/srv/irclogs.ubuntu.com/2008/09/05/#ubuntu-kernel.txt

=== rikai__ is now known as rikai
_MMA_BenC: Are the links abogani (Alessio) posted in the email (wrt -rt) sufficient for your request?14:14
BenC_MMA_: I'm already working on it14:16
* _MMA_ hugs Ben. I owe you many beers.14:16
Ngrtg: did you get anything useful back from Intel?14:29
rtgNg: stonewalling.14:30
rtgJesse has not proposed a solution. I think they are still trying to repro the corruption.14:30
Ngrtg: do you know what's stored in the EEPROM that we might ever actually want to write to?14:34
NgI don't know when the freezes for us/kernel.org are, but I'm really concerned that this will sneak into releases14:34
rtgNg: I think there must be an ASIC on the card, or perhaps a CPU, because the firmware is necessary in order for the PCI scan to work.14:35
rtgNg: Its already in releases. This issue goes back to the initial incarnation of e1000.14:35
rtgNg: for some reason, its just starting to show up more often.14:35
Ngrtg: ah right14:35
Ngrtg: what I'm wondering is if we actually need the write support14:36
NgI don't know what's stored in there, but if we don't change it in normal operation, why keep it around and risk further damage? :)14:36
rtgNg: I'm watching the netdev mailling list. If I have not seen any more activity on it by Monday, I'll stir the pot.14:37
Ngok14:37
rtgNg: what I don't understand is how flash could be getting corrupted by  oops in the kernel. Even if that memory space is cribbled on, flash requires command to setup for writes. Its not as simple as just writing some values. there is a whole flash update protocol required by the hardware.14:38
Ngrtg: what would normally cause that update protocol to be used?14:45
Ngis it just ethtool operations?14:45
rtgNg: pretty much. It requires intervention by an operator. changing flash is not something that is normally done, except when updating firmware.14:46
Ngcould it be something like network-manager tickling it when it switches networks? like if it sets some properties on the device maybe?14:46
Ngif nothing else they should surely put in something which logs flash writes, so they might at least be able to figure out what is doing it?14:47
rtgNg: seems unlikely. Your bug report indicated that you were not doing anything special wrt networking, correct?14:47
Ngrtg: not that I was aware of14:48
Ngbut Nm0.7 does have much deeper options for network interfaces, like setting MACs and so on14:48
rtgNg: it also takes CAP_ADMIN provs to write flash, which NM does not have.14:48
Nghmm14:48
NgI guess that ethtool stuff makes it a bit unreasonable to make the flash part read-only :/14:50
amitkBenC: ok with you if I update aufs to the latest?14:51
rtgNg: the vmware guys think its an exclusion/locking issue, but I'm not convinced. the ICH8 has a hardware method for locking that (unless the HW is broken) look fool proof.14:51
BenCamitk: hell yeah15:06
* BenC hates messing with aufs15:06
Ngrtg: yeah I saw the rubbishing of their patch15:07
Ngrtg: if they'd just make it possible to dump/restore the thing I'd be happy to start peppering the driver with printk()s so if it happens again I'd have more info15:10
Ngas it is I think I'm going to have to disable the NIC in the BIOS and remove e1000*.ko15:11
rtgNg: you use mostly wireless anyway? Disabling the e1000e is probably a good idea until the corruption issue gets sorted out.15:14
Ngrtg: I prefer to use wired in the office, but I can live without it15:14
rtgNg: you could always use an external USB ethernet15:15
Ngyeah15:16
Ngrtg: can you think of anything other than ethtool which would even be likely to try and trigger the writes?15:20
rtgNg: honestly, I think flash writes is a red herring. I'm wondering if there is a more prosaic reason, like some hardware issue with the part.15:25
rtgNg: but, no, ethtool should be the only thing capable of writing to flash.15:26
NgNM looks like it at least reads ethtool info from an ioctl15:27
rtgmdomsch: I'm starting to get the hang of this DKMS stuff. I'm gonna use it to replace build madwifi from the madwifi-hal-2008-08-15 branch which has support for newer Atheros parts.16:11
mdomschrtg, sweet16:12
mdomschthanks for the +1 on mario's app for core-dev too16:12
rtgmdomsch: np. he deserves it.16:13
mkrufkywhere can i find the licenses for the firmware images shipped in /lib/firmware/`uname -r`/ ?16:37
rtgmkrufky: probably somewhere in /usr/share. I think its a debian policy thing16:38
mkrufkythanks, rtg16:40
mkrufkyactually, rtg, i dont see a way here to find out the license associated to a particular firmware file16:42
rtgare they all jammed together in file?16:43
