Fedora Core 4 Test Update: kernel-2.6.14-1.1633_FC4

[Marc Schwartz (via MN)]

On Thu, 2005-11-03 at 17:52 -0500, Dave Jones wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 02, 2005 at 09:45:09AM -0600, Marc Schwartz wrote:
> 
>  > (gdb) bt
>  > #0  0x00901c7d in strcpy () from /lib/libc.so.6
>  > #1  0x00bc2c4f in __i8k_get_proc_info () from
>  > /usr/lib/gkrellm2/plugins/i8krellm.so
> 
> Can you paste the contents of /proc/i8k from both kernels?
> I'm curious whether that format changed somehow.
> 
> Also, what was the last kernel that worked ? The only major
> change to this recently seems to have happened in 2.6.13.
> So I suspect you're upgrading from 2.6.12 ?
> 
> 		Dave

Dave,

Thanks for your reply. 

Yes, I went from .12 to .14, since .13 resulted in a boot time panic,
which I had posted to Bugzilla and was noted earlier in this thread:

  https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=171357


>From kernel-2.6.12-1.1456_FC4:

$ cat /proc/i8k
1.0 A38 ? 54 -22 1 -22 79260 -1 2


>From kernel-2.6.14-1.1633_FC4:

$ cat /proc/i8k
1.0 A38  52 -22 1 -22 77340 -1 2


What is different is the field that should show the service tag ID for
the laptop. This is the '?' in the first instance (3rd field) and
appears to be missing in the second.

This would perhaps explain the SEGFAULT, since in reviewing the code in
i8krellm.c for the __i8k_get_proc_info() function, there are a series of
strcpy's, parsing the fields from the result of getting the /proc/i8k
info.

The gkrellm plugin is supposed to display the service tag ID as a
"tooltip" when one puts the mouse over the fan speed indicator. I had
not noticed this previously since I do not routinely need the service
tag, but with the 12 series kernel, I do get the question mark. In all
honesty, while I can recall seeing the proper service tag in the past, I
do not recall when this changed.

I do know that at some point in the past, pre-FC4, I need to change the
entry for i8k in /etc/modprobe.conf to:

  alias /proc/i8k i8k
  options i8k force=1

where the 'force=1' is noted in the i8kutils README file as possibly
being required on some systems.

The BIOS version, A38, is the latest for this particular laptop (Dell
5150 with the 3.2 Ghz P4).

Let me know if you require further information.

Thanks,

Marc Schwartz