Re: [Myrinet] devfs issues with 1.5.2

Hi,

> > Jun 18 23:04:17 192.168.0.10 kernel: GM: Allocated IRQ11
> > Jun 18 23:04:17 192.168.0.10 kernel: GM: NOTICE:
> > Jun 18 23:04:17 192.168.0.10 kernel: GM: Board interrupt (configured on
> > IRQ 11) is not working. Jun 18 23:04:18 192.168.0.10 kernel: GM: NOTICE:
> > Jun 18 23:04:18 192.168.0.10 kernel: GM: Failed to initialize Myrinet
> > Card Jun 18 23:04:18 192.168.0.10 kernel: GM: gm: driver unloading

This sounds suspiciously like the BIOS APIC problem.  We had a 
customer report the same error message for this APIC problem,
and we have seen this happen on several different motherboards.

Attached is the excerpt from the REAMDE-linux in the gm-1.5.2 distribution.

Is there a newer BIOS available for this motherboard?

Please try booting with "-noapic".

--------------------------------------------------------
d.  APIC IRQ conflict on Supermicro P4DC6 (dual P4-Xeon)
--------------------------------------------------------
 
Here is a description of the behavior that was witnessed.
 
# We have seen that on the Supermicro P4DC6 (dual P4-Xeon)
# with RH linux 7.1 (2.4 kernel) that the SCSI controller seems to
# get confused on OS boot (hardware probing) when the Myrinet NIC is
# installed.
 
# This same behavior was experienced on the following machine:
# IBM Intellistation M Pro 6850
# 1.4 GHz P4 SMP (only one processor installed)
# RH7.1
# Kernel 2.4.3 (redhat update)
# All 7.1 updates (updates.redhat.com)
#
# GM message that IRQ 11 is used, Link lights up, then solid hang
# (no keyboard lights, nothing).
 
After receiving one of these Supermicro machines on which to test our
theories, one of our developers concluded that:
 
Linux support for the APIC on this motherboard is broken. So if you boot
linux using the APIC code, it will map a strange IRQ to the Myrinet board.
 
The solution is to boot Linux with "noapic".
When booting Linux with "noapic", the compatibility code is used
and the IRQs are not re-mapped. Everything is straight from the BIOS.
In this case, the onboard SCSI and the Myrinet NIC get the same
Interrupt (it seems that onboard SCSI and all PCI 64 bits slots
get the same IRQ).
 
People not using onboard SCSI are happy because everything is fine
for them. But if they use SCSI, the Linux driver will hang at boot time.
I have checked the code in the Adaptec Linux driver, and it
supports shared IRQ, as does the Myrinet driver.
 
What we found when we tested the machine here is that the problem
is not dependent on linux - we saw the problem with FreeBSD and Linux,
and even without Myrinet.
 
So, that means that the problem is with the BIOS.
It appears that the Supermicro BIOS does not report the APIC mapping
correctly.
 
For now we will continue to tell customers to disable APIC, i.e., to
boot Linux with "noapic". By booting with this kernel flag, the APIC
mapping is not used, SCSI and 64-bit slot will share the IRQ and
everything works fine.
 
At the lilo prompt, type the name of the version and "noapic".
 
Or in lilo.conf,
add
append="noapic"

Feel free to contact us at [email protected] if you have further
questions. :-)

Susan

-- 

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Susan Blackford
Member of Technical Staff
Myricom Inc.
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