Most recent kernel where this bug did *NOT* occur:kernel.2.6.9-34.0.2.EL Distribution:centos (RHEL4) Hardware Environment: see below (compaq presario P4 3.2 GHz 512 Ram) Software Environment: see below Problem Description:With kernel update 2.6.9-34.0.2.EL the startup process checks FADT for some reason, finds a non-problem of some sort, writes to the boot sector, and causes BIOS to reset to default on subsequent startup. My PC has two hard drives, both capable of booting. The secondary drive has Linux and GRUB installed. The primary has Windows XP installed. By changing the BIOS boot order I can make the PC boot on GRUB then I can choose hich OS to run. The advantage is that I didn't have to modify the Windows disk one iota. And if either disk fails, I can still boot. Well with kernel 2.6.9-34.0.2.EL some disk - not sure which - is found to fail a test - see the dmesg output attached. The kernel attempts to correct this somehow, I think by writing to the boot sector. Then on restart, ACPI detects a change and reloads default boot order, booting on the Windows disk - eeeegaaaads. I have to enter BIOS setup and change it back anytime I want to run Linux. I guess I could open the case and swap the disk order. But disk order would be important to Windows; anyhow this seems like a bug. Steps to reproduce: Change bios to boot on secondary disk where linux installed. Startup linux 2.6.9-42.0.2 on second disk. dmesg (search 'BIOS bug'): Linux version 2.6.9-42.0.2.EL (buildsvn@build-i386) (gcc version 3.4.6 20060404 (Red Hat 3.4.6-3)) #1 Tue Aug 22 23:56:05 CDT 2006 BIOS-provided physical RAM map: BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable) BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved) BIOS-e820: 00000000000e8000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved) BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000003ffc0000 (usable) BIOS-e820: 000000003ffc0000 - 000000003ffcf000 (ACPI data) BIOS-e820: 000000003ffcf000 - 000000003fff0000 (ACPI NVS) BIOS-e820: 000000003fff0000 - 0000000040000000 (reserved) BIOS-e820: 00000000ffb80000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved) 127MB HIGHMEM available. 896MB LOWMEM available. found SMP MP-table at 000ff780 Using x86 segment limits to approximate NX protection zapping low mappings. On node 0 totalpages: 262080 DMA zone: 4096 pages, LIFO batch:1 Normal zone: 225280 pages, LIFO batch:16 HighMem zone: 32704 pages, LIFO batch:7 DMI 2.3 present. ACPI: RSDP (v000 ACPIAM ) @ 0x000fac80 ACPI: RSDT (v001 A M I OEMRSDT 0x02000404 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x3ffc0000 ACPI: FADT (v002 A M I OEMFACP 0x02000404 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x3ffc0200 ACPI: MADT (v001 A M I OEMAPIC 0x02000404 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x3ffc0390 ACPI: OEMB (v001 A M I OEMBIOS 0x02000404 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x3ffcf040 ACPI: DSDT (v001 PSLE1 PSLE1112 0x00000112 INTL 0x02002026) @ 0x00000000 ACPI: PM-Timer IO Port: 0x808 ACPI: Local APIC address 0xfee00000 ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x01] lapic_id[0x00] enabled) Processor #0 15:3 APIC version 20 ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x02] lapic_id[0x01] enabled) Processor #1 15:3 APIC version 20 WARNING: NR_CPUS limit of 1 reached. Processor ignored. Enabling APIC mode: Flat. Using 0 I/O APICs ACPI: IOAPIC (id[0x02] address[0xfec00000] gsi_base[0]) IOAPIC[0]: apic_id 2, version 32, address 0xfec00000, GSI 0-23 ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 0 global_irq 2 dfl dfl) ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 9 global_irq 9 high level) ACPI: IRQ0 used by override. ACPI: IRQ2 used by override. ACPI: IRQ9 used by override. Using ACPI (MADT) for SMP configuration information Allocating PCI resources starting at 50000000 (gap: 40000000:bfb80000) Built 1 zonelists Kernel command line: ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet mapped APIC to ffffd000 (fee00000) Initializing CPU#0 CPU 0 irqstacks, hard=c0400000 soft=c03ff000 PID hash table entries: 4096 (order: 12, 65536 bytes) Detected 3200.742 MHz processor. Using pmtmr for high-res timesource Console: colour VGA+ 80x25 Dentry cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes) Inode-cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes) Memory: 1034384k/1048320k available (2150k kernel code, 13100k reserved, 716k data, 164k init, 130816k highmem) Calibrating delay using timer specific routine.. 