# Unstable new gentoo installation. [still got hardlocks]

## hoacker

I'm not quite sure if this is the right section in the forums, but since I'm not quite sure about the problem I'll start here.

Few weeks ago I received a new convertible notebook,  a Fujitsu Lifebook T901, which is a replacement for it's predecessor, a Sony Vaio. I took the sony's world file info and make.conf as sample to get a setup similar to the Vaio. (No, I didn't just copy the files to the new box.) So far the Lifebook is working except for a few problems:

- the touchpad looses it's functionality from time to time. Sometimes just the left mouse button has no function for about a minute, sometimes it looses it's functionality completely until I restart the box. Unfortunately I have not detected a pattern when this occurs, but I expect sound playback.

- I just had a hardlock and I had to reset the box. There was virtually no load when the lock occured.

- (as already described in a different thread in Multimedia,) the switch between integrated speakers and headphones does not work, when I plug in/out the headphones.

I'd really appreciate some help to get rid of this problems, especially the touchpad thing, which is really annoying.

Some more info about the system: lspci;  lsusb;  emerge --info;  /usr/src/linux/.config

kernel: sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-2.6.39-r3

xorg: x11-base/xorg-server-1.10.4; x11-base/xorg-drivers-1.10

desktop environment: KDE 4.6.5

The system is mostly amd64, only some selected packages are ~amd64.

If you need more info, just ask for it. Thanks for any help in advance.Last edited by hoacker on Mon Oct 31, 2011 8:41 pm; edited 3 times in total

----------

## DirtyHairy

From the lspci, it looks like you have integrated HD3000 graphics. There is a known hardlock problem (which hit me too) which was solved with kernel 3.0, you should try upgrading. When doing the upgrade, you might add "i915.i915_enable_rc6=1" to the kernel command line --- this reactivates a part of the powersaving code which was disabled in 3.0 due to issues on some machines (made a difference of 3-5 watts for me). About the other issues, I can't offer any advices.

----------

## hoacker

 *DirtyHairy wrote:*   

> solved with kernel 3.0, you should try upgrading

 

Thanks, I'll try that.

Anyone an idea about the touchpad problem?

----------

## hoacker

This synaptics issue is really making me mad. Is there a way to reset/restart synaptics driver without rebooting? Even after restarting X the touchpad won't work, I have to reboot. I'm 99% sure that synaptics failure is related to sound playback. Conflicting hardware drivers/alsa/whatever?

----------

## hoacker

 *cach0rr0 wrote:*   

> you could always kill X completely, unload the drivers (unless it's "hung"), reload them, and start X again

 

Well, in this case it's more convenient for me to restart the box. A roundtrip (shutdown and restart) just takes about 50 seconds. No way to revive the touchpad without killing X?

----------

## hoacker

I see. You have an idea on how to get more (debug) info on this problem? I have scanned the logs but I didn't find anything related to the synaptics failure. Who else to turn to? X.org?

----------

## DirtyHairy

Just shooting at the dark: could it be that touchpad (i8042 I guess in /proc/interrupts) and sound share an interrup? If so, it might be wortwhile to play with the interrupt mapping in the bios.

----------

## hoacker

 *DirtyHairy wrote:*   

> Just shooting at the dark: could it be that touchpad (i8042 I guess in /proc/interrupts) and sound share an interrup? If so, it might be wortwhile to play with the interrupt mapping in the bios.

 

Hm, interrupts seem to be fine?

