thinkpad_acpi: WARNING: Outdated ThinkPad BIOS/EC firmware

[Majestyx]

apport came twice whit the same (Bug #554264 ) ?!

ProblemType: KernelOops
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: linux-image-2.6.32-19-generic 2.6.32-19.28
Regression: Yes
Reproducible: Yes
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-19.28-generic 2.6.32.10+drm33.1
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-19-generic i686
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
Annotation: Your system might become unstable now and might need to be restarted.
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: michael 1421 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'I82801DBICH4'/'Intel 82801DB-ICH4 with AD1981B at irq 11'
   Mixer name : 'Analog Devices AD1981B'
   Components : 'AC97a:41445374'
   Controls : 26
   Simple ctrls : 18
Card29.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:29 'ThinkPadEC'/'ThinkPad Console Audio Control at EC reg 0x30, fw 1RHT66WW-3.00a'
   Mixer name : 'ThinkPad EC 1RHT66WW-3.00a'
   Components : ''
   Controls : 2
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card29.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'Console',0
   Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined penum
   Playback channels: Mono
   Limits: Playback 0 - 14
   Mono: Playback 8 [57%] [on]
Date: Fri Apr 2 23:37:58 2010
Failure: oops
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=0ab99e7e-968a-4ac3-976d-938072c32144
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
Lsusb:
 Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
MachineType: IBM 2374SG7
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
 Socket 1:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
 Socket 1:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-19-generic root=UUID=aa34dbdf-ebe0-457a-ac57-ba4d40500e27 ro splash vga=773 quiet splash
RelatedPackageVersions: linux-firmware 1.33
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
SourcePackage: linux
Title: thinkpad_acpi: WARNING: Outdated ThinkPad BIOS/EC firmware
dmi.bios.date: 06/18/2007
dmi.bios.vendor: IBM
dmi.bios.version: 1RETDRWW (3.23 )
dmi.board.name: 2374SG7
dmi.board.vendor: IBM
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: IBM
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1RETDRWW(3.23):bd06/18/2007:svnIBM:pn2374SG7:pvrThinkPadT40p:rvnIBM:rn2374SG7:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 2374SG7
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad T40p
dmi.sys.vendor: IBM

[Majestyx (majestyx)]

IBM says the last BIOS Version is: 3.23 - and this version is also installs on my laptop. i have this BIOS version before the Bug!
(http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-50273.html) pls, look fw. to the IBM site. this BIOS (Version) was for many IBM´ s to.

[Majestyx (majestyx)]

now came the bug among the work......

[Majestyx (majestyx)]

jep, the same..... after update to beta2

[Majestyx (majestyx)]

whit the last reboot, i have a crash icon. i start apport and apport begins to collect. i will upload and launchpad tells:

->apport->
This report may also be submitted to http://kerneloops.org/ in order to help collect aggregate information about kernel problems. This aids in identifying widespread issues and problematic areas. A condensed summary of the Oops is shown below. Would you like to submit information about this crash to kerneloops.org ?

8] thinkpad_acpi: WARNING: This firmware may be missing critical bug fixes and/or important features

<-apport<-

->launchpad->
https://login.launchpad.net/jm8NM9Tfkq4W0gGQ/+decide

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, [no address given] and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
Apache/2.2.8 (Ubuntu) mod_wsgi/1.3 Python/2.5.2 Server at login.launchpad.net Port 80
<-launchpad<-

[Joseph Fenell (josephfennellster)]

Not sure but after update to 2.6.32-20 seems to have stopped. I was receiving the error after every power on but this time just desktop-couchdb error. Will repost after a couple more times of powering on.

[Joseph Fenell (josephfennellster)]

Never mind after second reboot error continued

[fdreyer (fdreyer)]

same with me (IBM X31, worked flawlessly under U 9.10), power-on, and "serious kernel problem" reported by crash-manager.

[mmm008 (lll007)]

same problem (IBM T30)

[Majestyx (majestyx)]

after the latest linux-generic updates, same poblem

[Bruno Girin (brunogirin)]

I haven't had the problem on my T42 since upgrading my BIOS by following the instructions posted here: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/BIOS_Upgrade

However, note that the procedure above should be followed with extreme caution as it can brick your laptop. The most reliable method seems to be the CD update one, which is the one I followed.

[mmm008 (lll007)]

Same as Majestyx: Even after last update, my IBM-T30 still pops up with a serious kernel problem.

[Vladimir Pycha (vpycha)]

Majestyx: Although your BIOS is already up-to-date, you need to update the Embedded Controller (EC) firmware (ECP) too as stated in http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/BIOS_Upgrade. The latest EC firmware version for your T40p laptop is EC 1RHT71WW-3.04. You have now EC 1RHT66WW-3.00a according to BootDmesg.txt attachment.

I have successfully followed the instructions on http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/BIOS_Upgrade to update the BIOS and ECP on my T41, just like Bruno Girin. My ECP was already up-to-date so I updated only the BIOS. It solved the problem for me as expected.

The primary cause of the problem is outdated BIOS or ECP or both.
The secondary cause are these 2 consecutive lines in the output of dmesg, as they have the WARNING level:
[ 73.321116] thinkpad_acpi: WARNING: Outdated ThinkPad BIOS/EC firmware
[ 73.321119] thinkpad_acpi: WARNING: This firmware may be missing critical bug fixes and/or important features
The third cause is Kernel Oops thing not liking WARNING lines in the output of dmesg.

After BIOS upgrade the Kernel Oops thing showed me still one more time. It showed with the second line. Sooner it always showed with the first line. But on the output of dmesg was no WARNING line so it was somehow cached from the previous session. On the next reboot it was OK.

[Vladimir Pycha (vpycha)]

I have some suggestions to apport:
I suggest that apport would show a message in the first step, not in the last step. So that the user would immediately know what's going on.
Also apport could allow to ignore some messages (the user would check to ignore them) and could support multiple messages (so that it would display a complete list of problem messages and would either allow to report them separately or all at once or would allow to somehow group them).
Also apport should distinguish among different levels such as WARNING and ERROR.
I think that implementing these suggestions would fix this bug (but of course upgrading BIOS would be still needed as the warning is not purposeless and Ubuntu can't upgrade the BIOS for you itself:)

[Vladimir Pycha (vpycha)]

Kerneloops and Apport has been disabled in Lucid yesterday by these updates:
http://<email address hidden>/msg10751.html
http://<email address hidden>/msg10749.html

To see if this warning still applies and to see the related messages run this in terminal:
dmesg | grep thinkpad

[c0psrul3 (c0psrul3)]

IBM T43