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    SubjectRe: [PATCH] x86 ACPI: Blacklist two HP machines with buggy BIOSes (Re: 2.6.27-rc8+ - first impressions)
    On Mon, Oct 06, 2008 at 10:39:25PM +0100, Maciej W. Rozycki wrote:
    > On Mon, 6 Oct 2008, Andi Kleen wrote:
    >
    > > The real reason is actually a workaround in the BIOS for problems
    > > in the older Linux code that caused duplicated timer interrupts. The
    > > old Linux would fall into "enable both IO-APIC and 8259" fallback mode
    > > and the resulted in duplicated timer events, which made everything unhappy.
    > > They instead configured the northbridge in a way that one of the inputs
    > > is ignored.
    >
    > Hmm, working around Linux problems in the BIOS is a new and truly odd
    > concept to me.

    Except perhaps for the cheapest consumer parts and many laptops Linux is
    definitely on the radar now for many BIOS developers.

    > It's not that we are unresponsive or do not take
    > responsibility for our bugs, is it?

    These workarounds are not for mainline kernels but for specific
    distribution releases (as in "fixes SLES/RHEL x.y" instead of
    "fixes 2.6.xy")

    Even when the distributors update their kernels the old releases
    do not go away are still used and the workarounds get in.

    > > You won't be able to DMI list it, that workaround is widely used
    > > in lots of different systems.
    >
    > Well, perhaps, but the thermal trip point phenomenon seems unique to this
    > family of systems. The other aspects of the problem do not really matter
    > anymore as we seem to have addressed them robustly enough now.

    When you need DMI entries you clearly haven't.

    -Andi



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