# Experiencing a strange reboot 'issue'

## hanj

Hello All

I'm experiencing a strange reboot 'issue' that I'm hoping a gentoo badass will be able to help with. I've posted some issues in this thread.. but I think it may differ enough to start my own thread. 

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-310636-highlight-sis+reboot.html

I believe my problem is a combination of kernel and hardware. I'm currently hosting with a dedicated hosting company on a Sempron box. The problem is reproducable everytime, and is absolutely critical that I get it fixed.

To reproduce the problem.

1. Reboot the box

2. When it comes up.. it will have trouble resolving names, so some items will not work (ping, ntp, etc), other than that all services come up without a hitch.

3. Checking dmesg or messages for boot message.. this will always be present:

```
Failed to disable AUX port, but continuing anyway... Is this a SiS?

If AUX port is really absent please use the 'i8042.noaux' option.
```

4. If I reboot again. it will hang on the shutdown everytime. Only way to remedy this is to contact tech support, where they will do a powercycle. When it comes up after powercylce.. the above AUX lines will NOT be present in messages.

Hosting support mentioned that this happens with 2.6 kernels on their boxes... so it must be an issue with 2.6 kernel with their hardware configuration. I run 2.6 hardened kernel on 10 other boxes with similar configs without this problem. Obviously not being able to reboot is a HUGE issue.. so I'd love any help.

I'll include some info about the box... let me know if you need any other information:

Output of lspci -v

```
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8378 [KM400/A] Chipset Host Bridge

        Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8378 [KM400/A] Chipset Host Bridge

        Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 8

        Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable)

        Capabilities: [80] AGP version 3.5

        Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2

0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI Bridge (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])

        Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 0

        Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0

        Memory behind bridge: e8000000-e9ffffff

        Prefetchable memory behind bridge: e4000000-e7ffffff

        Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2

0000:00:0f.0 RAID bus controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA RAID Controller (rev 80)

        Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA RAID Controller

        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 11

        I/O ports at c000

        I/O ports at c400 [size=4]

        I/O ports at c800 [size=8]

        I/O ports at cc00 [size=4]

        I/O ports at d000 [size=16]

        I/O ports at d400 [size=256]

        Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2

0000:00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])

        Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT8233/A/C/VT8235 PIPC Bus Master IDE

        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32

        I/O ports at d800 [size=16]

        Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2

0000:00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [KT600/K8T800/K8T890 South]

        Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. DFI KT600-AL Motherboard

        Flags: bus master, stepping, medium devsel, latency 0

        Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2

0000:00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 78)

        Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine II] Embeded Ethernet Controller on VT8235

        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 10

        I/O ports at ec00

        Memory at ea001000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]

        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8378 [S3 UniChrome] Integrated Video (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [VGA])

        Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8378 [S3 UniChrome] Integrated Video

        Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 10

        Memory at e4000000 (32-bit, prefetchable)

        Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]

        Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2

        Capabilities: [70] AGP version 2.0
```

output of proc/cpuinfo

```
processor       : 0

vendor_id       : AuthenticAMD

cpu family      : 6

model           : 10

model name      : AMD Sempron(tm)   3000+

stepping        : 0

cpu MHz         : 1999.874

cache size      : 512 KB

fdiv_bug        : no

hlt_bug         : no

f00f_bug        : no

coma_bug        : no

fpu             : yes

fpu_exception   : yes

cpuid level     : 1

wp              : yes

flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse pni syscall mp mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow

bogomips        : 3923.96
```

output of proc/meminfo

```
MemTotal:       500176 kB

MemFree:         58908 kB

Buffers:         58400 kB

Cached:         208276 kB

SwapCached:          0 kB

Active:         237876 kB

Inactive:       128308 kB

HighTotal:           0 kB

HighFree:            0 kB

LowTotal:       500176 kB

LowFree:         58908 kB

SwapTotal:      979956 kB

SwapFree:       979956 kB

Dirty:               8 kB

Writeback:           0 kB

Mapped:         110736 kB

Slab:            72688 kB

CommitLimit:   1230044 kB

Committed_AS:   199772 kB

PageTables:       1080 kB

VmallocTotal:   524280 kB

VmallocUsed:       596 kB

VmallocChunk:   523668 kB
```