mkrufkydvb-usb-dib0700-1.10.fw16:43
mkrufkywell, i dont even see anything that deals with firmware license at all16:43
mkrufkythat doesnt mean its not there... i just dont see it ;-)16:43
rtgmkrufky: is this LRM ? I can't remember what package that FW comes from.16:44
mkrufkyi dont think so... i think it came with the default kernel16:44
mkrufkyits on every fresh install of ubuntu16:44
mkrufkyits *in* ^^16:44
rtgmkrufky: Hardy?16:44
mkrufkyhardy, yes16:45
mkrufkyi didnt go back to look at dapper / hoary. fiesty16:45
rtgmkrufky: its installed from the LRM package. perhaps BenC would know. he's more up on debian policies than am I.16:48
mkrufkyah, okay16:49
BenCmkrufky: if it's from the default kernel, then it's in the kernel source tree...or in git-log's17:01
mkrufkyhmm17:01
mkrufkyok, i'll search git17:02
mkrufkythanks, BenC and rtg17:02
siouxwho know if spca561a module is available by default on next intrepid kernel?17:25
=== mkrufky is now known as mkrufky-away
rtgmdomsch: how do I prevent LRM from installing new madwifi binaries on the next minor version update? Or rather, how do I get the DKMS package to trigger a rebuild such that it stashes the new LRM kernel modules and replaces them with the DKMS modules?17:59
mdomschhmm18:00
mdomschwhere did LRM put its copy?18:00
rtgmadwifi/ath_pci.ko18:00
rtgand volatile/ath_hal.ko18:01
mdomschis the MODULE_VERSION() in there < the one in the DKMS database?18:01
rtgI just refresh trhe LRM package, so the version didn't change. I downloaded the deb and 'dpkg -i blah...'18:02
mdomschright18:02
mdomschwell, here's how it works18:02
mdomschyou dkms install a new package18:03
mdomschit drops its result in to /lib/modules/$kernelver/extra/18:03
mdomschif LRM drops a new package elsewhere in the tree18:03
mdomschit'll get ignored as long as /extra/ is in the modprobe search path earlier than drivers/18:04
mdomschwhich it should be18:04
rtgI've been dropping the DKMS bits in /updates. I'll try putting them in /extras18:04
mdomschrtg, whichever, doesn't matter18:05
mdomschas long as it's in the search path before where LRM puts it18:05
rtgmdomsch: another problem I forsee is if I remove the DKMS package. Its gonna restore the stashed copies of the LRM modules to the version prior to this most recent LRM update.18:06
mdomschyes18:07
rtgok, I just need to be aware of the caveats.18:07
* mdomsch hated the whole 'stash a copy' thing18:07
mdomschbut we didn't have a search path in modprobe at the time18:08
rtgmdis there a way to disable the stash thing?18:08
rtgmdomsch: ^^18:08
mdomschnot that I can think of18:08
mdomschat present18:08
rtgmdomsch: it would be a useful feature in this case.18:09
rtgmdomsch: hmm, I changed to dkms.conf:DEST_MODULE_LOCATION[0]="/extras/madwifi-hal-2008-08-15", but the bits are still getting put in /updates. I extracted the package on the target machine and looked at its dkms.conf just to be sure.18:25
mdomschrtg, yeah18:25
mdomschthat value is just advisory anymore18:25
mdomschit gets overridden when various other bits are present18:25
rtgmdomsch: oh, I was using your OLS paper example.18:26
mdomschrtg, that's somewhat outdate  too :-)18:26
mdomschit's mostly right though18:26
mdomschon Ubuntu, DKMS installs into /updates/dkms/18:27
mdomschthere's a distro-version check to override DEST_MODULE_LOCATION18:27
mdomschfunction override_dest_module_location()18:27
rtgmdomsch: ok, I'll muck about and see what I can wreck.18:28
mdomschit is also configurable by setting addon-modules-dir=something/ in /etc/sysconfig/module-init-tools18:29
mdomschor ADDON_MODULES_DIR in the environment calling DKMS18:29
=== mkrufky-away is now known as mkrufky
rtgmdomsch: alright, this is pretty cool. I think I've got a solution for all of the Atheros advanced chipset crackheads.19:02
mdomschoh?19:03
rtgI especially like how DKMS rebuilds itself when I booted to a different ABI.19:03
mdomschit should rebuild when you install a new kernel with a new ABI too19:04
mdomschbefore reboot19:04
rtgmdomsch: right, but I wanted to make sure booting to an older kernel also worked.19:04
mdomschah, yes19:04
rtgmdomsch: anyway, kudos. its a great package.19:05
mdomschglad it's useful to you19:05
mdomschand I'm glad to see it's wide use in Ubuntu19:05
* mdomsch nods to superm1 for that19:05
mdomschhe's the official maintainer now too19:05
rtgmdomsch: Mario is actually whom I'm doing this for.19:06
=== _Nicke_ is now known as Nicke
CarlFKsmb_tp: just say your note - about to try, so don't go home yet :)23:54
smb_tpCarlFK, I am home. Not working very much longer but I'll wait for you to try. ;-)23:55

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