New ASUS 1701 bios for M2N SLI DELUXE

New ASUS 1701 bios for M2N SLI DELUXE

[Gene Heskett]

Hi Robin, David and lkml list;

I said I would report.

I just reinstalled the 1502 version bios after spending the last 2 days 
trying to get an hours worth of uptime without an oops.  Gave up.

David Newell and I have been trying to find the cause of the oops, but 
when the compile instructions David is sending me don't work, its a bit 
difficult to troubleshoot beyond renaming the function just to see if 
the oops follows the rename, which it does.  And with the boot girations
to get a working radeonhd driver now broken again, apparently by the 
'make mrproper' that David had me do, I'm now stuck on issue drivers for 
drm, radeon, and radeonhd and those are noticably slower.

So I'm back on the 1502 version of the bios, it does an oops as I sent 
before right at entering vmlinuz, which marks me tainted, but the machine 
is dead stable after that.

Here is another snip of that to refresh memories:
[    0.000000] DMI 2.4 present.
[    0.000000] Phoenix BIOS detected: BIOS may corrupt low RAM, working it around.
[    0.000000] last_pfn = 0x120000 max_arch_pfn = 0x1000000
[    0.000000] x86 PAT enabled: cpu 0, old 0x7040600070406, new 0x7010600070106
[    0.000000] ------------[ cut here ]------------
[    0.000000] WARNING: at arch/x86/kernel/cpu/mtrr/generic.c:404 generic_get_mtrr+0xea/0x120()
[    0.000000] mtrr: your BIOS has set up an incorrect mask, fixing it up.
[    0.000000] Modules linked in:
[    0.000000] Pid: 0, comm: swapper Not tainted 2.6.28.7 #7
[    0.000000] Call Trace:
[    0.000000]  [<c042858f>] warn_slowpath+0x6f/0x90
[    0.000000]  [<c05193b0>] vsnprintf+0x3c0/0x7e0
[    0.000000]  [<c0627a00>] panic+0x15/0xee
[    0.000000]  [<c041a78c>] pat_init+0x7c/0xa0
[    0.000000]  [<c040f9fc>] post_set+0x1c/0x50
[    0.000000]  [<c0733f35>] dmi_string_nosave+0x4c/0x6d
[    0.000000]  [<c0441031>] up+0x11/0x40
[    0.000000]  [<c040f7ea>] generic_get_mtrr+0xea/0x120
[    0.000000]  [<c071f91f>] mtrr_trim_uncached_memory+0x7d/0x374
[    0.000000]  [<c042e583>] request_resource+0xa3/0x150
[    0.000000]  [<c0627af0>] printk+0x17/0x1f
[    0.000000]  [<c071be82>] e820_end_pfn+0xb5/0xd3
[    0.000000]  [<c0719fc9>] setup_arch+0x501/0xb68
[    0.000000]  [<c0428d89>] release_console_sem+0x189/0x1d0
[    0.000000]  [<c071d027>] reserve_early_overlap_ok+0x3f/0x47
[    0.000000]  [<c07138a4>] start_kernel+0x58/0x314
[    0.000000] ---[ end trace 4eaa2a86a8e2da22 ]---

So based on that, I'll now go build a 2.6.29-rc8 and see how that runs.

The biggest problem with the 2.6.29 series is that apparently, for security 
reasons, they are now doing a PHY disable in a graceful shutdown, which 
none of the previous kernels knows how to re-enable.

So to reboot to the 2.6.28.7 stable, you have to use the front panel reset 
button to reboot or you will not have any onboard ethernet until you do a 
full, pull ALL the power plugs for at least 30 seconds (I go make a cup of 
tea, about 3 minutes) to reset the PHY's back to operational status. TBT,
the reset button is easier.

Frankly, that seems like a thoroughly busted security idea, but I suppose 
we're stuck with it.

