What does Linux have against ASUS (or vice versa)?
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What does Linux have against ASUS (or vice versa)?
First, before my subject line is misinterpreted as provocative, let me state that I have been running Linux for 11 years, on numerous hardware platforms and with a lot of fun and satisfaction.
I am also no stranger to the Microsoft world, especially Windows 2000. However, I am trying now to get away from it as much as possible...
I have been trying in the past 2 weeks or so to switch my main workstation's OS from Windows 2000 to Linux (in this case Ubuntu 6.0.6 LTS). This is workstation is ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe based (see my signature).
The boot CD couldn't boot without some help and time-consuming experimentation on my side: I managed to finally boot the Ubuntu CD and install it on that system only by specifying the following boot kernel option: irqpoll.
However, I also immediately noticed sluggish behavior that does not exist when I run Windows 2000 on the same exact hardware configuration (it is set to dual boot).
Quick examination of dmesg revealed:
Quote:
[17179569.184000] Kernel command line: root=/dev/sda3 ro quiet splash irqpoll
[17179569.184000] Misrouted IRQ fixup and polling support enabled
[17179569.184000] This may significantly impact system performance
I tried to track down the source for this problem and discovered (in dmesg also) numerous such messages:
Quote:
hdc: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01)
I first searched and combed the web for similar cases: I found quite a few, but none of them was solved or even answered....
I then posted requests for help of my own (this is my first post, so I cannot post links to other sites).
None of them yielded a solution to this problem.
After reaching a dead end with this motherboard, I recalled that weeks earlier I encountered an even more severe problem with another motherboard from ASUS: The P2B-S which is officially blacklisted. I managed to finally install some Linux on it, but it was not peforming well at all. This same board, too, works optimally with Windows 2000.
The common explanation for Linux problems on these boards is "Bad IRQ routing in the BIOS".
So, I couldn't avoid the following question: ASUS is known as a high quality board manufacturer. Its performance when Windows is installed clearly demonstrates it. So, how come Linux cannot (or does not want to) handle the apparent BIOS bugs (which Microsoft Windows have no problem dealing with)?
What am I missing here? Do I really have to abandon either Linux or ASUS in order to enjoy the luxury of optimal utilization of my hardware by the OS?
If needed, I can post dmesg or any other output needed to solve this mystery.
Thanks!
Alex
P.S. In my quest for an optimal run of Linux on the P4P800-E Deluxe motherboard, I tried to install Ubuntu 6.10, then Fedora Core 6, then Fedora Core 4, then Slackware 11... But none of them succeed passing the IRQ confusion in this motherboard.
So, how come Linux cannot (or does not want to) handle the apparent BIOS bugs (which Microsoft Windows have no problem dealing with)?
Don't get ill after I say this, as this is just a thought of less than one quarter of a cent, but..
If every "bug" or so would have to be "fixed" in the code, so that even every piece of hardware that have somekind of problem or two would work with Linux like a snitch, it would take enormously time from the developers. It's easier to create code for a sensible system and hope that manufacturers create their pieces of hardware so that code can be written to work with them, than take every possible error into account and let them (manufacturers) do what they want. In the end it would lead to everybody creating whatever they want, without caring about the program/OS developers. An example: it's easier to write code that works with common chipsets/boards than write the code a bit different way for every single manufacturer's devices. If ASUS was the only one, or one of the rare manufacturers, that create their hardware differently than others, resulting in a non-well working OS, it might not be wise to start doing "fixes" for that manufacturer, consuming time and code. It would simply encourage manufacturers to keep doing that way.
Having said that, I doubt if that really is the case. But anyway, I don't think it's completely Linux's "fault" that ASUS boards don't work with it (if that really is the case for every or most of the ASUS products), but I guess ASUS has some good reasons for doing their stuff so it's not "compliant" with others, if one can say that.
Another thing is: if the problem would consume enormously time from a developer (or developers), I can imagine that they -- if not specifically paid to do it -- would like to spend their precious time on other matters than one single manufacturer.
Again, don't get mad about this; it's just another perspective. I'm not saying it's anybodys fault since I don't have much experience about ASUS, not with Linuxes anyway.
Distribution: Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora, CentOS
Posts: 134
Rep:
I have Fedora on an ASUS motherboard.
I am typing this reply on my laptop that was purchased from R-Cubed Technologies (rcubedtech[DOT]com).
The laptop is an ASUS Z33A chipset and is modeled as the LS1250.
Fedora Core 5 installed flawlessly from the DVD with default settings (I've recently reinstalled the OS), however, R-Cubed has had to develop a custom kernel and hardware drivers to allow the onboard wireless NIC and all of the "special" keyboard keys to function properly.
I did test various features of the laptop after my reinstall of FC5 before applying the custom "patching" from R-Cubed and was able to confirm that out-of-the-box FC5 did not have the ability to operate the features named above, but in all other aspects still performed well.
Although I can't speak on the detailed code or kernel mods that they have developed, I thought that I might at least give you a nudge in the right direction towards some friendly and helpful guys that may be able to answer your questions in some more detail.
