Bug#607194: bugs.debian.org: Computer randomly fails on startup

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

Hi,

Bergen A van wrote:

> The problem is visible at 21.885 seconds.
> It does occur randomly!
[...]
> ACPI: EC: Look up EC in DSDT
> ACPI: BIOS _OSI(Linux) query ignored
> ACPI Error (psargs-0359): [OSYS] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND
> ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.ACEL._STA] (Node ffff88007fb2dc40), AE_NOT_FOUND
[... lots more of the same snipped ...]
> [Firmware Bug]: ACPI: ACPI brightness control misses _BQC function
> [Firmware Bug]: ACPI: ACPI brightness control misses _BQC function
[...]
> general protection fault: 0000 [#1] SMP
[...]
> Pid: 940, comm: modprobe Not tainted 2.6.32-5-amd64 #1 HP Pavilion dv2 Notebook PC

The ACPI tables seem to be broken.  Questions:

 - did this problem arise with an upgrade, or has it always worked
   this way?  If the former, what version of the kernel worked?
 - how did you install / recover logs?
 - is your BIOS up to date?
 - if there's a configuration that allows a stable boot, could you
   attach output of

	/usr/share/bug/linux-image-$(uname -r)/script 3>&1

   (which gives an overview of hardware and drivers used) and

	acpidump

   (which gives a dump of ACPI tables as Linux sees them)?
 - does a more recent kernel behave the same way?  (For example,
   one can check if it's possible to boot with a wheezy installation
   CD.)

Sorry for the long delay, and hope that helps,
Jonathan