Bug#453937: hangs when probing (with x86emu on amd64) a radeonhd card

[Robert Millan <rmh@aybabtu.com>]

On Sun, Dec 02, 2007 at 04:45:43PM +0100, Brice Goglin wrote:
> Robert Millan wrote:
> > Package: xresprobe
> > Version: 0.4.23debian1
> > Severity: important
> >
> > ddcprobe hangs while probing a radeonhd card.  A gdb backtrace reveals
> > that it happened while processing real mode code under x86emu emulation.
> >
> > Is this a known issue?
> 
> Maybe not exactly this issue, but xresprobe is known to cause some
> problems.

I did a bit more testing.  The result is that on either i386 or amd64,
ddcprobe hangs if run whenever X is running (but not otherwise).

Sounds like a firmware thread-safety bug.  If you ask me, not sure what was
all that big fuss about AMD allowing free drivers if these have to rely on
propietary firmware.  oh well...

Anyway, can we work around it?  How about adding a timeout in ddcprobe so
that unreliable firmware code won't hang it undefinitely ?  Or is this just
not worth it because...

> And we expect to not need xresprobe anymore in the future.

so what is going to replace it?  Is there a completely different approach,
or just a new implementation of the same?

-- 
Robert Millan

<GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call!
<DRM> What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak?
(as seen on /.)