USB/ACPI problem on Compaq R3000z

[Gene Czarcinski]

On Friday 31 December 2004 19:01, Jonathan Berry wrote:
> On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 15:16:52 -0500, Gene Czarcinski <gene at czarc.net> wrote:
> > Since the volume is high on this mailing list while the signal-to-noise
> > is often low, I would appreciate any communications on this to be done
> > off-list (I will post any results to the list).
> >
> > I have a Compaq R3000z (Athlon64) notebook.  There are multiple systems
> > installed:  WinXP on a shrunk hda1, swap on hda2, a FC3 minimal install
> > on hda3 as a boot director, FC3 i386 everything install on hda5 and FC3
> > x86_64 everything install on hda6.  My problem(s) occur identically (as
> > far as I can tell) on both the i386 and x86_64 systems.
>
> Hi Gene,
> There is an R3000 mailing list for Linux that has been very helpful
> for many people.  Check it out:
> LinuxR3000 mailing list
> LinuxR3000 at lists.pcxperience.com
> http://lists.pcxperience.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linuxr3000

I was unaware of this mailing list and, yes, it does appear to have some good 
info.

>
> > Booting with ACPI=ON (actually specifying nothing at boot time):
> >
> > 1.  The integral synaptic touchpad is detected as a generic PS2
> > two-button input device.
> > 2.  A USB (1.1) mouse is not detected/useable.
> > 3.  USB 1.1 flash drive is not detected although USB 2.0 flash drives are
> > detected and useable.
> >
> > Booting with ACPI=OFF:
> >
> > 1.  The integral synaptic touchpad is not detected.
> > 2.  The USB (1.1) mouse is detected an useable.  It can be hotplugged if
> > not present at boot time.
> > 3.  Both the USB 1.1 and the USB 2.0 flash drives are detected and
> > useable.
> >
> > Bug reports have been filed:
> > https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=143893
> > https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=143894
> > https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=143895
> >
> > There are some bug reports filed at bugzilla.redhat.com which may be the
> > same thing or at least related.  However, nothing recent which sounds
> > like this.
>
> This sounds familiar to a f30 BIOS issue that has been discussed on
> the above list.  This is probably not a FC3 issue, but rather a BIOS
> issue.  Are you running the f30 BIOS?  If so, you may want to flash
> back to f21.  Try looking at this thread in the archives (of the
> LinuxR3000 list):
> http://lists.pcxperience.com/pipermail/linuxr3000/2004-December/001861.html
>
> > I also searched bugzilla.kernel.org and came up with some reports
> > indicating problems in the 2.5/2.6 kernel with USB/ACPI (one very old
> > report pointed me in the right direction).
> >
> > I have also tried these devices on a ASUS SK8V/Opteron system and
> > everything worked fine there.  This "problem" seems to have been around
> > for a while and I know that there are Compaq R3000z notebooks (or the HP
> > equivalent) out there being used with FC3.  I am a bit surprised that
> > this problem is not more widely known.
>
> If you don't have the problematic BIOS (you only would with very new
> laptops or if you upgraded), then the issue isn't there :).

I do have a very recently built R3000z so it likely has the F30 bios.  I have 
downloaded the f21 and f30 updates from HP but am leary of going "backlevel" 
to f21 when the one I have almost works.

I have "discovered" something new in that if I boot with kernel parameters:
    acpi=off i8042.nomux
then both the synaptics touchpad and the usb mouse works (great) but now the 
keyboard does not work (oops).

Some of the patches in the Fedora Core kernel hit ACPI, USB and i8042 code so 
it may well be something unique about the FC kernel.

I am going to wait a bit with doing something I consider a bit drastic in 
using the F21 bios until the holidays are over and see if I can prod some of 
the Red Hat Fedora Core kernel folks to take a look ... if this is a problem 
in FC3, then it is likely a problem in the RHEL 4 kernel as well and that is 
something that should get their attention.
-- 
Gene