Bug#679039: boot crash with VT6415 controller (pata_via)

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

# regression
severity 679039 important
quit

Hi Guiliano,

Giuliano Procida wrote:

> Tags: upstream

Which upstream version have you tested?

[...]
> The last working kernel I have is a custom built 2.6.33 (with no pata_via).
> With anything more recent, I get a fairly reliable boot crash without taking
> special actions
[...]
> I have tried setting up a crashkernel with NMI watchdog but the crash/hang does
> not appear to trigger a reboot. I've also ensured that BIOS is on the latest
> version and tried both with and without the VIA IDE option ROM enabled.
>
> I would be very happy to help in any way to get this problem fixed, including
> installing patched kernels etc. I just don't know the best way to tackle this.

Thanks for reporting it.  I don't have many great ideas, just some
basic questions:

 . What other kernels have you tried?  Does the 3.4.y kernel from
   experimental reproduce this?

 . How reproducible is this?  80%?  100%?

 . How heavy is the crash?  E.g., can you still toggle the caps lock LED or
   use the magic sysrq key?

 . Do you have a log or photo of the crash?  netconsole[1] or serial console[2]
   may be useful for this.

Any other hints or strange symptoms?

Hope that helps,
Jonathan

[1] http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/networking/netconsole.txt
[2] http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/serial-console.txt