/proc/interrupts

```
            CPU0       CPU1       CPU2       CPU3       

   0:        126          0          0          0   IO-APIC-edge      timer

   1:        123          0          0          0   IO-APIC-edge      i8042

   8:          1          0          0          0   IO-APIC-edge      rtc0

   9:         59          0          0          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   acpi

  12:        402          0       1799          0   IO-APIC-edge      i8042

  22:        228          0          0          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   ehci_hcd:usb2

  23:         62          0          0          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   ehci_hcd:usb1

  40:       6792          0       4662          0   PCI-MSI-edge      ahci

  41:          1          0          0          0   PCI-MSI-edge      xhci_hcd

  42:          0          0          0          0   PCI-MSI-edge      xhci_hcd

  43:          0          0          0          0   PCI-MSI-edge      xhci_hcd

  44:          0          0          0          0   PCI-MSI-edge      xhci_hcd

  45:          0          0          0          0   PCI-MSI-edge      xhci_hcd

  46:        446          0          0          0   PCI-MSI-edge      eth0

  47:       3929          0          0          0   PCI-MSI-edge      iwlagn

  48:        887          0          0          0   PCI-MSI-edge      hda_intel

  49:       5080          0          0          0   PCI-MSI-edge      i915

 NMI:          0          0          0          0   Non-maskable interrupts

 LOC:      23663      18902      12004      14004   Local timer interrupts

 SPU:          0          0          0          0   Spurious interrupts

 PMI:          0          0          0          0   Performance monitoring interrupts

 IWI:          0          0          0          0   IRQ work interrupts

 RES:      13193      14166       3556       3887   Rescheduling interrupts

 CAL:        131        298        981        577   Function call interrupts

 TLB:        316        463        185        494   TLB shootdowns

 TRM:          0          0          0          0   Thermal event interrupts

 THR:          0          0          0          0   Threshold APIC interrupts

 MCE:          0          0          0          0   Machine check exceptions

 MCP:          2          2          2          2   Machine check polls

 ERR:          0

 MIS:          0

```

If interrupts are a problem, may the kernel option CONFIG_SPARSE_IRQ have an influence here? I just switched off this option, as I "don't know what to do here" anyway.

----------

## NeddySeagoon

hoacker,

Can you ssh into the box or get a console to post dmesg output and /var/log/Xorg.0 after the touchpad has failded?

----------

## hoacker

 *NeddySeagoon wrote:*   

> hoacker,
> 
> Can you ssh into the box or get a console to post dmesg output and /var/log/Xorg.0 after the touchpad has failded?

 

Sure I can, but I had a look at dmesg, /var/log/messages and /var/log/Xorg.0.log and there was nothing related. I'll check and post when the touchpad fails again.

----------

## hoacker

Hm, strange I didn't notice this before. There is an error message about synaptics in Xorg.0.log and the messages seem to be from last X start. The touchpad is working at the moment, by the way.

Relevant snippet (full Xorg.0.log at pastebin):

```
[    10.588] (--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: touchpad found

[    10.588] (II) config/udev: Adding input device SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad (/dev/input/mouse2)

[    10.588] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Applying InputClass "touchpad catchall"

[    10.588] (II) Using input driver 'synaptics' for 'SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad'

[    10.588] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/input/synaptics_drv.so

[    10.588] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: always reports core events

[    10.588] (**) Option "Device" "/dev/input/mouse2"

[    10.589] (--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: invalid x-axis range.  defaulting to 1615 - 5685

[    10.589] (--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: invalid y-axis range.  defaulting to 1729 - 4171

[    10.589] (--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: invalid pressure range.  defaulting to 0 - 256

[    10.589] (--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: invalid finger width range.  defaulting to 0 - 16

[    10.609] (EE) Query no Synaptics: 6003C8

[    10.609] (--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: no supported touchpad found

[    10.609] (EE) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad Unable to query/initialize Synaptics hardware.

[    10.637] (EE) PreInit returned 11 for "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"

[    10.637] (II) UnloadModule: "synaptics"

[    10.637] (II) Unloading synaptics

```

----------

## NeddySeagoon

hoacker,

Your log fragment suggests that the 

```
[    10.637] (II) Unloading synaptics 
```

synaptics driver was never used. That driver unload is only 10.6 seconds from startup.

```
[    10.496] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: always reports core events

[    10.496] (**) Option "Device" "/dev/input/event7"
```

and

```
[    10.588] (II) config/udev: Adding input device SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad (/dev/input/mouse2)

[    10.588] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Applying InputClass "touchpad catchall"
```

taken together suggest that you have two drivers fighting over your touchpad. I assume you only have a single touchpad?

and that "Unloading synaptics" suggests that the synaptics driver is loosing the fight.

For testing, remove the mouse driver.  

```
emerge -C xf86-input-mouse
```

which you should not need anyway.

Be sure you have a way to kill Xorg, if that leave you with no pointers before you test.

If that works, remove mouse from INPUT_DEVICES too, so its not pulled back in.

The synaptics driver certianly loads and finds the touchpad before 

```
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mouse2"
```

gets in on the act.

----------

## hoacker

Great, just had another hardlock when I selected text from konsole. Currently using gentoo-3.0.6 kernel.   :Mad: 

 *NeddySeagoon wrote:*   

> I assume you only have a single touchpad?

