CMOS settings getting lost when user who is group "nvram" logs into KDE
Hello,
For a customer I installed a Linux Scan Workstation with Debian Sarge. It is
some Wortmann Terra Server with SiS 661 chipset with a motherboard that seems
to be from ASUS (lspci output at the end of the mail).
It all worked pretty well despite one problem:
When the user logs into KDE 3.3.2 using KDM, and then logs out again with
rebooting the machine, on the next start the BIOS of the machine (an American
Megatrends one) complains that it cannot read the CMOS settings anymore.
This doesn't happen when the user just boots into KDM and then uses KDM's menu
to reboot the machine, i.e. when he doesn't log into KDE.
This also doesn't happen when the user use the "safe" session (dunno the exact
english name in KDM) which only gives an xterm.
And it also doesn't happen when the user is not a member of the group "nvram"
although even when he is, a "lsmod | grep nvram" after KDE was started gives
no result.
But it does also happen, when the user does not log out normally but just
switches off the machine and switches it on again then.
Currently I removed the user from the group "nvram" as a work-around, without
knowing the exact cause of the problem.
I am almost ready to file this under esoteric problems with non properly
supported hardware, but I still would like to know what the heck is happening
here. Who at all is accessing nvram during start of KDE? I de-installed
"klaptopdaemon" which didn't make a difference.
Any hints where to search? I am about to file this as a bug report, but before
I would like to get some feedback on it. Maybe someone has an idea.
I am using a standard Debian kernel 2.6.10-1-686 on that machine.
Processor is a Pentium 4 with 2.4 GhZ.
scanstation:~# lspci
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 661FX/M661FX/M661MX
Host (rev 11)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]: Unknown device 0003
0000:00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS963 [MuTIOL Media
IO] (rev 25)
0000:00:02.1 SMBus: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]: Unknown device 0016
0000:00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE]
0000:00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]
Sound Controller (rev a0)
0000:00:03.0 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0
Controller (rev 0f)
0000:00:03.1 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0
Controller (rev 0f)
0000:00:03.3 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 2.0
Controller
0000:00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 PCI
Fast Ethernet (rev 91)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]
661FX/M661FX/M661MX/741/M741/760/M760 PCI/AGP
(I also have a lspci -vv output here)
Regards,
--
Martin Steigerwald Mail: ms@teamix.net
Systemadministrator Fon: +49 (0)911 30999-0
team(ix) GmbH Fax: +49 (0)911 30999-99
Süd-West-Park 35, 90449 Nürnberg, Deutschland
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