6403.91 BogoMIPS (lpj=3201959) Security Scaffold v1.0.0 initialized SELinux: Initializing. SELinux: Starting in permissive mode There is already a security framework initialized, register_security failed. selinux_register_security: Registering secondary module capability Capability LSM initialized as secondary Mount-cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes) CPU: After generic identify, caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000 CPU: After vendor identify, caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000 monitor/mwait feature present. using mwait in idle threads. CPU: Trace cache: 12K uops, L1 D cache: 16K CPU: L2 cache: 1024K CPU: After all inits, caps: bfebf3ff 00000000 00000000 00000080 Intel machine check architecture supported. Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0. CPU0: Intel P4/Xeon Extended MCE MSRs (12) available CPU0: Thermal monitoring enabled CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz stepping 03 Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done. Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done. Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK. BIOS bug: Legacy-free FADT detected, but FADT size (129) is incorrect! ENABLING IO-APIC IRQs ..TIMER: vector=0x31 pin1=2 pin2=-1 checking if image is initramfs... it is Freeing initrd memory: 493k freed NET: Registered protocol family 16 PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xf0031, last bus=2 PCI: Using configuration type 1 mtrr: v2.0 (20020519) ACPI: Subsystem revision 20040816 ACPI: Interpreter enabled ACPI: Using IOAPIC for interrupt routing ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (00:00) PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00) PCI: Ignoring BAR0-3 of IDE controller 0000:00:1f.1 PCI: Transparent bridge - 0000:00:1e.0 ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.P0P4._PRT] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 *10 11 12 14 15) ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 *10 11 12 14 15) ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 3 4 *5 6 7 10 11 12 14 15) ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs *3 4 5 6 7 10 11 12 14 15) ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKE] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 10 11 12 14 15) *0, disabled. ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKF] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 *10 11 12 14 15) ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKG] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 10 11 12 14 15) *0, disabled. ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKH] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 10 *11 12 14 15) Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay usbcore: registered new driver usbfs usbcore: registered new driver hub PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1d.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 169 ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1d.1[B] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 177 ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1d.2[C] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 185 ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1d.3[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 169 ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1d.7[D] -> GSI 23 (level, low) -> IRQ 193 ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1f.1[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 185 ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1f.2[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 185 ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1f.3[B] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 201 ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1f.5[B] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 201 ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:01:00.