 

There's one touch pad, a circular area next to the touchpad which is supposed to be a "scrolling wheel" (could not fetch any event on linux so far) and a dual digitizer display which is basically a wacom tablet.

 *NeddySeagoon wrote:*   

> For testing, remove the mouse driver.  
> 
> ```
> emerge -C xf86-input-mouse
> ```
> ...

 

Got rid of the mouse driver, no more /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/input/mouse_drv.so left. Still got error messages, see a slightly larger snippet:

```

[    10.522] (**) Option "config_info" "udev:/sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio3/input/input6/event6"

[    10.522] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "PS/2 Generic Mouse" (type: MOUSE)

[    10.523] (II) PS/2 Generic Mouse: initialized for relative axes.

[    10.523] (**) PS/2 Generic Mouse: (accel) keeping acceleration scheme 1

[    10.523] (**) PS/2 Generic Mouse: (accel) acceleration profile 0

[    10.523] (**) PS/2 Generic Mouse: (accel) acceleration factor: 2.000

[    10.523] (**) PS/2 Generic Mouse: (accel) acceleration threshold: 4

[    10.523] (II) config/udev: Adding input device PS/2 Generic Mouse (/dev/input/mouse1)

[    10.523] (II) No input driver/identifier specified (ignoring)

[    10.523] (II) config/udev: Adding input device SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad (/dev/input/event7)

[    10.523] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Applying InputClass "evdev touchpad catchall"

[    10.523] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Applying InputClass "touchpad catchall"

[    10.523] (II) LoadModule: "synaptics"

[    10.523] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/input/synaptics_drv.so

[    10.524] (II) Module synaptics: vendor="X.Org Foundation"

[    10.524]    compiled for 1.10.4, module version = 1.4.0

[    10.524]    Module class: X.Org XInput Driver

[    10.524]    ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 12.2

[    10.524] (II) Using input driver 'synaptics' for 'SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad'

[    10.524] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/input/synaptics_drv.so

[    10.524] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: always reports core events

[    10.524] (**) Option "Device" "/dev/input/event7"

[    10.554] (--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: x-axis range 1472 - 5574

[    10.554] (--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: y-axis range 1408 - 4726

[    10.554] (--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: pressure range 0 - 255

[    10.554] (--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: finger width range 0 - 15

[    10.554] (--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: buttons: left right double triple scroll-buttons

[    10.586] (--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: touchpad found

[    10.586] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: always reports core events

[    10.618] (**) Option "config_info" "udev:/sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio4/input/input7/event7"

[    10.618] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" (type: TOUCHPAD)

[    10.618] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) MinSpeed is now constant deceleration 2.5

[    10.618] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: MaxSpeed is now 1.75

[    10.618] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: AccelFactor is now 0.038

[    10.619] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) keeping acceleration scheme 1

[    10.619] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) acceleration profile 1

[    10.619] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) acceleration factor: 2.000

[    10.619] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) acceleration threshold: 4

[    10.619] (--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: touchpad found

[    10.619] (II) config/udev: Adding input device SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad (/dev/input/mouse2)

[    10.619] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Applying InputClass "touchpad catchall"

[    10.620] (II) Using input driver 'synaptics' for 'SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad'

[    10.620] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/input/synaptics_drv.so

[    10.620] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: always reports core events

[    10.620] (**) Option "Device" "/dev/input/mouse2"

[    10.620] (--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: invalid x-axis range.  defaulting to 1615 - 5685

[    10.620] (--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: invalid y-axis range.  defaulting to 1729 - 4171

[    10.620] (--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: invalid pressure range.  defaulting to 0 - 256

[    10.620] (--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: invalid finger width range.  defaulting to 0 - 16

[    10.640] (EE) Query no Synaptics: 6003C8

[    10.640] (--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: no supported touchpad found

[    10.640] (EE) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad Unable to query/initialize Synaptics hardware.

[    10.668] (EE) PreInit returned 11 for "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"

[    10.668] (II) UnloadModule: "synaptics"

[    10.668] (II) Unloading synaptics

```

----------

## hoacker

OK, it just happened when I pressed Fn+F3 to mute.

snippet dmesg:

```
[   31.526639] CIFS VFS: default security mechanism requested.  The default security mechanism will be upgraded from ntlm to ntlmv2 in kernel release 3.1

[   36.511025] wlan0: no IPv6 routers present

[ 1245.170492] EXT3-fs: barriers not enabled

[ 1245.186777] kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds

[ 1245.186852] EXT3-fs (dm-1): warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended

[ 1245.194841] EXT3-fs (dm-1): using internal journal

[ 1245.194852] EXT3-fs (dm-1): mounted filesystem with writeback data mode

