Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Fri, 23 Dec 2005 22:44:36 +0100
From:      Adriaan de Groot <groot@kde.org>
To:        freebsd-acpi@freebsd.org
Cc:        freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Bad characters in Asus A8N-VM CSM
Message-ID:  <200512232244.37363.groot@kde.org>
In-Reply-To: <200512221155.04352.groot@kde.org>
References:  <200512221155.04352.groot@kde.org>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Thursday 22 December 2005 11:55, Adriaan de Groot wrote:
> I just picked up an Asus A8N-VM CSM motherboard. It's a nForce 430 + GFor=
ge
> 6150 integrated mini-ATX job, amd64, very 1337 and new. That means trouble
> :) I knew that when buying it, and know now that it really needs work to
> get it working at all.
>
> ACPI-0397: *** Error: NSSearchAndEnter: Bad character in ACPI Name:
> 43035350 ACPI-0381: *** Error: Looking up [0x43035350] (NON-ASCII)
> in namespace, AE_BAD_CHARACTER

[Following up on myself, for documentation purposes, and CCing -amd64 to wa=
rn=20
off potential users there as well.]

Well, an instructive but unproductive evening yields the following:

1) Default BIOS (rev. 0403) and FBSD 5.1 amd64 boots, produces ACPI warning=
=20
messages above and works normally (no NIC, no SATA tried).

2) Newest BIOS (rev. 0506) and FBSD 5.1 amd64 boots and then page faults in=
=20
kernel mode in vm_pageq_enqueue right after GEOM adds ad0. ACPI warning is=
=20
still there.

3) I didn't try 6-STABLE with the newest BIOS, since having busted ACPI the=
re=20
means you can't get _anything_ done.



=46rom the booted 5.1 environment I got an ACPI dump and after hacking utmi=
sc.c=20
in contrib/dev/acpica to accept a broken character 0x03, I got a disassembl=
y.=20
The bad character is in 0x43035350, which from the looks of the IASL should=
=20
have been PSSC (0x43535350) but somehow isn't. It's in one of the processor=
=20
sections (the other has a Name(PSSC, 0x0A) ).

Elsewhere in the IASL there's some undefined symbols ending in _HFZF (sorry=
, I=20
don't have the machine under scrutiny on or functional at this very moment)=
,=20
which I suppose is semi-normal, and then a totally weird-ass

	Return( While(Local1) {
		...
	})

This chokes the compiler, of course. I suspect that it should read

	Return(0x00)
	While (Local1) ...

or so, but this suggests yet more broken ACPI tables.

Over in Linux land, http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=3D6059=
6=20
shows that with some effort and the latest of the latest everything, it is=
=20
possible to get a functioning machine. If I can create a barely legal ASL=20
file that compiles, I'll have to try out what's described in "11.16.5.3=20
Overriding the Default AML " of the handbook.

Until then (or someone more competent than myself deals with the issues), I=
'd=20
suggest avoiding this board entirely.

[ade]




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200512232244.37363.groot>