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 169 ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:02:04.0[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 185 ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:02:04.1[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 185 ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:02:0b.0[A] -> GSI 23 (level, low) -> IRQ 193 ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:02:0e.0[A] -> GSI 21 (level, low) -> IRQ 209 ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:02:0f.0[A] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 177 apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x03 (Driver version 1.16ac) apm: overridden by ACPI. audit: initializing netlink socket (disabled) audit(1170186240.502:1): initialized highmem bounce pool size: 64 pages Total HugeTLB memory allocated, 0 VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.1 Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 4096 bytes) SELinux: Registering netfilter hooks Initializing Cryptographic API ksign: Installing public key data Loading keyring - Added public key 5A9A04024D0CEFA - User ID: CentOS (Kernel Module GPG key) pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5 ACPI: Processor [CPU1] (supports C1) Real Time Clock Driver v1.12 Linux agpgart interface v0.100 (c) Dave Jones agpgart: Detected an Intel 865 Chipset. agpgart: Maximum main memory to use for agp memory: 941M agpgart: AGP aperture is 64M @ 0xf8000000 serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12 serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1 Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 8 ports, IRQ sharing enabled ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 16384K size 1024 blocksize divert: not allocating divert_blk for non-ethernet device lo Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2 ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx ICH5: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:1f.1 PCI: Enabling device 0000:00:1f.1 (0005 -> 0007) ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1f.1[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 185 ICH5: chipset revision 2 ICH5: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later ide0: BM-DMA at 0xfc00-0xfc07, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:DMA ide1: BM-DMA at 0xfc08-0xfc0f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:DMA Probing IDE interface ide0... hda: SAMSUNG SP1604N, ATA DISK drive hdb: ST3200822A, ATA DISK drive Using cfq io scheduler ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14 Probing IDE interface ide1... hdc: HL-DT-STDVD-ROM GDR8162B, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive hdd: SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-252S, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15 Probing IDE interface ide2... Probing IDE interface ide3... Probing IDE interface ide4... Probing IDE interface ide5... hda: max request size: 1024KiB hda: 312581808 sectors (160041 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=19457/255/63, UDMA(100) hda: cache flushes supported hda: hda1 hda2 hdb: max request size: 1024KiB hdb: 390721968 sectors (200049 MB) w/8192KiB Cache, CHS=24321/255/63, UDMA(100) hdb: cache flushes supported hdb: hdb1 hdb2 hdb3 hdb4 < hdb5 hdb6 hdb7 > hdc: ATAPI 40X DVD-ROM drive, 256kB Cache, UDMA(33) Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20 hdd: ATAPI 16X CD-ROM CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache, UDMA(33) ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide usbcore: registered new driver hiddev usbcore: registered new driver usbhid drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.0:USB HID core driver mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard on isa0060/serio0 input: ImPS/2 Generic Wheel Mouse on isa0060/serio1 md: md driver 0.90.0 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27 NET: Registered protocol family 2 IP route cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes) TCP established hash table entries: 262144 (order: 9, 2097152 bytes) TCP bind hash table entries: 131072 (order: 9, 3670016 bytes) TCP: Hash tables configured (established 262144 bind 131072) Initializing IPsec netlink socket NET: Registered protocol family 1 NET: Registered protocol family 17 ACPI: (supports S0 S1 S3 S4 S5) ACPI wakeup devices: P0P4 BNIC MC97 USB1 USB2 USB3 USB4 EUSB PS2K PS2M Freeing unused kernel memory: 164k freed SCSI subsystem initialized libata version 1.20 loaded. ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: version 1.05 ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: MAP [ P0 -- P1 -- ] ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1f.2[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 185 PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.2 to 64 ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xD400 ctl 0xD002 bmdma 0xC400 irq 185 ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xCC00 ctl 0xC802 bmdma 0xC408 irq 185 ata1: SATA port has no device. scsi0 : ata_piix ata2: SATA port has no device. scsi1 : ata_piix kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. security: 3 users, 4 roles, 355 types, 26 bools security: 55 classes, 22582 rules SELinux: Completing initialization. SELinux: Setting up existing superblocks. SELinux: initialized (dev hdb7, type ext3), uses xattr SELinux: initialized (dev tmpfs, type tmpfs), uses transition SIDs SELinux: initialized (dev selinuxfs, type selinuxfs), uses genfs_contexts SELinux: initialized (dev mqueue, type mqueue), not configured for labeling SELinux: initialized (dev hugetlbfs, type hugetlbfs), uses genfs_contexts SELinux: initialized (dev devpts, type devpts), uses transition SIDs SELinux: initialized (dev eventpollfs, type eventpollfs), uses genfs_contexts SELinux: initialized (dev pipefs, type pipefs), uses task SIDs SELinux: initialized (dev tmpfs, type tmpfs), uses transition SIDs SELinux: initialized (dev futexfs, type futexfs), uses genfs_contexts SELinux: initialized (dev sockfs, type sockfs), uses task SIDs SELinux: initialized (dev proc, type proc), uses genfs_contexts SELinux: initialized (dev bdev, type bdev), uses genfs_contexts SELinux: initialized (dev rootfs, type rootfs), uses genfs_contexts SELinux: initialized (dev sysfs, type sysfs), uses genfs_contexts SELinux: initialized (dev usbfs, type usbfs), uses genfs_contexts inserting floppy driver for 2.6.9-42.0.2.EL Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077 8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.27 ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:02:0f.0[A] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 177 divert: allocating divert_blk for eth0 eth0: RealTek RTL8139 at 0xb400, 00:0e:a6:81:32:3c, IRQ 177 eth0: Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8101' ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1f.5[B] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 201 PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.5 to 64 intel8x0_measure_ac97_clock: measured 50037 usecs intel8x0: clocking to 48000 hw_random: RNG not detected ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:02:04.1[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 185 ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1d.7[D] -> GSI 23 (level, low) -> IRQ 193 ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: EHCI Host Controller PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.7 to 64 ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: irq 193, pci mem f88bec00 SELinux: initialized (dev usbdevfs, type usbdevfs), uses genfs_contexts ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1 PCI: cache line size of 128 is not supported by device 0000:00:1d.7 ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: USB 2.0 enabled, EHCI 1.00, driver 2004-May-10 hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found hub 1-0:1.0: 8 ports detected USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v2.2 ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1d.