It also seems to me, that to mark my kernel as tainted over a fix-up that 
makes the system dead stable, is executing the messenger.  IMNSHO, its ASUS 
who ought to be shot for not having any method of filing a bug report 
against their crappy bios.  3 emails sent to the only address I was able to 
find for ASUS have had the same effect as sending them to /dev/null.

If anyone on the LKML knows how to contact ASUS, please advise them that 
there is at least one VERY unhappy camper/user of the 
$285 USD M2N SLI DELUXE motherboard, I'm sorry I ever laid eyes on it. 
The newly released version 1701 bios (it unzips as M2N-SLI-Deluxe-1701.BIN) 
still doesn't get it right AFAIAC.  The kernel writers at least know what
to do about the older version bios.  Maybe ASUS coded the new bios to get
past your test, but is it still fscked?  That is certainly my opinion...

Thanks everybody.  Now back to your regularly scheduled programming. :)

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
US Navy uses NT. Saddam, Gadafi, it's party time!

   -- Havlik Denis

Re: New ASUS 1701 bios for M2N SLI DELUXE

[Robert Hancock]

Gene Heskett wrote:
> Hi Robin, David and lkml list;
> 
> I said I would report.
> 
> I just reinstalled the 1502 version bios after spending the last 2 days 
> trying to get an hours worth of uptime without an oops.  Gave up.
> 
> David Newell and I have been trying to find the cause of the oops, but 
> when the compile instructions David is sending me don't work, its a bit 
> difficult to troubleshoot beyond renaming the function just to see if 
> the oops follows the rename, which it does.  And with the boot girations
> to get a working radeonhd driver now broken again, apparently by the 
> 'make mrproper' that David had me do, I'm now stuck on issue drivers for 
> drm, radeon, and radeonhd and those are noticably slower.
> 
> So I'm back on the 1502 version of the bios, it does an oops as I sent 
> before right at entering vmlinuz, which marks me tainted, but the machine 
> is dead stable after that.
> 
> Here is another snip of that to refresh memories:
> [    0.000000] DMI 2.4 present.
> [    0.000000] Phoenix BIOS detected: BIOS may corrupt low RAM, working it around.
> [    0.000000] last_pfn = 0x120000 max_arch_pfn = 0x1000000
> [    0.000000] x86 PAT enabled: cpu 0, old 0x7040600070406, new 0x7010600070106
> [    0.000000] ------------[ cut here ]------------
> [    0.000000] WARNING: at arch/x86/kernel/cpu/mtrr/generic.c:404 generic_get_mtrr+0xea/0x120()
> [    0.000000] mtrr: your BIOS has set up an incorrect mask, fixing it up.
> [    0.000000] Modules linked in:
> [    0.000000] Pid: 0, comm: swapper Not tainted 2.6.28.7 #7
> [    0.000000] Call Trace:
> [    0.000000]  [<c042858f>] warn_slowpath+0x6f/0x90
> [    0.000000]  [<c05193b0>] vsnprintf+0x3c0/0x7e0
> [    0.000000]  [<c0627a00>] panic+0x15/0xee
> [    0.000000]  [<c041a78c>] pat_init+0x7c/0xa0
> [    0.000000]  [<c040f9fc>] post_set+0x1c/0x50
> [    0.000000]  [<c0733f35>] dmi_string_nosave+0x4c/0x6d
> [    0.000000]  [<c0441031>] up+0x11/0x40
> [    0.000000]  [<c040f7ea>] generic_get_mtrr+0xea/0x120
> [    0.000000]  [<c071f91f>] mtrr_trim_uncached_memory+0x7d/0x374
> [    0.000000]  [<c042e583>] request_resource+0xa3/0x150
> [    0.000000]  [<c0627af0>] printk+0x17/0x1f
> [    0.000000]  [<c071be82>] e820_end_pfn+0xb5/0xd3
> [    0.000000]  [<c0719fc9>] setup_arch+0x501/0xb68
> [    0.000000]  [<c0428d89>] release_console_sem+0x189/0x1d0
> [    0.000000]  [<c071d027>] reserve_early_overlap_ok+0x3f/0x47
> [    0.000000]  [<c07138a4>] start_kernel+0x58/0x314
> [    0.000000] ---[ end trace 4eaa2a86a8e2da22 ]---

That's not an oops, it's a warning. Those do normally taint the kernel. 
I don't think this should really be a WARN, IMHO, as it's a BIOS bug and 
not the kernel's fault, and it's fixed up the problem. CCing Yinghai Lu, 
which it looks like wrote this warning.