Good Luck!
P.S. This is a great laptop, I've used it for nearly 2 years now, and I've not had a moments trouble with it. I've had FC4 and FC5 on it, and within the month, will be moving to FC6. Also, the person that I contact there about the "patching" for new FC versions is extremely nice and willing to help.
Again, don't get mad about this; it's just another perspective.
Why should I get mad? I agree with everything you said and that's exactly why I found myself asking my question in the original post: How does Microsoft achieve the magic of optimally utilzing buggy ASUS boards?
I wish I knew the answer to this, since with that I can get back to the developers and help them address the problem.
As a newbie to this forum, once I post 3 messages I can refer you with URLs to the threads in which this problem is being discussed. There is a lot of information there that can give some insight to the problem.
Another hope that I have by posting this is that perhaps someone could eventually provide with a tip no one else have been able to think about before.
I will shortly post here a copy of the output of the dmesg command - just in case someone is able to notice something I haven't been able to see.
BTW, I am running the same version of Ubuntu on a Lenovo 3000 N100 laptop perfectly (well, almost perfectly).
I have found some weird errors trying to install Linux on machines without remembering to modify the PNP bios settings. You might try going to the bios and checking with option making the operating system a non plug and play os. Some bioses might list it as irq sharing, or something like that. The great thing is ONCE the operating system is installed, and you WILL succeed, you'll find significant help with almost any problem you encounter. BTW: I installed Xandros on my son's Aus motherboard with few problems. I have found that Asus is less than helpful trying to resolve Linux problems.
Got some weird things too, with an ASUS A8N-SLI. I could install Linux without problems but the network chip cuts off the traffic and you have to reboot to be on-line again (see my posting). I'm throwing it out of the window... Never ASUS again!!! These problems are not related to Linux. I would suggest to try to install windows too and to see if that is working allright. Maybe try a BIOS-update or check the settings. I'm hearing ticking noises in the speakers : static electricity building up in the chips???
Congratulations on having one of the only two motherboards with blacklisted (as exploding) pnpbios implementations on linux
The relevant line was
Code:
[17179570.100000] ASUS P4P800 detected. Disabling PnPBIOS
Not sure if this is causing your problems or not. Perhaps the best thing to do would be to see if disabling the disabling (i.e., commenting it out) might allow it to work with an updated BIOS?
You can find the original patch (that added your mo/bo model) here . I think it has adam's old email address. I believe his new one is something@mit.edu. Anyway, you might want to email him and see if he's alive. The patch to remove the blacklisting might look something like:
P.S.
Remember, I don't even know if this is the cause of your problem(s). I would suggest trying some other things (like double checking BIOS settings, trying the boot-line option "pci=routeirq", emailing the relevant developers, or investigating other possible angles) before loading a (potentially dangerous) kernel.
Linux does not rely on the BIOS for many tasks. For example, you can use a terabyte hard drive with Linux even though the BIOS only supports 32 GB. Also Linux chooses different methods to access ISA/PCI devices.
What ASUS does with their BIOS is optimize it, so it boots faster. It seems right now, booting faster is not always better. It is better to provide compatibility with many OS instead of being compatible with one OS.
I mainly use Abit motherboards. Though when I am starting to install Linux on a computer for the first time, I disable PNP OS or similar. Also set hard drive to LBA instead of AUTO. Enable fail-safe settings, so any aggressive memory settings do not screw up the installation.
The blacklist is there for a reason. You can apply the patch but expect data corruption or crashing.
Congratulations on having one of the only two motherboards with blacklisted (as exploding) pnpbios implementations on linux
The relevant line was
Code:
[17179570.100000] ASUS P4P800 detected. Disabling PnPBIOS
Wow! Thank you so much! You have just given me some hope to find a solution for the problem.
BTW, notice that this board, the Asus P4P800-E Deluxe, is listed in the LinuxQuestions.org HCL as recommended by 100% of the reviewers with an average rating of 8.8. Is it possible that not all aspects of this motherboard have been thoroughly tested by those reviewers?
Also, please note my "special circumstances" (as described in the original post): It's not that I cannot boot this board - it's only that when run, it's using IRQ polling and Misrouted IRQ Fixup, which significantly impacts system performance.
Having said the above, I went to the BIOS and started looking for "things to play with" . I immediately spotted that PCIPnP's "Plug & Play OS" was configured to [No]. I changed that to [Yes], rebooted, removed 'irqpool' from the boot kernel options and proceeded. The system booted! It was very slow to boot, but it eventually booted.
But... as soon as login to the Gnome Desktop, a message box greets me with the following:
Quote:
Internal error
failed to initialize HAL!
And... I am still getting the following error in dmesg:
In fact, I am now getting it multiple times in the dmesg. Also, all 3 DVD/CD drives and the USB ports disappeared...
I guess I will have to keep exploring.
At the end of this, I will either post a very low rating for this board in the HCL or - if I succeed in tweaking it - describe the solution here and give it maximum rating.
The blacklist is there for a reason. You can apply the patch but expect data corruption or crashing.
