Why timer interrupt is disabled?

[andreev <andreev@niisi.msk.ru>]

Hi, list.
I have an Intel CFI compatible chip on my MIPS machine, which is mapped
on to the physical memory .When i compiled linux-2.4.1 kernel with Intel
CFI support, and booted my MIPS, linux hanged when i tried to read data
from flash.

Then, i inserted debugging printk functions, and found that i read data
insteed of status register from flash. ( Because my chip must be
programmed with double word commands ).  In this case, driver must
return -EIO in do_read_1_by_16_onechip after time out. But it do not,
because all interrupts were disabled before do_ftl_request called. In
do_ftl_request i found commented out sti() function. Why it were
commented out? I had a look to the current sourse in your CVS, and i
found that sti() is still commented out. Where we have to enable
interrupts? If driver works under the closed interrupts, why does it use
the time_after and jiffies?
Can anybody tell me abouut it?