[Hwcert-announce-list] Red Hat Hardware Certification advisory for systems with "Haswell" HDMI audio

[Engineering Partner Management]

Greetings Red Hat Partners,

Red Hat is now providing support for hardware certification of qualified 
systems with HDMI audio that are based on Intel processors codenamed 
"Haswell" through a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5.z asynchronous errata 
release. This kernel errata advisory is available at:

http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2013-1801.html

This Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5.z asynchronous errata release may be 
used for systems with "Haswell" HDMI audio. Instructions for certifying 
hardware with this errata appear below.

Because customers subscribe to the base RHN channel to which this 6.5.z 
asynchronous errata is posted and HDMI audio is not an installation 
requirement, this errata is considered to satisfy the software polices 
described in the Red Hat Hardware Certification Policy Guide.


Please note the following caveats:

* The errata advisory does not clarify that "Haswell" HDMI audio is now 
supported.

* The associated technical notes for the errata describe the required 
fix under BZ#1032247:

https://access.redhat.com/site/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/6.5_Technical_Notes/kernel.html

* The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 GA kernel will report an unsupported 
hardware taint (value of 268435456) on boot when the "Haswell" HDMI 
audio PCI ID is discovered.

* This unsupported tainting will cause a failure during the taint value 
check in the hardware certification test suite info test.

* The errata kernel will return a warning during the GA kernel check in 
the hardware certification test suite info test.

* Due to the expected info test failure and warning described above, 
other unexpected failures and warnings in the info test may be masked 
and not discovered until the Red Hat Hardware Certification Review Team 
reviews the results. This may cause a requirement to re-run the affected 
testing.


Certifying Hardware with the RHSA-2013-1801 Errata
--------------------------------------------------

To certify "Haswell" systems with HDMI audio and the RHSA-2013-1801 errata:

1.  Create a certification request using the normal process.

2.  Install and perform all tests other than the HDMI audio test on the 
RHEL 6.5 GA kernel and submit these runs/results. Please note, the info 
test will report a failure during these runs.*

* The Red Hat Hardware Certification Review Team will verify that the 
info test run failure is limited to the expected single unsupported 
hardware taint value.

3.  Install the RHSA-2013-1801 errata, reboot into the errata kernel, 
and perform only the HDMI audio and info tests. Submit these results in 
a different run/results package. The info test will report a warning 
during this run.**

** The Red Hat Hardware Certification Review Team will verify that the 
info test run warning is limited to the expected non-GA kernel use.

4.  Submit the remainder of certification request as usual.


We value your ongoing participation in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 
Hardware Certification efforts. Thank you for your continued 
partnership. If you have any questions or comments, please do not 
hesitate to contact your Partner Manager or Technical Account Manager.

Regards,

The Red Hat Hardware Certification Team