Re: RFD: Should we remove the HLT check? (was Re: [PATCH 1/8] x86: avoid check hlt if no timer interrupts)

Arjan van de Ven
2010-05-07T22:35:40Z

On 5/7/2010 15:24, Alan Cox wrote:
>> I'd be cool skipping it for family 5 or newer. I'm just wondering if we
>> should kill it completely -- IIRC it was only a handful of 386/486
>> systems which had problems, usually due to marginal power supplies which
>> couldn't handle the noise of a variable load (DOS not having any power
>> management would run at a reliable 100% load) -- that's not exactly the
>> type of systems which would have survived to modern day.
>
> Also SMM and hardware bugs on some platforms - Cyrix MediaGX 5510 for
> example where a hlt at the wrong moment during ATA transfers hung the box
> until power cycle. But all old old stuff.

but a boot time "does hlt work at all" check won't catch that.