amd64/111952: Boot panic due to missing BIOS smap on install cds (HP dc5750 SFF)

[IZ-FreeBSD0701-nospam at hs-karlsruhe.de]

The following reply was made to PR amd64/111952; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: IZ-FreeBSD0701-nospam at hs-karlsruhe.de
To: bug-followup at FreeBSD.org
Cc:  
Subject: Re: amd64/111952: Boot panic due to missing BIOS smap on install cds (HP dc5750 SFF)
Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 14:43:37 +0200

 Meanwhile I tried the two oldest BIOS for this machine available from HP.
 Without any success. So, if the problem exists in the BIOS it's there
 at least since version 1.04 revision A.
 
 I also tried the old 4.11 FreeBSD/i386 ISO from the archive. It failed
 to detect the right amount of memory as well. So, the problem has nothing
 to with changes in newer versions of FreeBSD.
 
 A NetBSD 3.1 Generic MP AMD64 from Oct, 30 2006 detects 894 MB of total
 memory.
 
 Assuming that the loader is an simpler environment than the kernel, I have
 tried some modifications in different files (btx.S, btxldr.S, biosmem.c,
 biossmap.c and even biosdisk.c). Either without any success to get an
 successful SMAP call or even crash the loader.
 
 I found, that the loader calls BIOS int 0x15 function 0xe820, which fails,
 than int 0x12 and int 0x15 function 0xe801, both successfully.
 The kernel calls int 0x12 successfully, after that int 0x15 function 0xe820,
 which fails, then int 0x15 function 0xe801, which fails also, and then uses
 the rtc value.
 
 It is interesting that the int 0x15 function 0xe801 call, which succeeded
 in the loader, fails when called by the kernel. 
 
 A Linux kernel 2.6.19-gentoo-r5 will boot up fine. Even with showing the
 smap information and access to the ACPI. A recent FreeBSD 6.2-STABLE will
 crash in madt_probe() if tried to boot with ACPI enabled. It is the same
 with a CURRENT dating from 2007-05-29.
 
 I have also tried the Linux-ready firmware developer kit release 2 from
 www.linuxfirmwarekit.org. While booting, it shows the int 0x15 function
 0xe820 calls and results. In total it detects 0 MB highmem and 894 MB
 lowmem, which is the same amount as the NetBSD above. It also shows severeal
 failures and and warnings, but has access to the ACPI tables without crashing.
 
 Best regards, Ralf