The item was added to the blacklist over two years ago. Perhaps one of ASUS's BIOS updates corrected the behavior. I was just suggesting that perhaps it should no longer be blacklisted. I think the safest way to find out is to ask Adam Belay (i figured out the new email address is "abelay" in place of "something" at mit.edu) who added it in the first place.
BTW, notice that this board, the Asus P4P800-E Deluxe, is listed in the LinuxQuestions.org HCL as recommended by 100% of the reviewers with an average rating of 8.8. Is it possible that not all aspects of this motherboard have been thoroughly tested by those reviewers?
Why don't you message the reviewers and see exactly how they got their's to work (i.e., what bios settings, what boot parameters, what kernel modules, etc.).
Why don't you message the reviewers and see exactly how they got their's to work (i.e., what bios settings, what boot parameters, what kernel modules, etc.).
I actually tried, but when I attempted to send them a message, a box pop-up saying that they have requested not be contacted via email.
Anyway, in my search for a solution, I found a post here (which I can't find anymore for some reason) that suggests changing the FastTrack 387's config in BIOS from P-ATA to S-ATA (even though my HDD is a P-ATA drive!).
I did so, tried booting without 'irqpoll' and... Wow! The system flies!
The errors described above disappeared (no more IRQ confusion, lost interrupts, disabled IRQs, etc.) but... upon login in, I am greeted with a message box saying:
Quote:
Internal error
failed to initialize HAL!
And the CD/DVD drives disappeared...
This is intriguing. Here is the output of the new dmesg, which looks much healthier, but still problematic:
Code:
[17179569.184000] Linux version 2.6.15-27-686 (buildd@terranova) (gcc version 4.0.3 (Ubuntu 4.0.3-1ubuntu5)) #1 SMP PREEMPT Sat Sep 16 02:13:27 UTC 2006
[17179569.184000] BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
[17179569.184000] BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)
[17179569.184000] BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
[17179569.184000] BIOS-e820: 00000000000e8000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
[17179569.184000] BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000003ffb0000 (usable)
[17179569.184000] BIOS-e820: 000000003ffb0000 - 000000003ffc0000 (ACPI data)
[17179569.184000] BIOS-e820: 000000003ffc0000 - 000000003fff0000 (ACPI NVS)
[17179569.184000] BIOS-e820: 000000003fff0000 - 0000000040000000 (reserved)
[17179569.184000] BIOS-e820: 00000000ffb80000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
[17179569.184000] 127MB HIGHMEM available.
[17179569.184000] 896MB LOWMEM available.
[17179569.184000] found SMP MP-table at 000ff780
[17179569.184000] On node 0 totalpages: 262064
[17179569.184000] DMA zone: 4096 pages, LIFO batch:0
[17179569.184000] DMA32 zone: 0 pages, LIFO batch:0
[17179569.184000] Normal zone: 225280 pages, LIFO batch:31
[17179569.184000] HighMem zone: 32688 pages, LIFO batch:7
[17179569.184000] DMI 2.3 present.
[17179569.184000] ACPI: RSDP (v000 ACPIAM ) @ 0x000fad80
[17179569.184000] ACPI: RSDT (v001 A M I OEMRSDT 0x09000505 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x3ffb0000
[17179569.184000] ACPI: FADT (v002 A M I OEMFACP 0x09000505 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x3ffb0200
[17179569.184000] ACPI: MADT (v001 A M I OEMAPIC 0x09000505 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x3ffb0390
[17179569.184000] ACPI: OEMB (v001 A M I OEMBIOS 0x09000505 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x3ffc0040
[17179569.184000] ACPI: DSDT (v001 A0030 A0030011 0x00000011 INTL 0x02002026) @ 0x00000000
[17179569.184000] ACPI: PM-Timer IO Port: 0x808
[17179569.184000] ACPI: Local APIC address 0xfee00000
[17179569.184000] ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x01] lapic_id[0x00] enabled)
[17179569.184000] Processor #0 15:4 APIC version 20
[17179569.184000] ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x02] lapic_id[0x01] enabled)
[17179569.184000] Processor #1 15:4 APIC version 20
[17179569.184000] ACPI: IOAPIC (id[0x02] address[0xfec00000] gsi_base[0])
[17179569.184000] IOAPIC[0]: apic_id 2, version 32, address 0xfec00000, GSI 0-23
[17179569.184000] ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 0 global_irq 2 dfl dfl)
[17179569.184000] ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 9 global_irq 9 high level)
[17179569.184000] ACPI: IRQ0 used by override.
[17179569.184000] ACPI: IRQ2 used by override.
[17179569.184000] ACPI: IRQ9 used by override.
[17179569.184000] Enabling APIC mode: Flat. Using 1 I/O APICs
[17179569.184000] Using ACPI (MADT) for SMP configuration information
[17179569.184000] Allocating PCI resources starting at 50000000 (gap: 40000000:bfb80000)
[17179569.184000] Built 1 zonelists
[17179569.184000] Kernel command line: root=/dev/sda3 ro
[17179569.184000] mapped APIC to ffffd000 (fee00000)
[17179569.184000] mapped IOAPIC to ffffc000 (fec00000)
[17179569.184000] Initializing CPU#0
[17179569.184000] PID hash table entries: 4096 (order: 12, 65536 bytes)
[17179569.184000] Detected 3007.425 MHz processor.