> 
> So based on that, I'll now go build a 2.6.29-rc8 and see how that runs.
> 
> The biggest problem with the 2.6.29 series is that apparently, for security 
> reasons, they are now doing a PHY disable in a graceful shutdown, which 
> none of the previous kernels knows how to re-enable.
> 
> So to reboot to the 2.6.28.7 stable, you have to use the front panel reset 
> button to reboot or you will not have any onboard ethernet until you do a 
> full, pull ALL the power plugs for at least 30 seconds (I go make a cup of 
> tea, about 3 minutes) to reset the PHY's back to operational status. TBT,
> the reset button is easier.
> 
> Frankly, that seems like a thoroughly busted security idea, but I suppose 
> we're stuck with it.

I doubt it's for security reasons. Could be due to power management or 
suspend/resume changes?

> 
> It also seems to me, that to mark my kernel as tainted over a fix-up that 
> makes the system dead stable, is executing the messenger.  IMNSHO, its ASUS 
> who ought to be shot for not having any method of filing a bug report 
> against their crappy bios.  3 emails sent to the only address I was able to 
> find for ASUS have had the same effect as sending them to /dev/null.
> 
> If anyone on the LKML knows how to contact ASUS, please advise them that 
> there is at least one VERY unhappy camper/user of the 
> $285 USD M2N SLI DELUXE motherboard, I'm sorry I ever laid eyes on it. 
> The newly released version 1701 bios (it unzips as M2N-SLI-Deluxe-1701.BIN) 
> still doesn't get it right AFAIAC.  The kernel writers at least know what
> to do about the older version bios.  Maybe ASUS coded the new bios to get
> past your test, but is it still fscked?  That is certainly my opinion...
> 
> Thanks everybody.  Now back to your regularly scheduled programming. :)
> 

Re: New ASUS 1701 bios for M2N SLI DELUXE

[Yinghai Lu]

