> > As I noted elsewhere, LINUX claims to have identified an "errata #93"
> > in the (K8) motherboard which the kernel thinks can/should be fixed by
> > a BIOS upgrade.  This is true, even with with the latest BIOS I have
> > been able to get.  But that's been gone over before, so I only mention
> > it as a reference in case it is related.
> 
> Erratum #93 is a "return from SMI" issue, and hence is no issue for
> NetBSD.. but it may be an issue for a BIOS.

But...an issue for LINUX (causing segfaults)?

The LINUX kernel claimed a workaround and predicted segfaults, which
I do see.  Otherwise, it's pretty stable.

What does SMI stand for?  S___ Maskable Interrupt, of some kind?  Or
am I totally off-base?


 [...]
> > As I've also noted before, the system is practically useless if
> > ioapic is enabled.  I don't know if that has been fixed recently, but
> > it may be worth building a GENERIC kernel and seeing if that issue
> > has been closed...  The NFS mount, if this is possibly related, is
> > over an Intel fxp-using NIC that is unusable with ioapic enabled
> > (but which appears to function fully normally with ioapic disabled).
> > 
> > Is it possible that some of my problems come from being forced to
> > disable ioapic?
> 
> Hm.. possibly.. what was your issue with the ioapic again? No
> working interrupts?

Kind of.  Certain devices seem to either never get interrupts, or
eventually stop getting them, if I have ioapic enabled.  The
variation is partly hardware dependant, partly dependant upon
what hardware I have put in which PCI slots, and partly pseudo-random.


My fxp NIC, for example, never works with ioapic.

On the other hand, depending on the slot usage, with ioapic I have
seen the USB controller occasionally fail after some period of use.
Alternatively, the cheaper, much maligned rtk NIC would eventually
do a "watchdog timeout" and stop functioning.  Whichever goes (USB
or rtk), it stays gone until I reboot.  All three (fxp, rtk, USB)
appear to work reliably if I do not use ioapic.

(I have the rtk directly connect to a hub that my DSL modem jacks
into.  The fxp goes to a separate network over which I run NFS.)


-- 
  "I probably don't know what I'm talking about."  http://www.olib.org/~rkr/