Date: Sun, 25 May 2008 16:59:06 +0200 From: Peter Holm <peter@holm.cc> To: Mark Kirkwood <markir@paradise.net.nz> Cc: freebsd-stable <freebsd-stable@freebsd.org>, John Baldwin <jhb@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: BTX loader hangs after version info Message-ID: <20080525145906.GA96904@peter.osted.lan> In-Reply-To: <4839243D.7000700@paradise.net.nz> References: <720051dc0805220159n23eb6205yfcf9450be7af5c77@mail.gmail.com> <200805230829.09524.jhb@freebsd.org> <20080523132645.GO29770@deviant.kiev.zoral.com.ua> <200805231811.01936.jhb@freebsd.org> <48390FA9.5080503@paradise.net.nz> <4839243D.7000700@paradise.net.nz>
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On Sun, May 25, 2008 at 08:33:01PM +1200, Mark Kirkwood wrote: > I wrote: > >John Baldwin wrote: > >> > >>Try this patch. I'm not 100% certain this will fix it as I can't > >>reproduce > >>the issue, but I think it might help. Specifically, when the boot > >>code makes > >>a v86 call, the loader/boot2/whatever swaps in/out a new set of > >>registers via > >>the v86 structure including the eflags register. However, none of > >>the boot > >>programs actually initialized the v86 structure. Thus, the BIOS > >>routines > >>would start off running with whatever garbage was in v86.efl when > >>each boot > >>program started. This meant that we could end up invoking BIOS > >>routines with > >>interrupts disabled, and I think this might explain a hard hang (if a > >>BIOS > >>routine was waiting for an interrupt the interrupt would never > >>fire). The > >>patch fixes all the boot programs to initialize v86 to a better known > >>state. At the least it sets v86.efl to a sane value (0x202) rather > >>than random. (The > >>random might have always been 0x0 BTW, not sure on that one.) > >> > >> > >Thanks John, > > > >Unfortunately this patch does *not* cure the issue for my old > >Supermicro P3TDDE, it still hangs just before presenting the menu. I > >had to boot off the livefs and copy /boot/loader.old -> /boot/loader > >to get back to being bootable again - but at least the old fella is on > >a more up-to-date 7-STABLE now :-) > > Given that the patch *did* cure Peters Tyan S2720, I'll double check I > didn't fat finger applying the patch (mind you the Tyan has AMI BOIS - > same as my Supermicro P3TDERs that *do* work ok with current 7-STABLE, > whereas the P3TDDE has Award BIOS). > > Anyway, I'll double check and report back... > > Cheers > > Mark I now have booted some more with this patch and it would seem that the problem is still there, from time to time! Most of the time I now boot without any problems but once in a while the loader still hangs. I'll try to gather some statistics... -- Peter
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