2.6.15-1-sparc64 issues on blade 100

[Admar Schoonen <admar@luon.net>]

Dear Debian people,

I recently tried linux-image-2.6.15-1-sparc64 with an up to date unstable on my
blade 100. I noticed a few issues:

 1. Framebuffer is still a bit distorted. This is (or at least was) a known
    issue for recent kernels (bug id 317756). However, this bug is closed, but
    the problem still exists (at least on my blade 100). The symptoms are that
    some 'snow' or flickering occurs on the console when text is scrolling and
    Xorg will only start in 'low' refresh rates. The refresh rate for 1400x1050
    is 60 Hz, while for 2.6.9 kernels, I can run 1400x1050 @ 85 Hz. Only at
    1152x864 and lower, I can get 85 Hz refresh rates. Furthermore, in all those
    resolutions, some red dots appear, most notably when moving windows.
    A work around is to specify 'video=atyfb:off vga=normal', but then the
    console is slow, has no virtual consoles and my second mach64 card will not
    be initialized (leaving me with just single head Xorg)

    Am I the only one who still experiences this bug (ie: flickering on console
    and/or red dots in Xorg)?

 2. Bluetooth is unavailable. Is that on purpose? If not, should I file a
    wishlist bug against linux-image-2.6.15-1-sparc64 to include bluetooth?

 3. 2.6.15-1-sparc64 is very unstable. I get lots and lots of messages like this
    in /var/log/kern.log:

      Feb  2 23:50:32 zonne kernel: Bad page state at free_hot_cold_page (in process 'rhythmbox', page fffff800006b4f10)
      Feb  2 23:50:32 zonne kernel: flags:0x0000000000000414 mapping:0000000000000000 mapcount:0 count:0
      Feb  2 23:50:38 zonne kernel: Backtrace:
      Feb  2 23:50:38 zonne kernel: Call Trace:
      Feb  2 23:50:38 zonne kernel:  [00000000004681c4] unmap_vmas+0x338/0x5e8
      Feb  2 23:50:38 zonne kernel:  [000000000046b160] exit_mmap+0x78/0x13c
      Feb  2 23:50:38 zonne kernel:  [000000000043c284] mmput+0x24/0xa4
      Feb  2 23:50:38 zonne kernel:  [000000000043faec] do_exit+0x1c4/0xb74
      Feb  2 23:50:38 zonne kernel:  [0000000000440520] do_group_exit+0x84/0x90
      Feb  2 23:50:38 zonne kernel:  [0000000000449d70] get_signal_to_deliver+0x3c8/0x3e4
      Feb  2 23:50:38 zonne kernel:  [0000000000425dfc] do_signal32+0x1c/0x115c
      Feb  2 23:50:38 zonne kernel:  [000000000041625c] do_signal+0x2c/0x528
      Feb  2 23:50:38 zonne kernel:  [0000000000405888] __handle_signal+0x14/0x4c
      Feb  2 23:50:38 zonne kernel:  [0000000071637654] 0x71637654
      Feb  2 23:50:38 zonne kernel: Trying to fix it up, but a reboot is needed

    It is most notably for applications like rhythmbox or quod libet.
    Is there anyone else experiencing this behaviour? Or is it most probably
    some hardware issue in my machine?

For now, I'll switch back to my custom built 2.6.9, as especially issue 3
prevents me from using 2.6.15.

Best regards,

Admar