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 169 uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: UHCI Host Controller PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.0 to 64 uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: irq 169, io base 0000e000 uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2 hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found hub 2-0:1.0: 2 ports detected ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1d.1[B] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 177 uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: UHCI Host Controller PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.1 to 64 uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: irq 177, io base 0000e400 uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3 hub 3-0:1.0: USB hub found hub 3-0:1.0: 2 ports detected ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1d.2[C] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 185 uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: UHCI Host Controller PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.2 to 64 uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: irq 185, io base 0000e800 uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 4 hub 4-0:1.0: USB hub found hub 4-0:1.0: 2 ports detected ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1d.3[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 169 uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.3: UHCI Host Controller PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.3 to 64 uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.3: irq 169, io base 0000ec00 uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.3: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 5 hub 5-0:1.0: USB hub found hub 5-0:1.0: 2 ports detected md: Autodetecting RAID arrays. md: autorun ... md: ... autorun DONE. usb 2-1: new full speed USB device using address 2 drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: usblp0: USB Bidirectional printer dev 2 if 1 alt 0 proto 2 vid 0x03F0 pid 0x4D11 usbcore: registered new driver usblp drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: v0.13: USB Printer Device Class driver SELinux: initialized (dev ramfs, type ramfs), uses genfs_contexts NET: Registered protocol family 10 Disabled Privacy Extensions on device c0384d60(lo) IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling driver divert: not allocating divert_blk for non-ethernet device sit0 ACPI: Power Button (FF) [PWRF] EXT3 FS on hdb7, internal journal device-mapper: 4.5.0-ioctl (2005-10-04) initialised: dm-devel@redhat.com cdrom: open failed. SELinux: initialized (dev tmpfs, type tmpfs), uses transition SIDs kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds EXT3 FS on hdb6, internal journal EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. SELinux: initialized (dev hdb6, type ext3), uses xattr SELinux: initialized (dev hdb5, type vfat), uses genfs_contexts Adding 2040244k swap on /dev/hdb3. Priority:-1 extents:1 SELinux: initialized (dev binfmt_misc, type binfmt_misc), uses genfs_contexts IA-32 Microcode Update Driver: v1.14 <tigran@veritas.com> microcode: CPU0 updated from revision 0x7 to 0xc, date = 04212005 IA-32 Microcode Update Driver v1.14 unregistered parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778) [PCSPP,TRISTATE] parport0: irq 7 detected ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team ip_conntrack version 2.1 (8190 buckets, 65520 max) - 356 bytes per conntrack eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x45E1 SELinux: initialized (dev rpc_pipefs, type rpc_pipefs), uses genfs_contexts i2c /dev entries driver parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778) [PCSPP,TRISTATE] parport0: irq 7 detected lp0: using parport0 (polling). lp0: console ready eth0: no IPv6 routers present ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3 ISOFS: changing to secondary root SELinux: initialized (dev hdc, type iso9660), uses genfs_contexts --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- cat /proc/version Linux version 2.6.9-42.0.2.EL (buildsvn@build-i386) (gcc version 3.4.6 20060404 (Red Hat 3.4.6-3)) #1 Tue Aug 22 23:56:05 CDT 2006 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- sh ./src/redhat/BUILD/kernel-2.6.9/linux-2.6.9/scripts/ver_linux If some fields are empty or look unusual you may have an old version. Compare to the current minimal requirements in Documentation/Changes. Linux pentiumIV.pickeringst 2.6.9-42.0.2.EL #1 Tue Aug 22 23:56:05 CDT 2006 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux Gnu C 3.4.6 Gnu make 3.80 binutils 2.15.92.0.2 util-linux 2.12a mount 2.12a module-init-tools 3.1-pre5 e2fsprogs 1.35 reiserfsprogs line reiser4progs line pcmcia-cs 3.2.7 quota-tools 3.12. PPP 2.4.2 nfs-utils 1.0.6 Linux C Library 2.3.4 