FOUND: Boot-time Hang on Parallel Port in 2.1.90-pre[23]

David C Niemi (niemi@tux.org)
Wed, 18 Mar 1998 00:32:00 -0500 (EST)


OK, I finally caught it red-handed, and reproduced it on the K6-233/66
430TX system as well as turning it on and off on at will on the Pentium
166/83 with a given "bad" kernel. I expect it can be reproduced on most
any modern hardware, or at least any recent ASUS 430 HX or TX motherboard.

The problem is associated with saying yes to all three module support
options, and turning on the new Parallel Port with PC Hardware, Parallel
Printer support with IEEE 1284 readback, on a machine *with the parallel
port turned off in the BIOS*. Perhaps this is unsolvable, but the older
Parallel Port/Printer code did not have this problem. I'm not sure what
the new module support has to do with anything, but I seemed to need it set
to Yes/Yes/Yes to reproduce the problem.

No Strength Reduction, BSD Process Accounting, PnP, APM, and Video Mode
Support have no bearing on this problem.

Cheers,
David C Niemi

On Tue, 17 Mar 1998, David C Niemi wrote:
> I am having quite a challenge pinning this one down. Those of you with
> ASUS 430HX (Triton II)-based motherboards and regular Pentia, please
> comment out SMP and turn on these options on 2.1.90-pre3:
>
> P5 optimization
> BSD Process Accounting
> Video mode selection
> Parallel port/PC-style hardware
> Plug and Play support/Auto-probe for parallel devices
> ...
> (Character Devices)
> Parallel printer support
> Support IEEE 1284 status readback
>
> I get a hang under these circumstances, but the same kernel is fine on an
> AMD K6 system with a newer BIOS and a 430TX chipset. I thought I had it
> narrowed down to video mode selection or BSD process accounting, but then
> got a contrary result. After dozens of kernel builds, it's time to call it
> a night. The results were always consistent for any given kernel on a
> given box, and seem to have nothing to do with kernel size.
>
> David
>
> On Mon, 16 Mar 1998, David C Niemi wrote:
> > I have an otherwise very stable machine which hangs midway through the boot
> > process on the last two prepatches. The last thing it prints is the Serial
> > driver and ttyS00/01 announcements. I do have parallel printer and APM
> > support turned on in these kernels, though there is no problem in 2.1.89 or
> > 2.1.90-pre1.
> >
> > Kernel is compiled with gcc 2.7.2.3 under Red Hat 5.0 with SMP not set and
> > CFLAGS_NSR not used (as for the working 2.1.86, 2.1.88, 2.1.89, 2.1.90-pre1
> > and many previous kernels). I compiled the 2.1.90-pre2/3 kernels at least
> > 3 separate times with slightly different configurations, all with the same
> > result.
> >
> > From the 2.1.89 boot sequence, with the same configuration as the pre3
> > failure:
> > ...
> > Starting kswapd v 1.5
> > Serial driver version 4.24 with no serial options enabled
> > ttyS00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
> > ttyS01 at 0x02f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
> > **** This is as far as it gets in 2.1.90-pre[23] ****
> > lp: driver loaded but no devices found
> > APM BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x03 (Driver version 1..4)
> > Entry f000:6a1c cseg16 f000 dseg fd4f cseg len e6ff, cseg16 len 0, dseg
> > len 22a
> > Connection version 1.2
> > AC on line, battery status unknown, battery life unknown
> > battery flag 0x80, battery life unknown
> > Real Time Clock Driver v1.09
> > Non-volatile memory driver v1.0
> > Sound...
> >
> > The system is a Pentium 166/83 with 32 MB EDO RAM and a 430HX chipset on a
> > 1-year-old ASUS motherboard. It has an ESS1688 ISA PnP sound card, SVEC
> > 21140 and PCI NE2000 clone Ethernet, and an STB S3 ViRGE video card. Yes,
> > it's a bit overclocked, but it runs cool and its stability is extremely
> > well tested under many different kernels.
> >
> > Were there any changes to APM or parallel port stuff between the pre1 and
> > pre2 patches, or weird compiler directives or CPU initialization? And is
> > anyone else seeing UP hangs of this kernel? If not I'll try to pin this
> > down a bit further.
> >
> > --- David C Niemi --- niemi@tux.org --- Reston, Virginia, USA ---
> > "Well the lush separation unfolds you - and the products of wealth
> > push you along on the bow wave of their spiritless undying selves."
> >
> >
>
> --- David C Niemi --- niemi@tux.org --- Reston, Virginia, USA ---
> "Well the lush separation unfolds you - and the products of wealth
> push you along on the bow wave of their spiritless undying selves."
>
>

--- David C Niemi --- niemi@tux.org --- Reston, Virginia, USA ---
"Well the lush separation unfolds you - and the products of wealth
push you along on the bow wave of their spiritless undying selves."

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