```

snippet Xorg.0.log (I accidently switched the screen orientation which is most likely the entries around 166*):

```
  10.700] (**) Wacom ISDv4 E6 Pen eraser: (accel) keeping acceleration scheme 1

[    10.700] (**) Wacom ISDv4 E6 Pen eraser: (accel) acceleration profile 0

[    10.700] (**) Wacom ISDv4 E6 Pen eraser: (accel) acceleration factor: 2.000

[    10.700] (**) Wacom ISDv4 E6 Pen eraser: (accel) acceleration threshold: 4

[    27.220] (II) intel(0): EDID vendor "BOE", prod id 2600

[    27.220] (II) intel(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:

[    27.220] (II) intel(0): Modeline "1280x800"x0.0   71.11  1280 1328 1360 1440  800 803 809 823 -hsync -vsync (49.4 kHz)

[  1663.329] (II) intel(0): EDID vendor "BOE", prod id 2600

[  1663.329] (II) intel(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:

[  1663.329] (II) intel(0): Modeline "1280x800"x0.0   71.11  1280 1328 1360 1440  800 803 809 823 -hsync -vsync (49.4 kHz)

[  1663.443] (II) intel(0): Allocated new frame buffer 832x1280 stride 3584, tiled

[  1663.448] (II) intel(0): Allocated new frame buffer 1280x800 stride 5120, tiled

[  1663.779] (II) intel(0): EDID vendor "BOE", prod id 2600

[  1663.779] (II) intel(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:

[  1663.779] (II) intel(0): Modeline "1280x800"x0.0   71.11  1280 1328 1360 1440  800 803 809 823 -hsync -vsync (49.4 kHz)

[  1663.975] (II) intel(0): EDID vendor "BOE", prod id 2600

[  1663.975] (II) intel(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:

[  1663.975] (II) intel(0): Modeline "1280x800"x0.0   71.11  1280 1328 1360 1440  800 803 809 823 -hsync -vsync (49.4 kHz)

[  1664.094] (II) intel(0): EDID vendor "BOE", prod id 2600

[  1664.094] (II) intel(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:

[  1664.094] (II) intel(0): Modeline "1280x800"x0.0   71.11  1280 1328 1360 1440  800 803 809 823 -hsync -vsync (49.4 kHz)

[  1664.207] (II) intel(0): EDID vendor "BOE", prod id 2600

[  1664.207] (II) intel(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:

[  1664.207] (II) intel(0): Modeline "1280x800"x0.0   71.11  1280 1328 1360 1440  800 803 809 823 -hsync -vsync (49.4 kHz)

[  1664.320] (II) intel(0): EDID vendor "BOE", prod id 2600

[  1664.320] (II) intel(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:

[  1664.320] (II) intel(0): Modeline "1280x800"x0.0   71.11  1280 1328 1360 1440  800 803 809 823 -hsync -vsync (49.4 kHz)

[  1664.601] (II) intel(0): EDID vendor "BOE", prod id 2600

[  1664.601] (II) intel(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:

[  1664.601] (II) intel(0): Modeline "1280x800"x0.0   71.11  1280 1328 1360 1440  800 803 809 823 -hsync -vsync (49.4 kHz)

[  1665.895] (II) intel(0): EDID vendor "BOE", prod id 2600

[  1665.895] (II) intel(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:

[  1665.895] (II) intel(0): Modeline "1280x800"x0.0   71.11  1280 1328 1360 1440  800 803 809 823 -hsync -vsync (49.4 kHz)

[  1666.056] (II) intel(0): Allocated new frame buffer 1280x800 stride 5120, tiled

[  1666.392] (II) intel(0): EDID vendor "BOE", prod id 2600

[  1666.392] (II) intel(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:

[  1666.392] (II) intel(0): Modeline "1280x800"x0.0   71.11  1280 1328 1360 1440  800 803 809 823 -hsync -vsync (49.4 kHz)

[  1666.585] (II) intel(0): EDID vendor "BOE", prod id 2600

[  1666.585] (II) intel(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:

[  1666.585] (II) intel(0): Modeline "1280x800"x0.0   71.11  1280 1328 1360 1440  800 803 809 823 -hsync -vsync (49.4 kHz)

[  1666.718] (II) intel(0): EDID vendor "BOE", prod id 2600

[  1666.718] (II) intel(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:

[  1666.718] (II) intel(0): Modeline "1280x800"x0.0   71.11  1280 1328 1360 1440  800 803 809 823 -hsync -vsync (49.4 kHz)

[  1666.831] (II) intel(0): EDID vendor "BOE", prod id 2600

[  1666.831] (II) intel(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:

[  1666.831] (II) intel(0): Modeline "1280x800"x0.0   71.11  1280 1328 1360 1440  800 803 809 823 -hsync -vsync (49.4 kHz)

[  1666.946] (II) intel(0): EDID vendor "BOE", prod id 2600

[  1666.946] (II) intel(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:

[  1666.946] (II) intel(0): Modeline "1280x800"x0.0   71.11  1280 1328 1360 1440  800 803 809 823 -hsync -vsync (49.4 kHz)