[17179569.184000] Using pmtmr for high-res timesource
[17179569.184000] Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
[17179571.536000] Dentry cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
[17179571.536000] Inode-cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
[17179571.560000] Memory: 1026944k/1048256k available (2115k kernel code, 20624k reserved, 595k data, 332k init, 130752k highmem)
[17179571.560000] Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode... Ok.
[17179571.640000] Calibrating delay using timer specific routine.. 6019.98 BogoMIPS (lpj=12039969)
[17179571.640000] Security Framework v1.0.0 initialized
[17179571.640000] SELinux: Disabled at boot.
[17179571.640000] Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
[17179571.640000] CPU: After generic identify, caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000 0000441d 00000000 00000000
[17179571.640000] CPU: After vendor identify, caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000 0000441d 00000000 00000000
[17179571.640000] monitor/mwait feature present.
[17179571.640000] using mwait in idle threads.
[17179571.640000] CPU: Trace cache: 12K uops, L1 D cache: 16K
[17179571.640000] CPU: L2 cache: 1024K
[17179571.640000] CPU: Hyper-Threading is disabled
[17179571.640000] CPU: After all inits, caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000080 0000441d 00000000 00000000
[17179571.640000] mtrr: v2.0 (20020519)
[17179571.640000] Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
[17179571.640000] Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
[17179571.640000] Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
[17179571.656000] SMP alternatives: switching to UP code
[17179571.656000] checking if image is initramfs... it is
[17179572.136000] Freeing initrd memory: 6808k freed
[17179572.140000] ACPI: Looking for DSDT ... not found!
[17179572.144000] CPU0: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz stepping 01
[17179572.144000] SMP alternatives: switching to SMP code
[17179572.144000] Booting processor 1/1 eip 3000
[17179572.156000] Initializing CPU#1
[17179572.236000] Calibrating delay using timer specific routine.. 6014.11 BogoMIPS (lpj=12028234)
[17179572.236000] CPU: After generic identify, caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000 0000441d 00000000 00000000
[17179572.236000] CPU: After vendor identify, caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000 0000441d 00000000 00000000
[17179572.236000] monitor/mwait feature present.
[17179572.236000] CPU: Trace cache: 12K uops, L1 D cache: 16K
[17179572.236000] CPU: L2 cache: 1024K
[17179572.236000] CPU: Hyper-Threading is disabled
[17179572.236000] CPU: After all inits, caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000080 0000441d 00000000 00000000
[17179572.236000] CPU1: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz stepping 01
[17179572.236000] Total of 2 processors activated (12034.10 BogoMIPS).
[17179572.236000] ENABLING IO-APIC IRQs
[17179572.236000] ..TIMER: vector=0x31 apic1=0 pin1=2 apic2=-1 pin2=-1
[17179572.380000] checking TSC synchronization across 2 CPUs: passed.
[17179572.384000] Brought up 2 CPUs
[17179572.384000] NET: Registered protocol family 16
[17179572.384000] EISA bus registered
[17179572.384000] ACPI: bus type pci registered
[17179572.384000] PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xf0031, last bus=2
[17179572.384000] PCI: Using configuration type 1
[17179572.384000] ACPI: Subsystem revision 20051216
[17179572.388000] ACPI: Interpreter enabled
[17179572.388000] ACPI: Using IOAPIC for interrupt routing
[17179572.388000] ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (0000:00)
[17179572.388000] PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
[17179572.392000] PCI quirk: region 0800-087f claimed by ICH4 ACPI/GPIO/TCO
[17179572.392000] PCI quirk: region 0480-04bf claimed by ICH4 GPIO
[17179572.392000] PCI: Ignoring BAR0-3 of IDE controller 0000:00:1f.1
[17179572.392000] Boot video device is 0000:01:00.0
[17179572.392000] PCI: Transparent bridge - 0000:00:1e.0
[17179572.392000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT]
[17179572.404000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.P0P4._PRT]
[17179572.408000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 *10 11 12 14 15)
[17179572.412000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs 3 4 *5 6 7 10 11 12 14 15)
[17179572.412000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 3 4 *5 6 7 10 11 12 14 15)
[17179572.412000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs 3 4 *5 6 7 10 11 12 14 15)
[17179572.412000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKE] (IRQs 3 4 *5 6 7 10 11 12 14 15)
[17179572.412000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKF] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 10 11 12 14 15) *0, disabled.