On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 7:32 PM, Robert Hancock <hancockrwd@gmail.com> wrote:
> Gene Heskett wrote:
>>
>> Hi Robin, David and lkml list;
>>
>> I said I would report.
>>
>> I just reinstalled the 1502 version bios after spending the last 2 days
>> trying to get an hours worth of uptime without an oops.  Gave up.
>>
>> David Newell and I have been trying to find the cause of the oops, but
>> when the compile instructions David is sending me don't work, its a bit
>> difficult to troubleshoot beyond renaming the function just to see if the
>> oops follows the rename, which it does.  And with the boot girations
>> to get a working radeonhd driver now broken again, apparently by the 'make
>> mrproper' that David had me do, I'm now stuck on issue drivers for drm,
>> radeon, and radeonhd and those are noticably slower.
>>
>> So I'm back on the 1502 version of the bios, it does an oops as I sent
>> before right at entering vmlinuz, which marks me tainted, but the machine is
>> dead stable after that.
>>
>> Here is another snip of that to refresh memories:
>> [    0.000000] DMI 2.4 present.
>> [    0.000000] Phoenix BIOS detected: BIOS may corrupt low RAM, working it
>> around.
>> [    0.000000] last_pfn = 0x120000 max_arch_pfn = 0x1000000
>> [    0.000000] x86 PAT enabled: cpu 0, old 0x7040600070406, new
>> 0x7010600070106
>> [    0.000000] ------------[ cut here ]------------
>> [    0.000000] WARNING: at arch/x86/kernel/cpu/mtrr/generic.c:404
>> generic_get_mtrr+0xea/0x120()
>> [    0.000000] mtrr: your BIOS has set up an incorrect mask, fixing it up.
>> [    0.000000] Modules linked in:
>> [    0.000000] Pid: 0, comm: swapper Not tainted 2.6.28.7 #7
>> [    0.000000] Call Trace:
>> [    0.000000]  [<c042858f>] warn_slowpath+0x6f/0x90
>> [    0.000000]  [<c05193b0>] vsnprintf+0x3c0/0x7e0
>> [    0.000000]  [<c0627a00>] panic+0x15/0xee
>> [    0.000000]  [<c041a78c>] pat_init+0x7c/0xa0
>> [    0.000000]  [<c040f9fc>] post_set+0x1c/0x50
>> [    0.000000]  [<c0733f35>] dmi_string_nosave+0x4c/0x6d
>> [    0.000000]  [<c0441031>] up+0x11/0x40
>> [    0.000000]  [<c040f7ea>] generic_get_mtrr+0xea/0x120
>> [    0.000000]  [<c071f91f>] mtrr_trim_uncached_memory+0x7d/0x374
>> [    0.000000]  [<c042e583>] request_resource+0xa3/0x150
>> [    0.000000]  [<c0627af0>] printk+0x17/0x1f
>> [    0.000000]  [<c071be82>] e820_end_pfn+0xb5/0xd3
>> [    0.000000]  [<c0719fc9>] setup_arch+0x501/0xb68
>> [    0.000000]  [<c0428d89>] release_console_sem+0x189/0x1d0
>> [    0.000000]  [<c071d027>] reserve_early_overlap_ok+0x3f/0x47
>> [    0.000000]  [<c07138a4>] start_kernel+0x58/0x314
>> [    0.000000] ---[ end trace 4eaa2a86a8e2da22 ]---
>
> That's not an oops, it's a warning. Those do normally taint the kernel. I
> don't think this should really be a WARN, IMHO, as it's a BIOS bug and not
> the kernel's fault, and it's fixed up the problem. CCing Yinghai Lu, which
> it looks like wrote this warning.

need to tone down the warning?

>
>>
>> So based on that, I'll now go build a 2.6.29-rc8 and see how that runs.
>>
>> The biggest problem with the 2.6.29 series is that apparently, for
>> security reasons, they are now doing a PHY disable in a graceful shutdown,
>> which none of the previous kernels knows how to re-enable.
>>
>> So to reboot to the 2.6.28.7 stable, you have to use the front panel reset
>> button to reboot or you will not have any onboard ethernet until you do a
>> full, pull ALL the power plugs for at least 30 seconds (I go make a cup of
>> tea, about 3 minutes) to reset the PHY's back to operational status. TBT,
>> the reset button is easier.
>>
>> Frankly, that seems like a thoroughly busted security idea, but I suppose
>> we're stuck with it.
>
> I doubt it's for security reasons. Could be due to power management or
> suspend/resume changes?

what is nic? could be put in D3 somehow.

YH

Re: New ASUS 1701 bios for M2N SLI DELUXE

[Gene Heskett]

