From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with archive (Exim 4.43) id 1I8MO4-0006bn-Pj for mharc-grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:32:44 -0400 Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1I8MO1-0006WB-P0 for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:32:41 -0400 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1I8MO1-0006VM-6V for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:32:41 -0400 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1I8MO1-0006V9-4M for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:32:41 -0400 Received: from e3.ny.us.ibm.com ([32.97.182.143]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1I8MO0-0000w1-Ok for grub-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:32:40 -0400 Received: from d01relay02.pok.ibm.com (d01relay02.pok.ibm.com [9.56.227.234]) by e3.ny.us.ibm.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id l6AJSqRx017488 for ; Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:28:52 -0400 Received: from d01av04.pok.ibm.com (d01av04.pok.ibm.com [9.56.224.64]) by d01relay02.pok.ibm.com (8.13.8/8.13.8/NCO v8.3) with ESMTP id l6AKWZ9u529388 for ; Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:32:35 -0400 Received: from d01av04.pok.ibm.com (loopback [127.0.0.1]) by d01av04.pok.ibm.com (8.12.11.20060308/8.13.3) with ESMTP id l6AKWZuG023465 for ; Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:32:35 -0400 Received: from [9.41.46.187] (basalt-009041046187.austin.ibm.com [9.41.46.187]) by d01av04.pok.ibm.com (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id l6AKWYim023449 for ; Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:32:34 -0400 From: Hollis Blanchard To: The development of GRUB 2 In-Reply-To: <20070710140823.GA8909@aragorn> References: <1183565937.7721.41.camel@diesel> <20070710100444.GA5222@sahara.iti.upv.es> <20070710140823.GA8909@aragorn> Content-Type: text/plain Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:32:30 -0500 Message-Id: <1184099550.9495.76.camel@basalt> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.10.1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-detected-kernel: Linux 2.4-2.6 Subject: Re: memory management issue (Re: another regression on Efika) X-BeenThere: grub-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: The development of GRUB 2 List-Id: The development of GRUB 2 List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2007 20:32:42 -0000 On Tue, 2007-07-10 at 16:08 +0200, Robert Millan wrote: > On Tue, Jul 10, 2007 at 12:04:44PM +0200, Jordi Mallach wrote: > > Hey, > > > > On Wed, Jul 04, 2007, Hollis said: > > > This problem could be caused by firmware presenting an > > > incorrect /memory/available property. I would instrument > > > grub_available_iterate() and heap_init() to confirm. > > > > > > That property lists unclaimed areas of memory, which are free for us to > > > use as heap. The memory used for firmware itself (including exception > > > handlers at 0), and the memory used by the loaded ELF file (GRUB), are > > > missing from /memory/available, so we know not to try to use those > > > regions for the heap. > > > > > > If that is in fact the problem (which wouldn't surprise me given this > > > particular firmware's track record), then we'll have to add some > > > hardcoded hack particularly for Efika in grub_machine_init(), bypassing > > > the more general code we have now. > > > > I'm afraid there must be more to this. > > > > [...] > > > > When the package was later on updated to a CVS snapshot of 20070505, > > GRUB started dropping me to OF at boot time. On Saturday, Robert helped > > me track this regression down to this same commit. After reverting and > > regenerating grub, I'm happy to report that for the first time my > > Powerbook G4 laptop was able to boot with me pressing no keys at all, > > using GRUB. So you're talking about a completely different failure mode, correct? > > In short, whatever is causing these crashes is not only an Efika issue. > > I suspect Apple, or Apple powerbooks at least, are also affected. I got > > Sjoerd to try this on his powerbook, and he confirms this fixes for him. > > Paul also tried, with the same results. Not all the powerbooks are the > > very same model, there are different model revisions involved. > > The error Jordi was seeing before reverting your commits was very similar to > what I get on my Efika (something like "claim failed"). > > Hollis, do you still think this is a firmware bug? Could somebody please debug it and report back if it is really a GRUB issue? It could be as simple as adjusting the link address, or it could mean instrumenting grub_available_iterate() and checking that output with the contents of /memory/available. -Hollis