Armin Schindler wrote:
>
> On Tue, 10 Jul 2001, Ollie Lho wrote:
> > Armin Schindler wrote:
> > > Do I have to activate/configure interrupts(controller) stuff
> > > before the kernel can be started ?
> > >
> > > What I don't understand is, that after the 'hlt' check
> > > (when check is disabled), everything else works. It seems
> > > that the kernel expects something set when hlt is checked, and
> > > afterwards the kernel sets it by itself !?
> > >
> > > Armin
> >
> > I think it should be the Real Time Clock (the BIOS clock) that you did
> > not
> > inited properly. We got this problem for SiS 630/730 a long time ago and
> > Eric has the same problem for AMD chipset. You can take a look at
> > sis/630/southbridge.c to have some idea how to setup the legacy PC
> > timer/clock.
>
> I don't think the RTC should be involved here, because I may not have
> a RTC on the production board. I do think it is the timer interrupt,
> but why do I (the BIOS) have to setup the timer interrupt when linux
> is doing this anyway the way it needs it ?
>
The RTC is neceressary. IIRC, kernel uses both the 8254/8255 system
timer
and mc146818 RTC in the very first init processes. Take SiS630/730 for
example, when the CMOS ram is cleared, the kernel will "pause" for a
long
period during boot.
Ollie