[17179572.416000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKG] (IRQs 3 4 6 7 *10 11 12 14 15)
[17179572.416000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKH] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 10 *11 12 14 15)
[17179572.416000] Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay
[17179572.416000] pnp: PnP ACPI init
[17179572.420000] pnp: PnP ACPI: found 13 devices
[17179572.420000] ASUS P4P800 detected. Disabling PnPBIOS
[17179572.420000] PnPBIOS: Disabled
[17179572.420000] PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
[17179572.420000] PCI: If a device doesn't work, try "pci=routeirq". If it helps, post a report
[17179572.424000] pnp: 00:09: ioport range 0x680-0x6ff has been reserved
[17179572.424000] pnp: 00:09: ioport range 0x290-0x297 has been reserved
[17179572.424000] PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:01.0
[17179572.424000] IO window: disabled.
[17179572.424000] MEM window: fc900000-fe9fffff
[17179572.424000] PREFETCH window: eff00000-f7efffff
[17179572.424000] PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:1e.0
[17179572.424000] IO window: d000-dfff
[17179572.424000] MEM window: fea00000-feafffff
[17179572.424000] PREFETCH window: 50000000-500fffff
[17179572.428000] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1e.0 to 64
[17179572.428000] audit: initializing netlink socket (disabled)
[17179572.428000] audit(1163021460.424:1): initialized
[17179572.428000] highmem bounce pool size: 64 pages
[17179572.428000] VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.1
[17179572.428000] Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 4096 bytes)
[17179572.428000] Initializing Cryptographic API
[17179572.428000] io scheduler noop registered
[17179572.428000] io scheduler anticipatory registered
[17179572.428000] io scheduler deadline registered
[17179572.428000] io scheduler cfq registered
[17179572.428000] isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
[17179572.780000] isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
[17179572.800000] Real Time Clock Driver v1.12
[17179572.800000] PNP: PS/2 Controller [PNP0303:PS2K,PNP0f03:PS2M] at 0x60,0x64 irq 1,12
[17179572.804000] serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
[17179572.804000] serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
[17179572.804000] Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 48 ports, IRQ sharing enabled
[17179572.804000] serial8250: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
[17179572.804000] serial8250: ttyS1 at I/O 0x2f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
[17179572.804000] 00:06: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
[17179572.804000] 00:07: ttyS1 at I/O 0x2f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
[17179572.808000] RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 65536K size 1024 blocksize
[17179572.808000] Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
[17179572.808000] ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
[17179572.808000] mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
[17179572.808000] EISA: Probing bus 0 at eisa.0
[17179572.808000] EISA: Detected 0 cards.
[17179572.808000] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[17179572.836000] input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /class/input/input0
[17179572.868000] IP route cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
[17179572.868000] TCP established hash table entries: 262144 (order: 9, 3145728 bytes)
[17179572.868000] TCP bind hash table entries: 65536 (order: 7, 786432 bytes)
[17179572.868000] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 262144 bind 65536)
[17179572.868000] TCP reno registered
[17179572.868000] TCP bic registered
[17179572.868000] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[17179572.868000] NET: Registered protocol family 8
[17179572.868000] NET: Registered protocol family 20
[17179572.868000] Starting balanced_irq
[17179572.868000] Using IPI No-Shortcut mode
[17179572.868000] ACPI wakeup devices:
[17179572.868000] P0P4 MC97 USB1 USB2 USB3 USB4 EUSB PS2K PS2M ILAN
[17179572.872000] ACPI: (supports S0 S1 S3 S4 S5)
[17179572.872000] Freeing unused kernel memory: 332k freed
[17179572.916000] Capability LSM initialized
[17179573.436000] SCSI subsystem initialized
[17179573.436000] ACPI: bus type scsi registered
[17179573.436000] libata version 1.20 loaded.
[17179573.440000] sata_promise 0000:02:04.0: version 1.03
[17179573.440000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:04.0[A] -> GSI 23 (level, low) -> IRQ 169
[17179573.440000] sata_promise PATA port found
[17179573.456000] ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xF882E200 ctl 0xF882E238 bmdma 0x0 irq 169
[17179573.456000] ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xF882E280 ctl 0xF882E2B8 bmdma 0x0 irq 169
[17179573.456000] ata3: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xF882E300 ctl 0xF882E338 bmdma 0x0 irq 169
[17179573.664000] ata1: no device found (phy stat 00000000)
[17179573.664000] scsi0 : sata_promise
[17179573.872000] ata2: no device found (phy stat 00000000)
[17179573.872000] scsi1 : sata_promise
[17179574.044000] ata3: dev 0 cfg 00:045a 49:2f00 82:346b 83:7f01 84:4003 85:3c69 86:3c01 87:4003 88:407f 93:600b
[17179574.044000] ata3: dev 0 ATA-7, max UDMA/133, 312581808 sectors: LBA48
[17179574.044000] ata3: dev 0 configured for UDMA/133
[17179574.044000] sata_get_dev_handle: SATA dev addr=0x40000, handle=0x00000000
[17179574.044000] scsi2 : sata_promise
[17179574.044000] Vendor: ATA Model: SAMSUNG SP1614N Rev: TM10
[17179574.044000] Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 05
[17179574.052000] Driver 'sd' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
[17179574.052000] SCSI device sda: 312581808 512-byte hdwr sectors (160042 MB)
[17179574.052000] SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
[17179574.052000] SCSI device sda: 312581808 512-byte hdwr sectors (160042 MB)
[17179574.052000] SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
[17179574.052000] sda: sda2 sda3 sda4 < sda5 sda6 >
[17179574.096000] sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sda
[17179574.364000] ICH5: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:1f.1
[17179574.364000] PCI: Enabling device 0000:00:1f.1 (0005 -> 0007)
[17179574.364000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.1[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 177
[17179574.364000] ICH5: chipset revision 2
[17179574.364000] ICH5: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
[17179574.364000] ide0: BM-DMA at 0xfc00-0xfc07, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:DMA
[17179574.364000] ide1: BM-DMA at 0xfc08-0xfc0f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio
[17179574.364000] Probing IDE interface ide0...
