Old i586 B stepping CPUs in SMP

[Mathieu Desnoyers <compudj@krystal.dyndns.org>]

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Hi!

I went through a problem on an old computer, which has 2 Intel Pentium
90mhz CPU (B stepping). The computer model is an AST Manhattan P5090. I
use a 2.2.20 kernel.

First of all, the SMP module from the kernel gives me this warning :
WARNING: SMP operation may be unreliable with B stepping processors.

I think I may have found the cause of what has been my problem (and
maybe the original cause of this warning).

Linux doesn't boot at all when IRQ 2/9 is used. I tried many
different configurations, disabling a lot of cards, and it seems to be
the cause of the problem. I believe that this information could be
useful in some SMP documentation, that's why I posted it.

Thanks to all for your excellent work! I hope that this little piece of
(obsolete?) information will help.

Mathieu Desnoyers

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