Evo T20 Kernel Resources

Fixes

PnPBIOS error

This appeared when upgrading to Ubuntu 7.10 LTSP (kernel version 2.6.22). PnPBIOS got an error and hanged the boot process. Adding pnpbios=off to the kernel command line solved it.

Natsemi bug

Symptom: Repeated log messages of the form

 eth0: possible phy reset: re-initializing

Details: See Zsolt Mueller's summary.

Diagnosis: There is a bug in the ethernet driver, typically located in

 /usr/src/linux/drivers/net/natsemi.c

Solution: Zsolt has a patch for kernel 2.6.16. In kernel 2.6.24, some changes have been made to the driver file, but apparently not this one. The recommended solution is to delete the single character "!" from line number 1821, to produce the correct form shown below:

 1818        dspcfg = readw(ioaddr+DSPCFG);
 1819        writew(0, ioaddr+PGSEL);
 1820        if (np->dspcfg_workaround && dspcfg != np->dspcfg) {
 1821            if (netif_queue_stopped(dev)) {
 1822                        spin_unlock_irq(&np->lock);
 1823                        if (netif_msg_drv(np))
 1824                                printk(KERN_NOTICE "%s: possible phy reset: "
 1825                                        "re-initializing\n", dev->name);

Real-Time Clock (RTC) Problems

Standard kernels fill the system log with error messages complaining about rtc settings. The Evo hardware is to blame: it lacks components that are standard on most motherboards. Here's how to eliminate wasted kernel effort and unwanted log messages. Edit the file /usr/src/linux/arch/x86/Kconfig. Look around line 49 for the key "GENERIC_CMOS_UPDATE". Change the default setting from "y" to "n" and recompile the kernel as usual. Problem solved.