(closed) Error on boot in dmesg with intel chip i915; why?; how to stop this?

[floppy]

Hello,
I have several "intel_rng" errors in the dmesg (see below) of a P4 DC7100 extra slim. Any possibility to stop this message is welcome (Im still searching..). Perhaps it slow the boot phase.

...
[    3.707184] EXT4-fs (sdb1): warning: mounting unchecked fs, running e2fsck is recommended
[    3.882513] EXT4-fs (sdb1): mounted filesystem without journal. Opts: (null)
[   12.936090] intel_rng: Firmware space is locked read-only. If you can't or
[   12.936095] intel_rng: don't want to disable this in firmware setup, and if
[   12.936097] intel_rng: you are certain that your system has a functional
[   12.936100] intel_rng: RNG, try using the 'no_fwh_detect' option.
[   12.958696] i801_smbus 0000:00:1f.3: PCI INT B -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19
[   12.962009] Linux agpgart interface v0.103
[   13.017789] agpgart-intel 0000:00:00.0: Intel 915G Chipset
[   13.017973] agpgart-intel 0000:00:00.0: detected gtt size: 262144K total, 262144K mappable
[   13.018382] agpgart-intel 0000:00:00.0: detected 8192K stolen memory
[   13.018580] agpgart-intel 0000:00:00.0: AGP aperture is 256M @ 0xe0000000
[   13.164867] [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
[   13.225874] i915 0000:00:02.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
[   13.225884] i915 0000:00:02.0: setting latency timer to 64
[   13.255789] [drm] Supports vblank timestamp caching Rev 1 (10.10.2010).
[   13.255795] [drm] Driver supports precise vblank timestamp query.
[   13.255865] vgaarb: device changed decodes: PCI:0000:00:02.0,olddecodes=io+mem,decodes=io+mem:owns=io+mem
[   13.296040] [drm] initialized overlay support
[   13.296932] i2c i2c-5: sendbytes: NAK bailout.
[   13.466153] fbcon: inteldrmfb (fb0) is primary device
[   13.535044] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 200x75
[   13.542728] fb0: inteldrmfb frame buffer device
[   13.542731] drm: registered panic notifier
[   13.542772] [drm] Initialized i915 1.6.0 20080730 for 0000:00:02.0 on minor 0
[   15.681324] intel_rng: Firmware space is locked read-only. If you can't or
[   15.681328] intel_rng: don't want to disable this in firmware setup, and if
[   15.681331] intel_rng: you are certain that your system has a functional
[   15.681333] intel_rng: RNG, try using the 'no_fwh_detect' option.
[   18.337496] oss_ich 0000:00:1e.2: PCI INT A -> GSI 21 (level, low) -> IRQ 21
[   18.348170] usbcore: registered new interface driver oss_usb
[   18.621197] intel_rng: Firmware space is locked read-only. If you can't or
[   18.621201] intel_rng: don't want to disable this in firmware setup, and if
[   18.621203] intel_rng: you are certain that your system has a functional
[   18.621206] intel_rng: RNG, try using the 'no_fwh_detect' option.
[   27.329095] tg3 0000:40:00.0: eth0: Link is up at 1000 Mbps, full duplex
[   27.329101] tg3 0000:40:00.0: eth0: Flow control is on for TX and on for RX

[maro]

To find out how you could "play around" with the 'no_fwh_detect' option I searched in the kernel source and found the following reference (in file 'drivers/char/hw_random/intel-rng.c', lines 150 - 153):

Code: [Select]

module_param(no_fwh_detect, int, 0);
MODULE_PARM_DESC(no_fwh_detect, "Skip FWH detection:\n"
                                " positive value - skip if FWH space locked read-only\n"
                                " negative value - skip always");
Therefore I'd suggest you could try booting once with boot code intel_rng.no_fwh_detect=1 (for the "skip if FWH space locked read-only" case) and once with intel_rng.no_fwh_detect=-1 (for the "skip always" case).

Capture for each boot process the 'dmesg' output and see whether it makes a difference.

[curaga]

Given that the RNG is a module, it shouldn't have a big effect on boot time. Blacklisting it is another option.

[floppy]

Thanks!
With intel_rng.no_fwh_detect=1, the error message is gone,  and changing the screen to a sony (flat), the boot time is improved (acc. dmesg) by 11s.