ACPI causes system lockup on Ubuntu 7.10 with Foxconn 945P7AA Motherboard

[John Kounis]

When booting off Ubuntu Gutsy 7.10 Live CD, my computer quickly locks up, usually before it is completely booted. The furthest I have been successful in booting is about 10-20 seconds past the point where the initial GNOME desktop appears.

If I use the alternate CD, I can successfully install Ubuntu; however, the computer locks up within 10-20 seconds after Gnome loads. Note: If I type Ctrl-Alt-F1 after the computer boots, I can use the computer from the console without Gnome/X-windows loaded, but it will lock up within seconds after I log in from Ctrl-Alt-F7 and load a display manager.

If I boot the Live CD with acpi=off, the computer will boot successfully, and I can install Ubuntu from the graphical installer. Then, if I edit /boot/grub/menu.lst to add "acpi=off" to the boot parameters, the system works fine and is stable.

Notes that may be related to the problem:
    - Version 7.04 would boot and install successfully without the acpi=off switch; however, the system was not very stable. System lockups would occur every 1-3 days, requiring a hard reboot.
    - The last stable version of the kernel that I was able to use with acpi enabled was 2.6.17-14. Instability occurred when I upgraded to the 2.6.20-16 kernel with the Ubuntu 7.04 "Feisty" upgrade. (Note however: a lockup every 1-3 days in 7.04 was much better than within 10-20 seconds under 7.10!)
    - I was able to get Ubuntu Gutsy 7.10 to load with the EVGA nvidia video card below. Originally, I had an ASUS EAX300SE-X/TD/128 Radeon X300SE 128MB 64-bit DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card. With this video card, Ubuntu 7.10 Live CD booted with acpi=off, but the sound card did not initialize correctly and started making horrible buzzing and scratching noises, so I did not proceed with the installation and simply swapped the video card.

Hardware is as follows:
Foxconn 945P7AA-8EKRS2 LGA 775 Intel 945P ATX Intel Motherboard with the following onboard:
    * Intel 945P Chipset
    * ITE8212 Raid Controller (PATA)
    * Intel ICH7/ICH7R Southbridge (and SATA Raid Controller)
    * Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5788 Gigabit Ethernet controller (PCI Bus)
    * Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5789 Gigabit Ethernet controller (PCI-Express bus)
CPU
    * Intel Pentium D 915 Presler 2.8GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80553915
Memory
    * mushkin Enhanced Performance 512MB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Desktop Memory Model 991378a
Video Card
    * EVGA e-GeForce7200GS DDR2 w/128MB on board.
Hard Drive
    * Maxtor 7H500F0 500 GB Hard Disk

[Michael Nagel (nailor)]

is this still an issue with hardy?

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Closing this bug report as no further information has been provided. Please feel free to reopen this bug if you can provide the information asked for. Thanks!.

[John Kounis (ubuntu-pilotgetaways)]

I just tried it with 8.10, Intrepid Ibex, and the problem still exists.

It's important to note, however, that there is absolutely no problem if I install with acpi=off, so it seems related to a kernel bug with handling acpi.

[John Kounis (ubuntu-pilotgetaways)]

I just upgraded to Foxconn's BIOS version 515F1P55.

The problem went away, and the system is stable now with ACPI turned on. I have marked this bug "Invalid", since it seems to have been fixed by Foxconn, so it was probably a bug in their BIOS.