[Linux-ia64] Strange behaviour

[Linux-ia64] Strange behaviour

[Steffen Persvold]

Hi all,

In our lab we have two B2-stepping BigSur (that is the codename for
the 2-cpu ones isn't it ?) machines running slightly modified RH7.1 2.4.3
kernel with SMP support (Yes I know, it's unsupported hardware, but
they've worked fine so far). When I do a rather long DMA transfer with a
Dolphin SCI card the machine prints this to the serial console and stops :

gSelFlashStartAddr  :  ffe4ffb0
gSelLogLength       :      ffaf
gSelNextEntry       :      5386
gSelEntryCount      :         9
gSelNewEntriesCount :         1
gSelLastLogRead     :         0
gSelCurMaxRecordSize:      13b0
gSelFlags           :        28
gSelFullFlag        :         0
gSelValidFlag       :         1
gSelClearFlag       :         0
gSelControl         :         0
gFlashExists        :         1
gSelFlashStartAddr  :  ffe4ffb0
gSelLogLength       :      ffaf
gSelNextEntry       :      673c
gSelEntryCount      :         a
gSelNewEntriesCount :         2
gSelLastLogRead     :         0
gSelCurMaxRecordSize:      13b0
gSelFlags           :        28
gSelFullFlag        :         0
gSelValidFlag       :         1
gSelClearFlag       :         0
gSelControl         :         0
gFlashExists        :         1


No kernel oops, no kdb, no nothing. Only solution is to power the server
off and then on again.

I'm curious to what this is, it seems to come from the machine firmware or
something ? Is this related to the beta HW I have, Linux kernel version or
is it something else ?

Thanks in advance,
-- 
  Steffen Persvold   | Scalable Linux Systems |   Try out the world's best
 mailto:sp@scali.com |  http://www.scali.com  | performing MPI implementation:
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Re: [Linux-ia64] Strange behaviour

[David Mosberger]

>>>>> On Fri, 26 Apr 2002 04:40:23 +0200 (CEST), Steffen Persvold <sp@scali.com> said:

  Steffen> Hi all, In our lab we have two B2-stepping BigSur (that is
  Steffen> the codename for the 2-cpu ones isn't it ?) machines
  Steffen> running slightly modified RH7.1 2.4.3 kernel with SMP
  Steffen> support (Yes I know, it's unsupported hardware, but they've
  Steffen> worked fine so far). When I do a rather long DMA transfer
  Steffen> with a Dolphin SCI card the machine prints this to the
  Steffen> serial console and stops :

  Steffen> gSelFlashStartAddr : ffe4ffb0

I believe this is a sign that a machine check (or "init") occurred.
Given that B2 is pretty much ancient, I'm not sure there is much
that can be done about it.

  Steffen> I'm curious to what this is, it seems to come from the
  Steffen> machine firmware or something ? Is this related to the beta
  Steffen> HW I have, Linux kernel version or is it something else ?

It's coming from the firmware.  Perhaps an older kernel with B2
support would work better, but then again, a lot of bugs got fixed in
the kernel since then.

	--david