[17179575.104000] hda: LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1693S, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
[17179575.892000] hdb: LITE-ON LTR-32123S, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
[17179575.952000] ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
[17179575.956000] Probing IDE interface ide1...
[17179576.696000] hdc: LITEON DVD-ROM LTD163D, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
[17179577.036000] ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
[17179577.048000] hda: ATAPI 48X DVD-ROM DVD-R CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache, UDMA(33)
[17179577.048000] Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
[17179577.064000] hdb: ATAPI 40X CD-ROM CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache, UDMA(33)
[17179577.104000] hdc: ATAPI 48X DVD-ROM drive, 512kB Cache, UDMA(33)
[17179577.212000] usbcore: registered new driver usbfs
[17179577.212000] usbcore: registered new driver hub
[17179577.216000] USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v2.3
[17179577.216000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 185
[17179577.216000] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.0 to 64
[17179577.216000] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: UHCI Host Controller
[17179577.216000] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
[17179577.216000] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: irq 185, io base 0x0000ef00
[17179577.216000] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[17179577.216000] hub 1-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
[17179577.268000] ieee1394: Initialized config rom entry `ip1394'
[17179577.324000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.1[B] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 193
[17179577.324000] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.1 to 64
[17179577.324000] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: UHCI Host Controller
[17179577.324000] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
[17179577.324000] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: irq 193, io base 0x0000ef20
[17179577.324000] hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
[17179577.324000] hub 2-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
[17179577.432000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.2[C] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 177
[17179577.432000] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.2 to 64
[17179577.432000] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: UHCI Host Controller
[17179577.432000] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3
[17179577.432000] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: irq 177, io base 0x0000ef40
[17179577.432000] hub 3-0:1.0: USB hub found
[17179577.432000] hub 3-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
[17179577.540000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.3[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 185
[17179577.540000] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.3 to 64
[17179577.540000] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.3: UHCI Host Controller
[17179577.540000] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.3: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 4
[17179577.540000] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.3: irq 185, io base 0x0000ef80
[17179577.540000] hub 4-0:1.0: USB hub found
[17179577.540000] hub 4-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
[17179577.564000] usb 1-2: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
[17179577.648000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.7[D] -> GSI 23 (level, low) -> IRQ 169
[17179577.648000] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.7 to 64
[17179577.648000] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: EHCI Host Controller
[17179577.648000] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: debug port 1
[17179577.648000] PCI: cache line size of 128 is not supported by device 0000:00:1d.7
[17179577.648000] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 5
[17179577.648000] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: irq 169, io mem 0xfebfbc00
[17179577.652000] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00, driver 10 Dec 2004
[17179577.652000] hub 5-0:1.0: USB hub found
[17179577.652000] hub 5-0:1.0: 8 ports detected
[17179577.760000] ohci1394: $Rev: 1313 $ Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org>
[17179577.760000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:03.0[A] -> GSI 20 (level, low) -> IRQ 201
[17179577.760000] PCI: Via IRQ fixup for 0000:02:03.0, from 5 to 9
[17179577.812000] ohci1394: fw-host0: OHCI-1394 1.0 (PCI): IRQ=[201] MMIO=[feaff800-feafffff] Max Packet=[2048]
[17179577.880000] Attempting manual resume
[17179577.912000] EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
[17179577.912000] kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
[17179578.100000] usb 1-2: device not accepting address 2, error -71
[17179578.592000] usb 1-2: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 4
[17179579.096000] ieee1394: Host added: ID:BUS[0-00:1023] GUID[0011d80000493003]
[17179583.616000] sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
[17179585.200000] pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
[17179585.212000] shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
[17179585.236000] hw_random hardware driver 1.0.0 loaded
[17179585.288000] Linux agpgart interface v0.101 (c) Dave Jones
[17179585.292000] agpgart: Detected an Intel 865 Chipset.
[17179585.300000] agpgart: AGP aperture is 64M @ 0xf8000000
[17179585.572000] nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
[17179585.576000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:00.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 185
[17179585.580000] NVRM: loading NVIDIA Linux x86 Kernel Module 1.0-8762 Mon May 15 13:06:38 PDT 2006
[17179585.788000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.5[B] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 209
[17179585.788000] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.5 to 64
[17179585.912000] usbcore: registered new driver hiddev
[17179585.940000] input: PS2++ Logitech Wheel Mouse as /class/input/input1
[17179585.952000] parport: PnPBIOS parport detected.
