BTX loader hangs after version info

[Peter Holm]

On Sun, May 25, 2008 at 08:33:01PM +1200, Mark Kirkwood wrote:
> I wrote:
> >John Baldwin wrote:
> >>
> >>Try this patch.  I'm not 100% certain this will fix it as I can't 
> >>reproduce
> >>the issue, but I think it might help.  Specifically, when the boot 
> >>code makes
> >>a v86 call, the loader/boot2/whatever swaps in/out a new set of 
> >>registers via
> >>the v86 structure including the eflags register.  However, none of 
> >>the boot
> >>programs actually initialized the v86 structure.   Thus, the BIOS 
> >>routines
> >>would start off running with whatever garbage was in v86.efl when 
> >>each boot
> >>program started.  This meant that we could end up invoking BIOS 
> >>routines with
> >>interrupts disabled, and I think this might explain a hard hang (if a 
> >>BIOS
> >>routine was waiting for an interrupt the interrupt would never 
> >>fire).  The
> >>patch fixes all the boot programs to initialize v86 to a better known 
> >>state. At the least it sets v86.efl to a sane value (0x202) rather 
> >>than random.  (The
> >>random might have always been 0x0 BTW, not sure on that one.)
> >>
> >>  
> >Thanks John,
> >
> >Unfortunately this patch does *not* cure the issue for my old 
> >Supermicro P3TDDE, it still hangs just before presenting the menu. I 
> >had to boot off the livefs and copy /boot/loader.old -> /boot/loader 
> >to get back to being bootable again - but at least the old fella is on 
> >a more up-to-date 7-STABLE now :-)
> 
> Given that the patch *did* cure Peters Tyan S2720, I'll double check I 
> didn't fat finger applying the patch (mind you the Tyan has AMI BOIS - 
> same as my Supermicro P3TDERs that *do* work ok with current 7-STABLE, 
> whereas the P3TDDE has Award BIOS).
> 
> Anyway, I'll double check and report back...
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Mark

I now have booted some more with this patch and it would seem that the
problem is still there, from time to time! Most of the time I now boot
without any problems but once in a while the loader still hangs.

I'll try to gather some statistics...
-- 
Peter