Bios bug

[Bateau4u]

Upon startup, I am getting a notice of a "bios bug" (please see the attached screen shot). I run a duel-boot system with Vista & Ubuntu desktop 8.04 and I run Firestarter. I do not get this notice when booting up Vista. I ran my Windows Trend-Micro Virus software which found nothing. I assume this is Ubuntu specific and I am not sure how to proceed.

Richard

[Connor Imes (ckimes)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This bug did not have a package associated with it, which is important for ensuring that it gets looked at by the proper developers. You can learn more about finding the right package at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage . I have classified this bug as a bug in linux.
For future reference you might be interested to know that a lot of applications have bug reporting functionality built in to them. This can be accessed via the Report a Problem option in the Help menu for the application with which you are having an issue. You can learn more about this feature at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

Can you please include in this bug report the following as separate attachments:

uname -a > uname-a.log
cat /proc/version_signature > version.log
dmesg > dmesg.log
sudo lspci -vvnn > lspci-vvnn.log
sudo dmidecode > dmidecode.log
sudo biosdecode > biosdecode.log

Thanks in advance.

[Bateau4u (info-quarterbredfarm)]

Here is the version.log

[Bateau4u (info-quarterbredfarm)]

Here is the uname-a.log

[Bateau4u (info-quarterbredfarm)]

Here is the dmidecode.log

[Bateau4u (info-quarterbredfarm)]

Here is the biosdecode.log

[Bateau4u (info-quarterbredfarm)]

Here is the dmesg.log

[Bateau4u (info-quarterbredfarm)]

Hi Connor,
I attached the logs you requested and set the status to new (I hope I
got that right).

Thanks for the help!

Richard

On Sun, 2008-12-21 at 04:46 +0000, Connor Imes wrote:

> Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This bug did not have a package associated with it, which is important for ensuring that it gets looked at by the proper developers. You can learn more about finding the right package at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage . I have classified this bug as a bug in linux.
> For future reference you might be interested to know that a lot of applications have bug reporting functionality built in to them. This can be accessed via the Report a Problem option in the Help menu for the application with which you are having an issue. You can learn more about this feature at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.
>
> Can you please include in this bug report the following as separate
> attachments:
>
> uname -a > uname-a.log
> cat /proc/version_signature > version.log
> dmesg > dmesg.log
> sudo lspci -vvnn > lspci-vvnn.log
> sudo dmidecode > dmidecode.log
> sudo biosdecode > biosdecode.log
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> ** Changed in: linux (Ubuntu)
> Sourcepackagename: None => linux
> Importance: Undecided => Medium
> Status: New => Incomplete
>

[Connor Imes (ckimes)]

Richard, thanks for attaching that information. Do you actually experience problems when using the system that you think are related to this error message? If so, please elaborate. Or is it just bothering you that the error message is showing?

Can you please try booting the system by using

noapic nolapic

as kernel boot parameters. There are directions here on how to change the boot parameters from GRUB - http://grumpymole.blogspot.com/2007/05/ubuntu-how-to-edit-grub-boot-parameters.html

Does the error message go away when those parameters are used?

[Bateau4u (info-quarterbredfarm)]

The parameters noapic nolapic were added to the boot kernel as requested but I am still getting the BIOS bug error message.

I generally do not sit at my computer while it boots up. However, I recently noticed a significant decline in performance at times so I started monitoring the boot up. I had added the System Monitor Load Indicator to my panel, which ran mostly at mid-level, however, it now occasionally loads up but I am not sure of the cause, nor am I certain if this is related to the BIOS bug error.

[Connor Imes (ckimes)]

It doesn't sound to me like the problems you are experiencing are related to the Bios bug message you are getting at startup.

Currently we are still missing one of the logs I initially requested, can you please attach:

sudo lspci -vvnn > lspci-vvnn.log

Right now I'm going to refer you to this wiki page - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BIOSandUbuntu
I'd like you to try some of the tools there and attach any logs to this report. For the iasl part, please attach the .dat file and the output of the "iasl -d dstd.dat" command as a separate attachment; so for instance, run the command as
   iasl -d dstd.dat > iasl-dat.log
and attach the log file

I don't know anything about the Linux Firmware Kit, but as the wiki says, it may be worth trying. A quickstart is available here - http://linuxfirmwarekit.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/Documentation/QUICKSTART.txt - and seems pretty straightforward.
If you can attach the results to this bug report, that would be great.

I don't suspect you need to do anything with power management debugging or suspend/resume unless those are problems for you.

Again, thanks in advance.

[Bateau4u (info-quarterbredfarm)]

Here is the lspci-vvnn.log

[Connor Imes (ckimes)]

Sorry for the delay, I will mark this bug as Triaged and let a developer decide if the problems you are experiencing are related to the bios bug error. If you can also perform the instructions in my last comment, that would be great, too. Thank you for taking the time to report this!

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

This bug report was marked as Triaged a while ago but has not had any updated comments for quite some time. Please let us know if this issue remains in the current Ubuntu release, http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . If the issue remains, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Bateau4u (info-quarterbredfarm)]

Sorry for taking so long in getting back to you. Two weeks ago, I gave up and reformatted and reinstalled Ubuntu this time installing Ubuntu 9.10 - Karmic Koala directly instead of upgrading. Unfortunately, though the number of problems were dramatically reduced, I am still having some of the same problems (FireFox hanging, having to reboot to do anything). Ubuntu 9.10 - Karmic Koala is just not as stable as previous versions.

You can go ahead and close this bug issue if you want. If I have many more problems, I am going to go back to Ubuntu 8.04 - Hardy Heron, which gave me no trouble at all.