Re: Detecting ichlpcib watchdog "NO_REBOOT" state

[David Young <dyoung%pobox.com@localhost>]

On Fri, Jun 03, 2011 at 12:05:26PM -0400, Thor Lancelot Simon wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 03, 2011 at 11:20:12AM -0400, Sergey Katsev wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > 
> > Question about the ichlpcib watchdog:  is there any way to detect from 
> > user-space that the driver found "TCO timer reboot disabled by hardware"?  
> > (other than looking through the dmesg output?)
> > 
> > If I'm understanding correctly, this message is triggered by the driver 
> > detecting and not being able to reset the NO_REBOOT flag on the chip, and 
> > means that the watchdog is in NMI-only mode, and will not actually reboot 
> > the system.
> > 
> > I'd like to be able to detect this state and use a different watchdog 
> > instead in this situation.
> 
> I would suggest modifying the driver so that it does not attach in
> this case (since it is not generally useful when configured this way).

I agree with Thor on "principle of least surprise" grounds:  NetBSD
shouldn't attach the watchdog that will not actually reboot the system.

Dave

-- 
David Young             OJC Technologies
dyoung%ojctech.com@localhost      Urbana, IL * (217) 344-0444 x24