HP / Compaq laptops crash with port 0x80 delay write

Bug #200057 reported by Joel Stanley
8
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
linux (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
High
Tim Gardner

Bug Description

Binary package hint: linux-image-generic

There are a number of AMD based laptops manufactured by Quanta which will hard lock when doing a port 0x80 delay write. Previously, workarounds included booting with certain boot options (which I assume disabled the use of drivers that used these delay writes, but would also disable other useful functionality). 2.6.25 introduced an alternate delay method; from the patch which fixes this issue:

"Certain (HP) laptops experience trouble from our port 0x80 I/O delay writes. This patch provides for a DMI based switch to the "alternate diagnostic port" 0xed (as used by some BIOSes as well) for these."

http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/12/13/591
http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/12/16/62

The git commit for the above patch is b02aae9cf52956dfe1bec73f77f81a3d05d3902b. There have been a couple of updates since then:
6e7c402590b75b6b45138792445ee0f0315a8473
f9fc58910ebc448b0b7d37af1bf57a896a78e9c4
d3cfeb4fbe2a5e88fd5f98892f4dc49dcab8a9e7

As this is in 2.6.25 (and only missed .24 because the patch was developed late in the .24 development cycle), I would like to see it in hardy's kernel. I have tested a kernel compiled from the hardy git tree with this patch applied, and it fixes the problem on my HP Pavilion tx1000 test machine.

Revision history for this message
Gabriel Bauman (gabrielbauman) wrote :

Appears to make my poor HP dv6000ca work with no kernel boot parameters. PLEASE get this into Hardy!

A large number of users are affected by this:

  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.20/+bug/89746
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/86408
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.20/+bug/114650
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/181179

It's been a long-standing issue for months. These laptops are common and very cheap.

Revision history for this message
Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara) wrote :

I'll have the kernel team take a look. Thanks.

Changed in linux:
assignee: nobody → ubuntu-kernel-team
importance: Undecided → Medium
status: New → Triaged
Revision history for this message
alej (alejandro-avila) wrote :

I totally agree with Joel.

I have tested it myself building a kernel with the aforementioned option and everything works as it shoud have done from the start ... (allright NVIDIA not working still, but that's another story).

No more boot up hard locks, no more probems with wireless, no problems at all... or none that I know of...

Thanks for properly detecting this guys.... guess I'll have to wait until Intrepid Ibex for ubuntu to work out-of-the box with my HP dv9343eu laptop.

Keep up the good work,

Thanks

Changed in linux:
assignee: ubuntu-kernel-team → abogani
Revision history for this message
Joel Stanley (shenki) wrote :

Three weeks have elapsed since this one was reported. Can we please have a response from the kernel team?

If it has not been made clear: without this fix HP/Compaq laptops with AMD chipsets will be unusable for another 6 months until Ubuntu switches to a >=2.6.25 kernel.

I believe it should be a blocker for Hardy's release.

Revision history for this message
Tim Gardner (timg-tpi) wrote :

I have a DMI IO_DELAY enabled test kernels at:

http://launchpadlibrarian.net/13003634/linux-image-2.6.24-13-generic_2.6.24-13.24ubuntu1_i386.deb
http://launchpadlibrarian.net/13002134/linux-image-2.6.24-13-generic_2.6.24-13.24ubuntu1_amd64.deb

If you have Gutsy running, then you can download and install one of these kernels, e.g.,

wget http://launchpadlibrarian.net/13003634/linux-image-2.6.24-13-generic_2.6.24-13.24ubuntu1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-image-2.6.24-13-generic_2.6.24-13.24ubuntu1_i386.deb

linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-13 packages can also be found in my PPA:

https://edge.launchpad.net/~timg-tpi/+archive

If I can get confirmation that this kernel enables you to boot Hardy on your HP laptop, then the DMI IO_DELAY patches will likely make it into the final build.

Changed in linux:
assignee: abogani → timg-tpi
importance: Medium → High
milestone: none → ubuntu-8.04
status: Triaged → In Progress
Revision history for this message
Joel Stanley (shenki) wrote :

Using the above kernel, I can now boot the machine and it appears stable. This is on hardy amd64, up to date as of today.

Thank you for your work Tim - this will mean a great deal to those who own HP/Compaq laptops.

Revision history for this message
Gabriel Bauman (gabrielbauman) wrote :

Using Tim's kernel, machine is stable and boots perfectly. This is excellent. Thank you!

Revision history for this message
Tim Gardner (timg-tpi) wrote :
Changed in linux:
status: In Progress → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
alej (alejandro-avila) wrote :

Better late than sorry,

I can my dv9343eu laptop now boots and remains stable on hardy amd64. Thanks Tim for your great work and dedication - thanks to your dedication loads of HP AMD Turion notebook users will be able to have a smooth transition to linux via ubuntu (I believe it is the only distro which has so far added this fix in the 2.6.24 kernel)

Any idea by when I'll be able to make a clean install of ubuntu hardy heron (beta or not) which includes this fix? Should wait for the final release?

Ever so thankful to you Tim, and to Joel for having identified it...

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package linux - 2.6.24-14.24

---------------
linux (2.6.24-14.24) hardy; urgency=low

  [Amit Kucheria]

  * LPIA: Update from moblin
  * LPIA: Fix reboot problem after S3/S4
  * LPIA: Integrate latest Dabney thermal patches
  * LPIA: Change-umd_dbg-debug-level-to-KERN_INFO
  * LPIA: Compile modules into kernel to save on boot time
  * LPIA: lots of Dabney CONFIG options dissapeared
  * LPIA: Purge nonexistent config options

  [Jay Chetty]

  * UBUNTU:USBC:Integrated USBC 2.0.0.32L.0009

  [Misha Zhilin]

  * USB: ehci: handle large bulk URBs correctly (again)
    - LP: #204857

  [Tim Gardner]

  * frame buffer regression - screen blank except for blinking cursor after
    fbcon vtswitch
    - LP: #201591
  * Blacklist Bluetooth Dell Wireless 370 for SCO MTU
    - LP: #209715
  * Set CONFIG_FAIR_CGROUP_SCHED for server flavours.
    - LP: #188226
  * Add DMI IO_DELAY support.
    - LP: #200057

 -- Tim Gardner <email address hidden> Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:19:49 -0600

Changed in linux:
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
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