On Tue, 10 Jul 2001, Ollie Lho wrote:
> 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
Since I do not have the production board yet, I cannot test if
a missing RTC causes problems.
But I have good news. The 'hlt' error is solved. A stupid init of
the southbridge caused this. I don't know what exactly happened, but
a wrong register value was the error. I rechecked all PCI bridge
init code and now it is working.
Thanx a lot for your help.
Armin