Dynamic linker (ldd) 2.3.4 Procps 3.2.3 Net-tools 1.60 Kbd 1.12 Sh-utils 5.2.1 Modules Loaded nls_utf8 parport_pc lp parport autofs4 i2c_dev i2c_core sunrpc ipt_REJECT ipt_state ip_conntrack iptable_filter ip_tables vfat fat dm_mirror dm_mod button battery ac md5 ipv6 usblp uhci_hcd ehci_hcd snd_bt87x snd_intel8x0 snd_ac97_codec snd_pcm_oss snd_mixer_oss snd_pcm snd_timer snd_page_alloc snd_mpu401_uart snd_rawmidi snd_seq_device snd soundcore 8139too mii floppy ext3 jbd ata_piix libata sd_mod scsi_mod ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /proc/cpuinfo processor : 0 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 15 model : 3 model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz stepping : 3 cpu MHz : 3200.742 cache size : 1024 KB fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 5 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe pni monitor ds_cpl cid bogomips : 6403.91 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- cat /proc/modules nls_utf8 2241 1 - Live 0xf8941000 parport_pc 24833 1 - Live 0xf8be9000 lp 12333 0 - Live 0xf8b95000 parport 37513 2 parport_pc,lp, Live 0xf8baf000 autofs4 25157 0 - Live 0xf8b9a000 i2c_dev 11585 0 - Live 0xf8a1f000 i2c_core 22337 1 i2c_dev, Live 0xf8a26000 sunrpc 163237 1 - Live 0xf8bc0000 ipt_REJECT 6721 1 - Live 0xf8a23000 ipt_state 1985 2 - Live 0xf8976000 ip_conntrack 41077 1 ipt_state, Live 0xf8b73000 iptable_filter 3009 1 - Live 0xf8806000 ip_tables 17601 3 ipt_REJECT,ipt_state,iptable_filter, Live 0xf89fb000 vfat 14657 1 - Live 0xf8a01000 fat 44385 1 vfat, Live 0xf8a2d000 dm_mirror 30893 0 - Live 0xf8a06000 dm_mod 59989 1 dm_mirror, Live 0xf8a0f000 button 6737 0 - Live 0xf892b000 battery 9029 0 - Live 0xf89f7000 ac 4933 0 - Live 0xf8973000 md5 4161 1 - Live 0xf892e000 ipv6 235777 10 - Live 0xf8a3d000 usblp 13761 0 - Live 0xf8936000 uhci_hcd 31321 0 - Live 0xf89ee000 ehci_hcd 31301 0 - Live 0xf896a000 snd_bt87x 13577 2 - Live 0xf8931000 snd_intel8x0 34025 2 - Live 0xf8911000 snd_ac97_codec 64145 1 snd_intel8x0, Live 0xf899b000 snd_pcm_oss 49401 0 - Live 0xf895c000 snd_mixer_oss 18241 3 snd_pcm_oss, Live 0xf8925000 snd_pcm 97225 3 snd_bt87x,snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm_oss, Live 0xf8943000 snd_timer 30149 1 snd_pcm, Live 0xf891c000 snd_page_alloc 9929 3 snd_bt87x,snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm, Live 0xf88f3000 snd_mpu401_uart 8897 1 snd_intel8x0, Live 0xf88ef000 snd_rawmidi 26853 1 snd_mpu401_uart, Live 0xf88f9000 snd_seq_device 8265 1 snd_rawmidi, Live 0xf8854000 snd 55973 14 snd_bt87x,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device, Live 0xf8902000 soundcore 10017 3 snd, Live 0xf8847000 8139too 26177 0 - Live 0xf884c000 mii 5313 1 8139too, Live 0xf8834000 floppy 58609 0 - Live 0xf88df000 ext3 117065 2 - Live 0xf88c1000 jbd 71385 1 ext3, Live 0xf888a000 ata_piix 11589 0 - Live 0xf883e000 libata 66333 1 ata_piix, Live 0xf8878000 sd_mod 17217 0 - Live 0xf8838000 scsi_mod 122445 2 libata,sd_mod, Live 0xf8859000 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- cat /proc/ioports 0000-001f : dma1 0020-0021 : pic1 0040-0043 : timer0 0050-0053 : timer1 0060-006f : keyboard 0070-0077 : rtc 0080-008f : dma page reg 00a0-00a1 : pic2 00c0-00df : dma2 00f0-00ff : fpu 0170-0177 : ide1 01f0-01f7 : ide0 0376-0376 : ide1 0378-037a : parport0 03c0-03df : vga+ 03f6-03f6 : ide0 03f8-03ff : serial 0400-041f : 0000:00:1f.3 0480-04bf : 0000:00:1f.0 0800-087f : 0000:00:1f.0 0800-0803 : PM1a_EVT_BLK 0804-0805 : PM1a_CNT_BLK 0808-080b : PM_TMR 0828-082f : GPE0_BLK 0cf8-0cff : PCI conf1 a000-afff : PCI Bus #01 a800-a8ff : 0000:01:00.0 b400-b4ff : 0000:02:0f.0 b400-b4ff : 8139too b800-b8ff : 0000:02:0b.0 bc00-bc07 : 0000:02:0b.0 c400-c40f : 0000:00:1f.2 c400-c40f : libata c800-c803 : 0000:00:1f.2 c800-c803 : libata cc00-cc07 : 0000:00:1f.2 cc00-cc07 : libata d000-d003 : 0000:00:1f.2 d000-d003 : libata d400-d407 : 0000:00:1f.2 d400-d407 : libata d800-d8ff : 0000:00:1f.5 d800-d8ff : Intel ICH5 dc00-dc3f : 0000:00:1f.5 dc00-dc3f : Intel ICH5 e000-e01f : 0000:00:1d.0 e000-e01f : uhci_hcd e400-e41f : 0000:00:1d.1 e400-e41f : uhci_hcd e800-e81f : 0000:00:1d.2 e800-e81f : uhci_hcd ec00-ec1f : 0000:00:1d.3 ec00-ec1f : uhci_hcd fc00-fc0f : 0000:00:1f.1 fc00-fc07 : ide0 fc08-fc0f : ide1 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- cat /proc/iomem upon request. Other stuff per FAQ upon request. Won't fit here