[17179585.952000] parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778), irq 7, dma 3 [PCSPP,TRISTATE,COMPAT,EPP,ECP,DMA]
[17179585.952000] input: PC Speaker as /class/input/input2
[17179585.976000] hiddev96: USB HID v1.00 Device [ActionStar] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-2
[17179585.976000] usbcore: registered new driver usbhid
[17179585.976000] drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.6:USB HID core driver
[17179586.144000] intel8x0_measure_ac97_clock: measured 57513 usecs
[17179586.144000] intel8x0: clocking to 48000
[17179586.244000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:05.0[A] -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 217
[17179586.244000] skge 1.5 addr 0xfeaf8000 irq 217 chip Yukon-Lite rev 9
[17179586.244000] skge eth0: addr 00:13:d4:4e:ef:af
[17179586.328000] ts: Compaq touchscreen protocol output
[17179586.480000] skge eth0: enabling interface
[17179586.604000] lp0: using parport0 (interrupt-driven).
[17179586.632000] sbp2: $Rev: 1306 $ Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org>
[17179586.632000] ieee1394: sbp2: Driver forced to serialize I/O (serialize_io=1)
[17179586.632000] ieee1394: sbp2: Try serialize_io=0 for better performance
[17179586.692000] Adding 2104472k swap on /dev/sda5. Priority:-1 extents:1 across:2104472k
[17179586.728000] EXT3 FS on sda3, internal journal
[17179586.852000] md: md driver 0.90.3 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27
[17179586.852000] md: bitmap version 4.39
[17179587.256000] device-mapper: 4.4.0-ioctl (2005-01-12) initialised: dm-devel@redhat.com
[17179587.352000] cdrom: open failed.
[17179588.260000] cdrom: open failed.
[17179588.284000] skge eth0: Link is up at 100 Mbps, full duplex, flow control tx and rx
[17179588.300000] cdrom: open failed.
[17179588.600000] NTFS driver 2.1.25 [Flags: R/O MODULE].
[17179588.640000] NTFS volume version 3.1.
[17179588.672000] NTFS volume version 3.1.
[17179588.920000] NET: Registered protocol family 10
[17179588.920000] lo: Disabled Privacy Extensions
[17179588.920000] IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling driver
[17179590.204000] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[17179594.660000] ACPI: Power Button (FF) [PWRF]
[17179594.660000] ACPI: Power Button (CM) [PWRB]
[17179594.744000] ibm_acpi: ec object not found
[17179594.788000] pcc_acpi: loading...
[17179597.348000] agpgart: Found an AGP 3.0 compliant device at 0000:00:00.0.
[17179597.352000] agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:00:00.0 into 8x mode
[17179597.352000] agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:01:00.0 into 8x mode
[17179598.448000] ppdev: user-space parallel port driver
[17179598.752000] apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x03 (Driver version 1.16ac)
[17179598.752000] apm: disabled - APM is not SMP safe.
[17179599.472000] eth0: no IPv6 routers present
[17179612.956000] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.8
[17179612.956000] NET: Registered protocol family 31
[17179612.956000] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
[17179612.956000] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
[17179613.008000] Bluetooth: L2CAP ver 2.8
[17179613.008000] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
[17179613.028000] Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
[17179613.028000] Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
[17179613.028000] Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.7
I actually tried, but when I attempted to send them a message, a box pop-up saying that they have requested not be contacted via email.
Anyway, in my search for a solution, I found a post here (which I can't find anymore for some reason) that suggests changing the FastTrack 387's config in BIOS from P-ATA to S-ATA (even though my HDD is a P-ATA drive!).
I did so, tried booting without 'irqpoll' and... Wow! The system flies!
And the CD/DVD drives disappeared...
Any idea what's happening?
Thanks,
Alex
That's really strange. It seems you're using a SATA/SCSI driver on top of which the kernel wants to access your PATA
Could you give us your drive topology (i.e., what devices are on what channels as master and slave)? I've provided a copy of some of your output focused on what looks to be the important areas:
Code:
[17179572.916000] Capability LSM initialized
[17179573.436000] SCSI subsystem initialized
[17179573.436000] ACPI: bus type scsi registered
[17179573.436000] libata version 1.20 loaded.
