ichwd problem: watchdog doesn't "bark"

[Garrett Cooper]

On Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 12:10 AM,  <perryh at pluto.rain.com> wrote:
> [dropped stable@ since I'm not on it and
>  I suspect it may not accept non-member posts]
>
>> BTW, can someone knowledgeable tell me if watchdog better
>> be firing SMI or NMI when it runs down?
>> My bet is on NMI, but who knows.
>
> It may depend on whether you want the BIOS, or FreeBSD, handling
> the interrupt.  Unless you are running *very* old h/w, there's a
> good chance the BIOS intercepts SMI, even with a protected-mode
> OS running, and I wouldn't be surprised if the BIOS' response to
> a watchdog timeout were an immediate reboot.  It might be good
> to check the motherboard and/or BIOS manuals.

Yeah. I just recently have embarked on an adventure of installing
FreeBSD on my work T61 laptop, and while poking around the BIOS I
discovered that NMI could be enabled or disabled, so I'd determine
whether or not that feature is available, and see if it's turned on or
off.

Intel and/or the laptop vendor should be helpful in this pursuit.

-Garrett