Bug 55605

Summary:	kernel 2.4.9-7 constantly outputs messages to syslog about clock timer
Product:	[Retired] Red Hat Linux	Reporter:	compwiz
Component:	kernel	Assignee:	Arjan van de Ven <arjanv>
Status:	CLOSED ERRATA	QA Contact:	Brock Organ <borgan>
Severity:	low	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	7.2	CC:	compwiz, john
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	i386
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2002-01-28 16:07:24 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description compwiz 2001-11-02 20:12:50 UTC

From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Linux)

Description of problem:
When running kernel 2.4.9-7 on my Asus A7A266 motherboard (ALi chipset), 
the following messages gets printed by the kernel every couple minutes, and
is very annoying. There's nothing wrong with my hardware, and this should
not be printed.

Nov  2 15:05:24 discovery kernel: probable hardware bug: clock timer
configuration lost - probably a VIA686a motherboard.
Nov  2 15:05:24 discovery kernel: probable hardware bug: restoring chip
configuration.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):


How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Turn on system.
2.Look at /var/log/messages or dmesg.
	

Additional info:

Comment 1 Alexei Podtelezhnikov 2002-01-08 07:36:03 UTC

Souldn't you have 2.4.9-13 (instead of -7)? Yes, -13 is the official update 
release at ftp.redhat.com. -7 was never released, it was in rawhide, it has 
some extra debugging checks. Close the bug.

Comment 2 Arjan van de Ven 2002-01-08 09:46:05 UTC

-7 was also released as official update before -13 was.
Anyway I'll kill this message for the next kernel we'll release.

Comment 3 Need Real Name 2002-01-28 16:07:18 UTC

I didn't know that anyone else was experiencing this. I have the same MOBO,
and sought assistance from ASUS with no help forthcoming from them 
(lousy service ASUS has).

My experience didn't show until after I upgraded to the -13 kernel, though. 
It didn't show with the 2.4.7-10 or 2.4.9-7. (Actually, I don't know how I got the 
2.4.9-7 kernel, but I've been running the Redhat Network Update each time 
I get a kernel annoucement--It must have been pushed down with the updater.)

I haven't checked the logs since I installed the -13 kernel, but then, if 
it's been removed, I won't see it anyway.

Is it really a kernel issue? Or is the MOBO the problem?

--Greg

Comment 4 Arjan van de Ven 2002-02-11 17:05:43 UTC

This message is removed in 2.4.9-21 at least.
It's basically a check for a bug in some chipsets that set the timer back to the
(windows) value of 18.2Hz. (Linux uses 100Hz). 
The kernel tries to detect this but sometimes it detects it wrong; no big deal
since setting it to 100 if it already was 100 is harmless.