Comment 0 for bug 484419

All Twinhead H12Y based laptops (such as Philips Freevents X55) have a BIOS bug where some yet unknown device has memory that should not be touched but the memory is not reserved by the BIOS. The problem manifests itself as hard freeze after loading memory card reader. Other problematic devices on this bios are network adapter and firewire adapter.

A workaround that allows installing i386 Ubuntu on this laptop is adding a special kernel parameter:
reserve=0xffb00000,0x100000

I'm opening this bug as a feature request to automatically detect this broken bios and apply the required magic by default.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: ubuntu 2922 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xffe34000 irq 16'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC260'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0260,14ff1235,00100400 HDA:10573055,10573055,00100700'
   Controls : 16
   Simple ctrls : 10
Date: Tue Nov 17 20:17:40 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
Lsusb:
 Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
 Bus 002 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 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
MachineType: DIXONSXP To Be Filled By O.E.M.
Package: linux-image-2.6.31-14-generic 2.6.31-14.48
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/hostname.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash -- reserve=0xffb00000,0x100000 console-setup/layoutcode=fi
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-backports-modules-2.6.31-14-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.24
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
SourcePackage: linux
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:3143): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (gnome-settings-daemon:3143): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (nautilus:3240): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:3265): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (nautilus:4527): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
dmi.bios.date: 08/29/2006
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 080013
dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.vendor: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.version: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr080013:bd08/29/2006:svnDIXONSXP:pnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:rvnTobefilledbyO.E.M.:rnTobefilledbyO.E.M.:rvrTobefilledbyO.E.M.:cvnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:ct3:cvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:
dmi.product.name: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.product.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.sys.vendor: DIXONSXP