9.1-RELEASE AMD64 crash under VBox 4.2.6 when IO APIC is disabled

[CeDeROM]

On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 4:48 PM, John Baldwin <jhb at freebsd.org> wrote:
>> The simple answer that I have deduced is that APIC is MANDATORY for
>> AMD64 machines and they won't run otherwise? This is why generic AMD64
>> install fails when no APIC is enabled in the VBox?
>
> No, it is not quite like that.  x86 machines have two entirely different
> sets of interrupt controllers. (...)

Hello John :-) Things now are more clear to me, thank you for your
extensive explanation!! :-) I am wondering in that case if it wouldn't
be a good idea to put atpci (old x86 IRQ handler) in the GENERIC
configuration, or at least in the default installer kernel, so it is a
safe fallback for a AMD64 machines with no APIC support, as for
example VBox with APIC disabled..? Is atpic removed on purpose so it
enforces use of new APIC and so better performance?

Thank you! :-)
Tomek Cedro

-- 
CeDeROM, SQ7MHZ, http://www.tomek.cedro.info