[coreboot] Fwd: [9fans] Broken Hardware List

ron minnich rminnich at gmail.com
Thu Dec 31 19:16:33 CET 2009


This is really incredible. This is an Intel mainboard and there is
something going on that locks out hardware interrupts for 2-5 SECONDS
while running FreeBSD. I think the user made the right choice: buy a
different mainboard.

Another poster reports up to 1 second delays for the BIOS USB stack
(mainboard not specified in that case).

Finally, I had another report of a different Intel motherboard with an
incorrect _MP_ table, which the vendor refused to fix. The fix was the
same as the first poster: buy a different mainboard.

These are not old mainboards. Every time I start to wonder if coreboot
is going to get overtaken by proprietary BIOSes I hear a story of this
kind. At that point, I have to wonder why anyone would want a
motherboard with a proprietary BIOS, given how bad they are, even
today.

ron


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Lyndon Nerenberg (VE6BBM/VE7TFX) <lyndon at orthanc.ca>
Date: Wed, Dec 30, 2009 at 7:17 PM
Subject: Re: [9fans] Broken Hardware List
To: 9fans at 9fans.net


> i think it would be more valuable to explain exactly what's
> not working and point to some of the workarounds, if they exist.

What's not working is the ACPI component of the BIOS.  The P9 boot
fails very early on (right after E820 I think).  FreeBSD runs, but
something in the ACPI code wakes up every couple of seconds and leaps
into the ACPI BIOS code.  While it's in there it locks out all
hardware interrupts for 2-5 seconds, which makes the box pretty much
unusable for anything close to interactive work.

As to workarounds, I worked around to the computer store and bought a
non-Intel motherboard that actually implements Intel's ACPI spec
somewhat correctly.  I'm not going to spend time I could be billing
out to try to fix a completely braindead motherboard that I can
replace for what I earn in an hour or two.  Shitty hardware like this
deserves to die, not get fixed.

--lyndon




More information about the coreboot mailing list