```

Nothing in /var/log/messages for the relevant timestamp.

----------

## NeddySeagoon

hoacker,

Its a single touchpad.  As both devices come up

[    10.523] (II) config/udev: Adding input device SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad (/dev/input/event7) 

[    10.619] (II) config/udev: Adding input device SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad (/dev/input/mouse2) 

I looks like your touchpad is being detected twice. If you have an xorg.conf or files in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d  please post it/them

----------

## hoacker

No xorg.conf and no files in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d, but I have files in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/:

10-evdev.conf,  50-synaptics.conf,  50-wacom.conf

There's an entry for touchpad in 10-evdev.conf and 50-synaptics.conf. I'll remove 50-synaptics.conf for testing purposes.

10-evdev.conf :

```

#

# Catch-all evdev loader for udev-based systems

# We don't simply match on any device since that also adds accelerometers

# and other devices that we don't really want to use. The list below

# matches everything but joysticks.

Section "InputClass"

        Identifier "evdev pointer catchall"

        MatchIsPointer "on"

        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"

        Driver "evdev"

EndSection

Section "InputClass"

        Identifier "evdev keyboard catchall"

        MatchIsKeyboard "on"

        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"

        Driver "evdev"

EndSection

Section "InputClass"

        Identifier "evdev touchpad catchall"

        MatchIsTouchpad "on"

        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"

        Driver "evdev"

EndSection

Section "InputClass"

        Identifier "evdev tablet catchall"

        MatchIsTablet "on"

        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"

        Driver "evdev"

EndSection

Section "InputClass"

        Identifier "evdev touchscreen catchall"

        MatchIsTouchscreen "on"

        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"

        Driver "evdev"

EndSection

```

50-synaptics.conf 

```

Section "InputClass"

        Identifier "touchpad catchall"

        Driver "synaptics"

        MatchIsTouchpad "on"

EndSection

```

----------

## hoacker

Success so far, the errors are gone from Xorg.0.log.

After removing 50-synaptics.conf the errors were gone, but my settings for the touchpad were also gone. So I modified the touchpad section in 10-evdev.conf from

```
Driver "evdev" 
```

to

```
Driver "synaptics" 
```

with the result that the error messages are gone AND I have my usual touchpad settings. Let's hope the problem is solved.

Thanks, NeddySeagoon, for pointing me in this direction.

----------

## NeddySeagoon

hoacker,

Do not modify the files in 

```
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/
```

emerge will revert them for you and you probably don't want that.

Copy any files you wish to change to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ and make your changes there.  

Files in this location take precedence over the content of /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/

----------

## hoacker

 *NeddySeagoon wrote:*   

> Do not modify the files in 
> 
> ```
> /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/
> ```
> ...

 

All right. I'll put the modified files where they belong. Thanks!

----------

## hoacker

One more hardlock, that's three in two weeks! I didn't have that many on all my other boxes in 4 years in total. How to approach this problem?

The good news: no more touchpad failure so far...

----------

## hoacker

 *hoacker wrote:*   

> One more hardlock, that's three in two weeks!

 

+1   :Mad: 

 *hoacker wrote:*   

> How to approach this problem?

 

Really nobody?

----------

## hoacker

This is really strange. No more hardlocks but three more touchpad failures, all related to FN+F3 (Sound ON/OFF). No errors in Xorg.0.log. Anybody?

----------

## NeddySeagoon

hoacker,

Fn+..

