserved
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000100000000-0x000000023e5fffff] usable
[    0.000000] efi:  ACPI=0xb8657000  ACPI 2.0=0xb8657000  SMBIOS=0xf04c0  MPS=0xfd450 
[    0.000000] SMBIOS 2.7 present.
[    0.000000] DMI: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. B85M-HD3/B85M-HD3, BIOS F5 08/03/2013
[    0.000000] Your BIOS is broken; DMAR reported at address 0!
BIOS vendor: American Megatrends Inc.; Ver: F5; Product Version: To be filled by O.E.M.
[    0.000000] Hardware name: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. B85M-HD3/B85M-HD3, BIOS F5 08/03/2013
[    0.112972] [Firmware Bug]: ACPI: BIOS _OSI(Linux) query ignored
[    1.677169] kvm: disabled by bios
[    1.713140] iTCO_wdt: unable to reset NO_REBOOT flag, device disabled by hardware/BIOS

&

Code:

dmesg | grep -i warn

a bit more:

Code:

[    0.000000] WARNING: at drivers/iommu/dmar.c:484 warn_invalid_dmar+0x7e/0x90()
[    0.000000]  [<ffffffff8105c221>] warn_slowpath_common+0x61/0x80
[    0.000000]  [<ffffffff8105c2d4>] warn_slowpath_fmt_taint+0x44/0x50
[    0.000000]  [<ffffffff8150bd5e>] warn_invalid_dmar+0x7e/0x90
[    1.645017] ACPI Warning: 0x0000000000001828-0x000000000000182f SystemIO conflicts with Region \PMIO 1 (20130328/utaddress-251)
[    1.645024] ACPI Warning: 0x0000000000001c30-0x0000000000001c3f SystemIO conflicts with Region \GPRL 1 (20130328/utaddress-251)
[    1.645026] ACPI Warning: 0x0000000000001c30-0x0000000000001c3f SystemIO conflicts with Region \GPR_ 2 (20130328/utaddress-251)
[    1.645028] ACPI Warning: 0x0000000000001c00-0x0000000000001c2f SystemIO conflicts with Region \GPRL 1 (20130328/utaddress-251)
[    1.645029] ACPI Warning: 0x0000000000001c00-0x0000000000001c2f SystemIO conflicts with Region \GPR_ 2 (20130328/utaddress-251)
[    1.652205] ACPI Warning: 0x000000000000f040-0x000000000000f05f SystemIO conflicts with Region \_SB_.PCI0.SBUS.SMBI 1 (20130328/utaddress-251)

Code:

journalctl -p 4

contained a similar report...

Code:

Sep 04 21:14:02 fedbox-lan-cs kernel: WARNING: at drivers/iommu/dmar.c:484 warn_invalid_dmar+0x7e/0x90()

After googling this bug, I discovered that it is a known and relatively common BIOS issue, with accounts dating back to 2009 and it was actually documented as a common bug in Fedora 12, although to be fair - the bug is in the BIOS, not the OS, from what I can gather...

The most useful link I found, that most accurately fit my problem was this thread on the kernel dev list in July of this year:

http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/1522417

It is most similar to my case, because enabling or disabling virtualisation in the kernel makes absolutely no difference and my hardware is also Haswell. Although I should point out that my MB is Gigabyte not Intel.

Now my question is - how serious is this issue? And should I RMA the PC and ask for my money back? I have only had the PC just over a month (it was a barebones bundle from a local PC builder - Novatech, with a Gigabyte motherboard and an i5 Haswell processor), and it's not been the greatest of successes...

I've already had to RMA it once over a dodgy motherboard memory controller - I was experiencing intermittent BSODs on Windows and total OS lock-ups on Linux and constant browser crashes on both platforms, with logs referring continuously to memory issues, yet a 9hr memtest said my 8Gbs of RAM were fine....

As a result they gave me a brand new MB and processor, and so far no OS crashes and only one "Aw Snaps" page in Chrome.... However this BIOS bug disturbs me.... Should I just give up on this box or am I making a mountain out of a molehill and is the kernel being overly dramatic?!

This being my first Desktop PC, and me not being a low level hardware or programming guru I'm not really too sure where I stand...

Any help, advise or suggestions greatly appreciated

P.S. I must say, I'm very grateful to Fedora for bringing this issue to my attention. I was running Arch before the first RMA and hence why I probably didn't notice this back then, I wonder if this may have had something to do with that fault.... hmmm!

P.P.S. The BIOS is at the latest version...

shadoxx428 · 09-05-2013, 11:50 AM

It's probably nothing to worry about. As long as everything is working, and you've experienced no issues caused by this message specifically, it's more than likely not a big deal. If you're still feeling uneasy about it, I would go back to who you bought this PC from and ask for a different motherboard from a different vendor.

H_TeXMeX_H · 09-05-2013, 12:34 PM

I agree with shadoxx428, if you don't like the board, get another. If there are no problems, you shouldn't worry about the message, I've gotten it before too.

Arcane · 09-05-2013, 12:46 PM

Mini offtopic: How to check if BIOS really is broken if it even can be broken? PC is from about year 2005 and is called AMIBIOS if that actually matters.

knowayhack · 09-05-2013, 01:33 PM

Cheers for the responses guys. I have decided to go for a refund as I discovered that the one thing this bug definitely does break is the XEN and KVM support for virtualisation under Linux. Since this is something I was planning to do rather a lot of in the coming months, I consider the hardware "not fit for purpose". What's more, from some of the LKML threads I've read it strikes me as indicative of some sloppy and poor code on the part of the BIOS firmware writers, and thus of inadequate quality. I figure the only way to discourage this kind of crappy code quality is to kick up a stink about it when one has the opportunity to do so...

I shall definitely be doing some research into which motherboards are better quality than this over the next few days! Anyone got any suggestions for Haswell compatible MBs? Preferably ones with known BSD compatibility, as I'm *nix agnostic ;-)

Slightly off topic, but related to the same PC, I also have had troubles with two ICY Boxes (5-1/4 - 3-1/2 adaptor bays), that I brought with the bundle, and wondered if anyone had any suggestions for these items? I should probably start another thread, although to be fair it's probably not even sufficiently Linux related to be posted here at all...