Re: Followup to previous post: Atlon/VIA Instabilities

[Seth Goldberg <bergsoft@home.com>]

Manfred Spraul wrote:
> 
> > So it seems that CONFIG_X86_USE_3DNOW is simply used to
> > enable access to the routines in mmx.c (the athlon-optimized
> > routines on CONFIG_K7 kernels), so then it appears that somehow
> > this is corrupting memory / not behaving as it should (very
> > technical, right?) :)...
> 
> Do you use any unusual (binary only/with source) kernel modules?
> 
> mmx.c stores the current contents on the fpu registers into
> current->thread.i387.f{,x}save.
> If another module modifes the fpu registers and calls memmove it will
> cause fpu corruptions.
> 
> I checked that a few months ago, and no module in the main kernel tree
> does that.

  No, actually the instability starts right after/when the root
filesystem is mounted (it seems).  I have no foreign modules installed
when this error occurs.  Even if I did, why would the Abit KA7 with the
same [other] hardware and software NOT show this problem, even with all
opts enabled?

 --Seth