Please boot Linux with "acpi=off" and see if the issue goes away. If it doesn't, then by definition, this is not a bug in the Linux kernel ACPI support. > Well with kernel 2.6.9-34.0.2.EL some disk > - not sure which - is found to fail a test - see the dmesg output attached. Exactly what failure do you refer to? I don't see one. > The kernel attempts to correct this somehow, I think by writing to the boot > sector. Then on restart, ACPI detects a change and reloads default boot > order, booting on the Windows disk - eeeegaaaads. No, I don't think Linux is writing to the boot sector. Do you see a message from the BIOS on reset about an invalid CMOS checksum and resetting to defaults? > Won't fit here note that bugzilla accepts attachments -- which is a preferable way to put a dmesg in a bug report vs pasting it into the text. BTW. it appears you are running a uni-processor kernel on an SMP -- why?
Created attachment 10250 [details] output of dmesg on 020107
------- Additional Comments From len.brown@intel.com 2007-01-31 19:04 ------- >>Please boot Linux with "acpi=off" and see if the issue goes away. >>If it doesn't, then by definition, this is not a bug in >>the Linux kernel ACPI support. I don't know if ACPI is off the hook. The result of booting "acpi=off" is as follows: kernel panic. The workstation locks up and flashes codes on the keyboard. Repeating with an earlier kernel there is no effect of acpi=off. Recognizing that I'm a novice with BIOS issues, it still acts like the kernel is finding a problem in MBR and writing a correction. With acpi back on, it reboots ok with error message thrown in dmesg (search 'BIOS bug'). > > Well with kernel 2.6.9-34.0.2.EL some disk > > - not sure which - is found to fail a test - see the dmesg output attached. >Exactly what failure do you refer to? I don't see one. Please search for 'BIOS bug' in dmesg. > > The kernel attempts to correct this somehow, I think by writing to the boot > > sector. Then on restart, ACPI detects a change and reloads default boot > > order, booting on the Windows disk - eeeegaaaads. >No, I don't think Linux is writing to the boot sector. It acts like it to a casual observer. This doesn't mean it is. >Do you see a message from the BIOS on reset about an invalid CMOS >checksum and resetting to defaults? Yes I do. The exact words are: Default BIOS settings have been loaded due to BIOS update or checksum issue. This message is put up by an American Megatrends product (www.ami.com). I have a screen shot from digital camera if you need it. > > Won't fit here >note that bugzilla accepts attachments -- which is a preferable >way to put a dmesg in a bug report vs pasting it into the text. I attached it this time to make it easier for you to search for the message 'BIOS bug' >>BTW. it appears you are running a uni-processor kernel on an SMP -- why? When I installed, I asked for nearly everything to be installed. The machine is a uni-processor. I manually modified GRUB to only boot the single CPU kernel because it was trying to boot up on SMP by default. My impression was that, for some reason, having everything installed sets some switches to SMP mode. For example, irqbalance is on after this type of install even booting on the signel CPU kernel and I have to go 'uncheck' it to prevent an apparently harmless error message on shutdown. This same install thing happened on another pc I have - single CPU e-machine athlon. With kernel updates, the emachine does not have the BIOS activity that we're talking about. It also is not a dual boot setup. I could get some bootup info off that one if you're interested.
> BIOS bug: Legacy-free FADT detected, but FADT size (129) is incorrect! This error message does not appear in Linux-2.6.9 and does not appear in the latest from kernel.org, Linux-2.6.19. If it bothers you, you need to take that up with bugzilla.redhat.com for you are running their kernel (2.6.9-42.0.2.EL) > Default BIOS settings have been loaded due to > BIOS update or checksum issue. It appears that something is corrupting the CMOS when you boot Linux. If this is reproducible with the latest upstream kernel from kernel.org, then please re-open this bug.