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SubjectRe: [PATCH] PCI detection in 2.2.x and 2.4.0
Hi!

> I recently had a problem with linux 2.2.x and 2.4.0 oopsing early
> in the boot process on a old pentium I had gotten hold of. printk
> investigation showed the problem to be in the PCI detection code,
> specifically the part where linux tries to go through the BIOS to
> get the PCI settings. Picking 'Direct' (CONFIG_PCI_GODIRECT) make
> the boot succeed where 'Any' had not.
>
> This stumped me since the help text had led me to believe
> otherwise: The help text states that if CONFIG_PCI_GOANY is set
> linux will first try to detect the settings directly and go
> through BIOS if this fails. The code first goes through BIOS to
> get the settings, then gets them directly and then pick the
> direct settings (if valid) otherwise the BIOS settings (if
> valid).

Some years ago, the PCI routines have really used this strategy
(and the obsolete help text reflects this situation), but unfortunately,
there exist machines where the direct access detection gives bogus
results, so it's much better to ask the BIOS first. Also, it's conceptually
cleaner to use a well-defined BIOS interface than to probe random
ports (well, they are random on all non-PCI machines).

These are the reasons why I'd prefer keeping the current code and
just fixing the documentation.

Also, you can easily make your machine boot by specifying "pci=conf1"
at the kernel command line. I admit it isn't a nice solution, but I
don't know any way which would be 100% reliable on all machines
and your machine is the only case I know about where the current
algorithm breaks.

Have a nice fortnight
--
Martin `MJ' Mares <mj@ucw.cz> <mj@suse.cz> http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~mj/
"Unexpected ';', expecting ';'."
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