emerge info:

```
Portage 2.0.51.19 (default-linux/x86/2005.0, gcc-3.3.5-20050130, glibc-2.3.4.20041102-r1, 2.6.11-hardened-r15 i686)

=================================================================

System uname: 2.6.11-hardened-r15 i686 AMD Sempron(tm)   3000+

Gentoo Base System version 1.6.12

Python:              dev-lang/python-2.3.5 [2.3.5 (#1, Jun 21 2005, 18:19:34)]

dev-lang/python:     2.3.5

sys-apps/sandbox:    [Not Present]

sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.59-r6

sys-devel/automake:  1.5, 1.8.5-r3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.6.3, 1.4_p6, 1.9.5

sys-devel/binutils:  2.15.92.0.2-r10

sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.16

virtual/os-headers:  2.6.8.1-r2

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"

AUTOCLEAN="yes"

CFLAGS="-mcpu=athlon-xp -O3 -pipe"

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control"

CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d"

CXXFLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=i686 -pipe"

DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"

FEATURES="autoaddcvs autoconfig ccache distlocks sandbox sfperms strict"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo"

MAKEOPTS="-j2"

PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"

PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"

PORTDIR="/usr/portage"

PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage"

SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"

USE="x86 alsa apache2 apm berkdb crypt emboss fortran gd gdbm gif gpm imlib innodb jpeg libg++ libwww maildir mp3 mysql ncurses openssh pam pdflib perl php png pwdb python readline sasl snmp snortsam spell ssl tcpd xml2 zlib userland_GNU kernel_linux elibc_glibc"

Unset:  ASFLAGS, CBUILD, CTARGET, LANG, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, LINGUAS
```

Let me know if anyone wants to see my kernel config.

Thanks everyone.

hanji

----------

## mikegpitt

I read in the other thread a few peoples comments, and noticed that you said you don't have module support in your kernel.  Maybe you can try some of these options:

- compile out PS mouse

- compile out ipw2200 

- compile out i8042

BTW - What is the i8042?

It is probably hanging because it's trying to use the AUX port and there is none...  Which makes me wonder do you need to compile in support for your AUX ports?  Another thing I'm wondering, when you boot off the gentoo livecd does it reboot or hang?  I'm thinking that because the livecd does a lot of hardware detection it is detecting the ports and loading in the correct modules.  You can maybe see from the bootup what modules it is using.

----------

## hanj

Thanks for the reply..

 *Quote:*   

> - compile out PS mouse
> 
> - compile out ipw2200
> 
> - compile out i8042

 

I did try to compile out PS mouse support, ipw2200 is not available in my config.. not sure where that is from. I can see i8042 in the 'raw' config, but unable to find where it located in the menu. What I tried to do was add it to my grub option.. which hosed me:

```
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/bzImage-2.6.11-hardened-r15a root=/dev/hda3 i8042.noaux 
```

I did this because of the 'error' line:

```
If AUX port is really absent please use the 'i8042.noaux' option.
```

I rebooted with this option.. and I'm dead in the water again... so not sure if it is related to my kernel line.. or I'm experiencing the same problem.. will know more when I get the machine back up.

Thanks much

hanji

----------

## widan

@mikegpitt: The 8042 is the keyboard controller chip (now included in the southbridge or SuperIO, but still compatible with the original). It is also involved in sending the reset signal to the CPU when rebooting.

@hanj: You might want to look at that this thread on the LKML, it seems it describes what looks like the same problem (machine hangs on reboot when no keyboard connected), with the same chipset (KM400). There is also a patch that seemed to work for the person that posted the problem on LKML.

----------

## hanj

widan...

thanks much for the linkage.. this does provide a fix to the problem. Here are some additional links if anyone comes across this post:

http://lists.debian.org/debian-amd64/2005/05/msg00854.html

http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/showproduct.php?product=2712

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/linux.kernel/browse_thread/thread/d2ccf3ce893561ea/0a28e581d1bd271d#0a28e581d1bd271d

Unfortunately, a patch needs to be applied to fix the problem. File to patch is:

```
/usr/src/linux/drivers/input/serio/i8042.c
```

patch:

```
+

+ i8042_ctr = (~i8042_ctr) & 0xff;

+

i8042_initial_ctr = i8042_ctr;
```

dmesg still complains about SiS AUX, but it is handled nicely on reboot now.

Thanks much for the help!!!

hanji

----------

## at_chaos

Thanks for your hint. It fixed my problem using hardened-2.6.11-r15.

Does anybody know if this issue was fixed in 2.6.13? I checked the kernel-2.6.13  i8042.c file and about line 750 i saw the same code as above mentioned without the patch. 

Has this issue been fixed or not?

Thank you

Greetings,

andy

----------

## widan

 *at_chaos wrote:*   

> Has this issue been fixed or not?

 

I don't think it was ever completely fixed. The problem seems to happen only with some specific chipsets (maybe a hardware bug ?), and the workarounds mentionned in the LKML thread I pointed to above are not something you want to apply to every machine.

Also, since the LKML thread is about a year old (last post to it was on Aug 13 2004), and the problem still exists, I don't think it will get fixed any time soon  :Smile: . I guess you will have to live with the workaround (and to remember to apply it again when you update the kernel !).

----------

## at_chaos

dere,

time to update my kernel to hardened-sources 2.6.14-r3. Does anybody know if the above mentioned bug has been fixed? 

thx in advance!

greets andy

----------