On Friday 13 March 2009, Robert Hancock wrote:
>Gene Heskett wrote:
>> Hi Robin, David and lkml list;
>>
>> I said I would report.
>>
>> I just reinstalled the 1502 version bios after spending the last 2 days
>> trying to get an hours worth of uptime without an oops.  Gave up.
>>
>> David Newell and I have been trying to find the cause of the oops, but
>> when the compile instructions David is sending me don't work, its a bit
>> difficult to troubleshoot beyond renaming the function just to see if
>> the oops follows the rename, which it does.  And with the boot girations
>> to get a working radeonhd driver now broken again, apparently by the
>> 'make mrproper' that David had me do, I'm now stuck on issue drivers for
>> drm, radeon, and radeonhd and those are noticably slower.
>>
>> So I'm back on the 1502 version of the bios, it does an oops as I sent
>> before right at entering vmlinuz, which marks me tainted, but the machine
>> is dead stable after that.
>>
>> Here is another snip of that to refresh memories:
>> [    0.000000] DMI 2.4 present.
>> [    0.000000] Phoenix BIOS detected: BIOS may corrupt low RAM, working it
>> around. [    0.000000] last_pfn = 0x120000 max_arch_pfn = 0x1000000
>> [    0.000000] x86 PAT enabled: cpu 0, old 0x7040600070406, new
>> 0x7010600070106 [    0.000000] ------------[ cut here ]------------
>> [    0.000000] WARNING: at arch/x86/kernel/cpu/mtrr/generic.c:404
>> generic_get_mtrr+0xea/0x120() [    0.000000] mtrr: your BIOS has set up an
>> incorrect mask, fixing it up. [    0.000000] Modules linked in:
>> [    0.000000] Pid: 0, comm: swapper Not tainted 2.6.28.7 #7
>> [    0.000000] Call Trace:
>> [    0.000000]  [<c042858f>] warn_slowpath+0x6f/0x90
>> [    0.000000]  [<c05193b0>] vsnprintf+0x3c0/0x7e0
>> [    0.000000]  [<c0627a00>] panic+0x15/0xee
>> [    0.000000]  [<c041a78c>] pat_init+0x7c/0xa0
>> [    0.000000]  [<c040f9fc>] post_set+0x1c/0x50
>> [    0.000000]  [<c0733f35>] dmi_string_nosave+0x4c/0x6d
>> [    0.000000]  [<c0441031>] up+0x11/0x40
>> [    0.000000]  [<c040f7ea>] generic_get_mtrr+0xea/0x120
>> [    0.000000]  [<c071f91f>] mtrr_trim_uncached_memory+0x7d/0x374
>> [    0.000000]  [<c042e583>] request_resource+0xa3/0x150
>> [    0.000000]  [<c0627af0>] printk+0x17/0x1f
>> [    0.000000]  [<c071be82>] e820_end_pfn+0xb5/0xd3
>> [    0.000000]  [<c0719fc9>] setup_arch+0x501/0xb68
>> [    0.000000]  [<c0428d89>] release_console_sem+0x189/0x1d0
>> [    0.000000]  [<c071d027>] reserve_early_overlap_ok+0x3f/0x47
>> [    0.000000]  [<c07138a4>] start_kernel+0x58/0x314
>> [    0.000000] ---[ end trace 4eaa2a86a8e2da22 ]---
>
>That's not an oops, it's a warning. Those do normally taint the kernel.
>I don't think this should really be a WARN, IMHO, as it's a BIOS bug and
>not the kernel's fault, and it's fixed up the problem. CCing Yinghai Lu,
>which it looks like wrote this warning.

I agree, the fix it does is solid.  For the later bios releases, is it 
possible that the checks are incomplete, and the later bios sneaks a broken 
map past mtrr somehow?  My nearly 60 years of troubleshooting stuff with 
circuits in it says that's the best reason I can come up with.  This, for me 
is somewhat like trying to nail jelly to a tree in an environment this 
complex.

>> So based on that, I'll now go build a 2.6.29-rc8 and see how that runs.

And its running nicely so far, about 5:55 in uptime, but I turned off all the 
selinux stuff, 10 thousand warnings about fetchmail popping up at 90 second 
intervals just got old, and Daniel doesn't seem to fix it in 2 more fixes so 
far.

>> The biggest problem with the 2.6.29 series is that apparently, for
>> security reasons, they are now doing a PHY disable in a graceful shutdown,
>> which none of the previous kernels knows how to re-enable.
>>
>> So to reboot to the 2.6.28.7 stable, you have to use the front panel reset
>> button to reboot or you will not have any onboard ethernet until you do a
>> full, pull ALL the power plugs for at least 30 seconds (I go make a cup of
>> tea, about 3 minutes) to reset the PHY's back to operational status. TBT,
>> the reset button is easier.
>>
>> Frankly, that seems like a thoroughly busted security idea, but I suppose
>> we're stuck with it.
>
>I doubt it's for security reasons. Could be due to power management or
>suspend/resume changes?