[17179573.440000] sata_promise 0000:02:04.0: version 1.03
<SNIP>
[17179573.440000] sata_promise PATA port found
[17179573.456000] ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xF882E200 ctl 0xF882E238 bmdma 0x0 irq 169
[17179573.456000] ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xF882E280 ctl 0xF882E2B8 bmdma 0x0 irq 169
[17179573.456000] ata3: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xF882E300 ctl 0xF882E338 bmdma 0x0 irq 169
[17179573.664000] ata1: no device found (phy stat 00000000)
[17179573.664000] scsi0 : sata_promise
[17179573.872000] ata2: no device found (phy stat 00000000)
[17179573.872000] scsi1 : sata_promise
[17179574.044000] ata3: dev 0 cfg 00:045a 49:2f00 82:346b 83:7f01 84:4003 85:3c69 86:3c01 87:4003 88:407f 93:600b
[17179574.044000] ata3: dev 0 ATA-7, max UDMA/133, 312581808 sectors: LBA48
[17179574.044000] ata3: dev 0 configured for UDMA/133
[17179574.044000] sata_get_dev_handle: SATA dev addr=0x40000, handle=0x00000000
[17179574.044000] scsi2 : sata_promise
[17179574.044000] Vendor: ATA Model: SAMSUNG SP1614N Rev: TM10
[17179574.044000] Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 05
[17179574.052000] Driver 'sd' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
[17179574.052000] SCSI device sda: 312581808 512-byte hdwr sectors (160042 MB)
[17179574.052000] SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
[17179574.052000] SCSI device sda: 312581808 512-byte hdwr sectors (160042 MB)
[17179574.052000] SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
[17179574.052000] sda: sda2 sda3 sda4 < sda5 sda6 >
[17179574.096000] sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sda
<SNIP>
[17179574.364000] ide0: BM-DMA at 0xfc00-0xfc07, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:DMA
[17179574.364000] ide1: BM-DMA at 0xfc08-0xfc0f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio
[17179574.364000] Probing IDE interface ide0...
[17179575.104000] hda: LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1693S, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
[17179575.892000] hdb: LITE-ON LTR-32123S, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
[17179575.952000] ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
[17179575.956000] Probing IDE interface ide1...
[17179576.696000] hdc: LITEON DVD-ROM LTD163D, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
[17179577.036000] ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
[17179577.048000] hda: ATAPI 48X DVD-ROM DVD-R CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache, UDMA(33)
[17179577.048000] Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
[17179577.064000] hdb: ATAPI 40X CD-ROM CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache, UDMA(33)
[17179577.104000] hdc: ATAPI 48X DVD-ROM drive, 512kB Cache, UDMA(33)
<BIG SNIP of USB & Firewire stuff>
[17179583.616000] sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
<SNIP looks like a lot of modules being loaded>
[17179586.692000] Adding 2104472k swap on /dev/sda5. Priority:-1 extents:1 across:2104472k
[17179586.728000] EXT3 FS on sda3, internal journal
[17179586.852000] md: md driver 0.90.3 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27
[17179586.852000] md: bitmap version 4.39
[17179587.256000] device-mapper: 4.4.0-ioctl (2005-01-12) initialised: dm-devel@redhat.com
[17179587.352000] cdrom: open failed.
[17179588.260000] cdrom: open failed.
[17179588.300000] cdrom: open failed.
Around timestamp [17179573.456000], we see ata1 and ata2 recognized as two SATA busses with no devices found. ata3 has device(s?), and looks like the ide bus. Then it recognizes (around [17179574.052000]) what I assume to be your harddrive (SAMSUNG SP1614N) with six partitions, but for some reason it calls it sda (sda[1-6]) even though it's a pata drive
More confusion ensues at [17179574.364000], where it probes ide0 and ide1 (if it's now probing ide0 and ide1, wtf did it probe to find the hard drive?) with two devices (hda and hdb) on ide0 and one device (hdc) on ide1. hda seems to be a DVD-ROM/CDRW drive, hdb is a CD-R/RW drive, and hdc is a DVD-ROM drive (all three seemingly have DMA enabled).
Then a bunch of stuff happens (USB and firewire)... at [17179583.616000] it looks like something called sg0 is loaded (not sure if this is pertaining to some sort of card reader?). Then what seems to be a lot of modules is loaded, the EXT3 filesystem is detected on sda3. Then the MD (MD == multiple device == RAID/LVM) driver is loaded, a few jiffies after which "cdrom: open failed." is repeatedly printed.
My first suggestion would be to tell us what you mean by disappeared. Maybe post a long listing (ls -l) of /dev. To me, it initially seems your DVD/CD drives are recognized as hd[a-c] and your hard drive is sda (is this correct?). Also, the output of mount or the contents of mtab and fstab. The other thing to do is to disconnect as much extra (i.e., usb, printer, network, mouse, etc.) stuff from your computer as you can easily do (if you can easily do so, internally disconnect any card readers as they may botch up the naming sequence. if not, just tell us how many card reader slots there are, etc.). After all that, figure out how you get your specific distro in SingleUser/Maintainence/SuperUser/Minimalist/Equivalent mode, and boot into that mode. Here, you may try (probably via comand-line) various checks (such as looking for drives) and such sort of experimentation (i have a feeling a cardreader or maybe raid is messing with your drives which were previously detected fine).
If you don't need/use RAID, disable it in the bios. Likewise for LVM. (unless doing the latter two tasks breaks your system )
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. I immediately spotted that PCIPnP's "Plug & Play OS" was configured to [No]. I changed that to [Yes], rebooted, removed 'irqpool' from the boot kernel options and proceeded. The system booted! It was very slow to boot, but it eventually booted.