Makes BIOS calls ... what options do you have set in the kernel for reserving RAM for the BIOS and checking for BIOS induced RAM corruption?

----------

## hoacker

 *NeddySeagoon wrote:*   

> Makes BIOS calls ... what options do you have set in the kernel for reserving RAM for the BIOS and checking for BIOS induced RAM corruption?

 

X86_CHECK_BIOS_CORRUPTION [=n]

X86_RESERVE_LOW [=64]

Should I set the reserved memory to its max (640)?

----------

## NeddySeagoon

hoacker,

Its a long shout but worth a try.  64k should be plenty.

I think I would try X86_CHECK_BIOS_CORRUPTION [=y] first.

I'm not sure how much RAM that covers.

----------

## hoacker

OK, I'll set

X86_CHECK_BIOS_CORRUPTION [=y]

and add

memory_corruption_check=1

to the kernel command line.

I assume detected corruptions are logged in dmesg?

----------

## hoacker

 *hoacker wrote:*   

> OK, I'll [...] add
> 
> memory_corruption_check=1
> 
> to the kernel command line.

 

Ah, I see. Not necessary as this can be set via kernel config...

----------

## gorkypl

As a margin note - have you ever considered switching to ~amd64 completely? IIRC mixing the stable and unstable branches is not supported, but what is more important - the newest versions of packages usually tend to work better on quite new hardware.

----------

## hoacker

Aaarg, it just happened again, no more touchpad functionality. I'm running a kernel with corruption check for low 64K (I hope it's active, how can I check?) but nothing is showing in dmesg...

 *gorkypl wrote:*   

> have you ever considered switching to ~amd64 completely?

 

No, never considered that. I rather stick to amd64 with only few selected ~amd64 packages.

----------

## alkan

I had stability problems when I installed Gentoo with -march=native on my new desktop with SandyBridge CPU. gcc-4.5.3 does not support SandyBridge natively. 

Changed the flag to core2 recompiled everything and it is all fine. I'll switch back to native when newer versions of the gcc becomes stable which supports SandyBridge natively. I guess native flags works only for the CPUs gcc already knows about it.

I guess worth a try.

----------

## hoacker

 *alkan wrote:*   

> I guess worth a try.

 

Thanks, I'll try this. I'll recompile the kernel now and leave world for the weekend...

----------

## hoacker

I've rebuilt world, but still...

----------

## NeddySeagoon

hoacker,

Exactly what command did you use to rebuild world?

```
emerge world
```

 does exactly what it says on the tin. It rebuilds the packages listed in your world file.

```
emerge -e world
```

 is better as that will emerge everything in your world file and most things that those packages depend on which is probably not good enough.

Try 

```
cd /usr/protage

scripts/bootstrap.sh
```

keep an eye on the bootstrap to see which version of gcc it builds.  

Select the version of gcc just built above, if its a new one.

```
emerge -e system

emerge -e world
```

Thats the equivelent of a stage one install.  bootstrap.sh needs to run in one sitting as it does not support resume.  

You will build a few big packages more than once, e.g. gcc and glibc will be built three times but it makes sure you catch ever installed package. Further, it ensures that you use a newly built toolchain to do it with.

If your CFLAGS and/or your CPU specific USE flags are incorrect it will still be broken.

You can add -keep-going and --jobs=   to those build cammands if you wish.

----------

## hoacker

I did

```
emerge gcc
```

and later

```
emerge -e world
```

I currently have only gcc-4.5.3-r1 installed. I'll bootstrap this weekend.

Thanks again for your support, Neddy.

----------

## hoacker

I think it's time for a little update. (Happy new year, by the way...   :Laughing:  )

Hardlocks

Bootstrapping, rebuilding world etc. didn't help. The hardlocks seem to be caused by the kernel parameter "i915.i915_enable_rc6=1" which was set in my grub entries as suggested somewhere else. Sorry I didn't mention this, but I just didn't remember it set. I removed this option about 2 or 3 weeks ago and had not hardlock since.

Touchpad failures

I try to switch sound output as seldom as possible, no touchpad failure for quite a while.

Linux kernel and Cougar Point

I'm sticking to kernel 3.0.6 since newer kernels show regressions/problems with the cougar point chipset:

- Periodic disconnects of wlan interface still not solved with kernel 3.2.5 (but way less then 3.1.6 and 3.2.1)

- Laptop speakers cannot be used with 3.2.5, they are just not available. Only headphones available. I tried various kernel config options, but no way...

----------