No idea, other than its a PIMA. :-)  And if for suspend/resume reasons, with a 
WOL setup, it certainly kills any chance of WOL working.

>> It also seems to me, that to mark my kernel as tainted over a fix-up that
>> makes the system dead stable, is executing the messenger.  IMNSHO, its
>> ASUS who ought to be shot for not having any method of filing a bug report
>> against their crappy bios.  3 emails sent to the only address I was able
>> to find for ASUS have had the same effect as sending them to /dev/null.
>>
>> If anyone on the LKML knows how to contact ASUS, please advise them that
>> there is at least one VERY unhappy camper/user of the
>> $285 USD M2N SLI DELUXE motherboard, I'm sorry I ever laid eyes on it.
>> The newly released version 1701 bios (it unzips as
>> M2N-SLI-Deluxe-1701.BIN) still doesn't get it right AFAIAC.  The kernel
>> writers at least know what to do about the older version bios.  Maybe ASUS
>> coded the new bios to get past your test, but is it still fscked?  That is
>> certainly my opinion...
>>
>> Thanks everybody.  Now back to your regularly scheduled programming. :)

Repeat, thanks everybody.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
He hadn't a single redeeming vice.
		-- Oscar Wilde

Re: New ASUS 1701 bios for M2N SLI DELUXE

[Gene Heskett]

On Saturday 14 March 2009, Yinghai Lu wrote:
>On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 7:32 PM, Robert Hancock <hancockrwd@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Gene Heskett wrote:
>>> Hi Robin, David and lkml list;
>>>
>>> I said I would report.
>>>
>>> I just reinstalled the 1502 version bios after spending the last 2 days
>>> trying to get an hours worth of uptime without an oops.  Gave up.
[...]
>> That's not an oops, it's a warning. Those do normally taint the kernel. I
>> don't think this should really be a WARN, IMHO, as it's a BIOS bug and not
>> the kernel's fault, and it's fixed up the problem. CCing Yinghai Lu, which
>> it looks like wrote this warning.
>
>need to tone down the warning?

Yes, please & thank you.  And maybe look at the tests that determine its bad 
and has to be fixed.  IMO, something fubar in the later bios versions is 
getting by that test.  Results are extremely unstable with either the 1604beta 
or 1701 versions of that bios.  1502 does trigger the fix, and the fix is pure 
gold.

>>> So based on that, I'll now go build a 2.6.29-rc8 and see how that runs.
>>>
>>> The biggest problem with the 2.6.29 series is that apparently, for
>>> security reasons, they are now doing a PHY disable in a graceful
>>> shutdown, which none of the previous kernels knows how to re-enable.
>>>
>>> So to reboot to the 2.6.28.7 stable, you have to use the front panel
>>> reset button to reboot or you will not have any onboard ethernet until
>>> you do a full, pull ALL the power plugs for at least 30 seconds (I go
>>> make a cup of tea, about 3 minutes) to reset the PHY's back to
>>> operational status. TBT, the reset button is easier.
>>>
>>> Frankly, that seems like a thoroughly busted security idea, but I suppose
>>> we're stuck with it.
>>
>> I doubt it's for security reasons. Could be due to power management or
>> suspend/resume changes?
>
>what is nic? could be put in D3 somehow.
>
>YH

The nic's (2 of them) are in the motherboards MCP55 chipset according to what 
I have been told.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Mencken and Nathan's Ninth Law of The Average American:
	The quality of a champagne is judged by the amount of noise the
	cork makes when it is popped.

Re: New ASUS 1701 bios for M2N SLI DELUXE

[Yinghai Lu]

On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 9:40 PM, Gene Heskett <gene.heskett@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>what is nic? could be put in D3 somehow.
>>
> The nic's (2 of them) are in the motherboards MCP55 chipset according to what
> I have been told.

forcedeth already has D3hot workaround. so could other problem

YH