BIOS BUG #81[....]

I also get these two messages, again too fast to jot down the numbers.. I thought it might be related to the problems I'm having with my VIA NV896 integrated graphics, but perhaps not if you're running Nvidia.
My system:
Pioneer M66 SE
Core duo T2450 @2GHz
1 Gb Ram
Feisty 7.04

epidemiks,

Is this your baby?

http://www.pioneercomputers.com.au/products/info.asp?c1=3&c2=13&id=2063

I'm wondering because the only bit of hardware on my Serval that I've not tested is the 4 in 1 card reader. I don't have the appropriate media. The standard PCMCIA works, I know. Have you read any cards in your 7 in 1? Looking for a commonality.

I gather that both of our machines have ASUS motherboards? This is may be the intersection. If we are looking at a non-fatal situation.

Yeah, thats the one.
I haven't got any cards to test the reader with either..
To be honest, I'm not sure what the motherboard is, the device information in Ubuntu gives me a lot of 'Unknown's for the hardware.
Probably doesn't help you much..
Everything works except the graphics and the wireless keeps going to sleep and then can't find the router again..

Interesting aside. I tried to run gsynaptics last night and it fails because it things SHMConfig isn't set in the xorg.cong. But it is. I tried running qsynaptics and got this error (among others):
Can't access shared memory area. SHMConfig disabled?

The touchpad does work. However, I wonder if this is related to the PCI error?

It's pure speculation.

Oh, is your left Ctrl key in the extreme left of the keyboard or is your Function (Fn) key in the extreme left? I'd read that having the function key to the left of the Ctrl key is common for ASUS motehrboards. My keyboard has this configuration.

My keys go Ctrl, Fn, Windows, Alt...
I had a similar problem with the touchpad - no scrolling and very sensitive to clicking on the pad itself.
I fixed it by adding:

Section "InputDevice"
 Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
 Driver "synaptics"
 Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
 Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
 Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
 Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0"
EndSection

to xorg.conf, under the 'configured mouse' device. gsynaptics works fine now.

The system76 folks had already done a proper job on the xorg.conf file. The touchpad had been configured in the manner that you describe. The only drawback is that they tell me that their equipment uses the ElanTech touchpad which is incompatible with the Synaptics configuration tools. such as gsynaptics.

As far as the th PCI bug goes, here is what system76 support has to say:

"That bios bug error has been around for a long time. We've never been able to figure out what it relates to
and, as far as we can tell, it doesn't affect anything negatively. If you google it, you will see that it actually
occurs on a vast number of laptops across the board. So, I wouldn't worry about that one."

Since everything seems to work as expected, I'm not going to sweat it. :)

 I have the same problems, BIOS ERROR #81.... and unable to allocate resources...
on ACER 5101 (Turion), the problem is there with both 32 bit and 64 bit of Gutsy.

Everything, however, seems to work.

Even Fedora Core users have similar problem

Hi.

We do not support ACER computers. However, we do have the same issue on one of our laptops, the Pangolin.
We've had it for a long time. We've never known it to actually cause any problems.

Best,
Tom

----- Original Message -----
From: "DPT" <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Sent: Saturday, November 17, 2007 2:17:03 AM (GMT-0700) America/Denver
Subject: Re: [Question #11939]: BIOS BUG #81[....]

Question #11939 on System76 changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/system76/+question/11939

DPT posted a new comment:
 I have the same problems, BIOS ERROR #81.... and unable to allocate resources...
on ACER 5101 (Turion), the problem is there with both 32 bit and 64 bit of Gutsy.

Everything, however, seems to work.

Even Fedora Core users have similar problem

--
You received this question notification because you are a member of
System76 Bugs, which is an answer contact for System76.

Hi,
I've got a similar problem, except the error message is different:

>Starting up...
>BIOS Error #81[49435000]...

Then it just goes on to loading normally, and it <i>seems</i> as if nothing is the problem. However, I've recently discovered that various hardware components do muck about, e.g. my sound card (which an update of xine seems to have fixed), my wireless card (which sees all kinds of networks, but can only go until 51% "Configuring IP address...") and my Nvidia GeForce Go8400 (512 MB) works only parttime, at least I couldn't run the "Desktop Effects" that the compiz engine promises. It just doesn't do anything. If I'd see graphics errors, I'd say, "OK, experimental feature, turn it off." But I see no difference, which is also bugging me (additionally to the above).
My question is: Are these things related? How can I fix 'em? Am I doomed to not needing my sunglasses? I wanna have wireless internet-access, please!
Help me, I'm desperate, and seemingly stupid!
Thanks in advance,
Yours truly,
J

What version of the OS are you running and what is the hardware? is it a SERP2 or SERP3?

All indications that I've had are that the BIOS error that I reported is spurious and has no effect on any of my systems.

I've run Ubuntu's Edgy, Gutsy and now Hardy with great success on my SERP2 laptop (also done Dapper and Edgy on a Dell with only a few problems, notably the Broadcom wireless).

Currently, the only proprietary drivers that I use are the nVidia for my video and the Microdia for my built-in webcam. I run all of the sexy compiz settings and I use both my SERP2 and my company supplied Dell and am able to integrate into networks and toolsets where the paradigm is still Microsoft. I'm quite happy.

My current project is to understand all of the WINE registry crap to get my Windows based games working, but that is a topic for another forum. :)

Oh, and you are NOT *stupid*. I was running Gutsy on my SUN AMD64 box at the office only after six weeks of trying to install it. I kept getting a black screen of doom that occurred when I first installed. It turned out to be an obscure setting in the X11 config file (xorg.conf) that wasn't getting set and it was never mentioned explicitly anywhere I looked. It was the NvAGP "0" option. :) Which seemed to matter with that AMD64 configuration and an AGP nVidia card. As I said, it took me six weeks, messing about in my spare time and I've used almost every flavour of *NIX in the past 20 years (as well as some archaic crap before that!) So Linux on all configurations is not perfect.

In short, the BIOS error was never an issue for me. If you post the particulars about your hardware and installation, we might be able to shed some light.

Hwyl!

--Fletch

&

Hi again,
I'm not exactly sure what SERP 2 and 3 are. I only know this acronym as "Search Engine Results Page", which is also what Google returns...
But I can post everything else that I know of.

I've got the following hardware running:

CPU: Intel Core2Duo T5450 Mobile (Santa Rosa) 2 x 1.66 GHz
RAM: 4GB SO DDR2 RAM, PC-667 (2 x 2 GB stick)
Harddrive: 120 GB SATA, 150 MB/sec
CD/DVD-Drive: 8 x Duallayer Slim DVD-Burner Device
Wireless 54Mb Device (noname)
OS: Kubuntu 8.04 KDE 3 (because I had some problems w/ KDE4 - for no apparent reason...)

It's a laptop, which you can derive out of the "Mobile" in the CPU title. Sorry, I forgot to mention that before.
What else do you need?
Your's truly,
J

jfrost,

This error message is nothing to worry about. It has been around for a very long time and shows up on many different computer models.

At System76, we've never found anything that it actually affects. (i.e. it has no bearing on the performance of your computer.)

It is most likely the result of Ubuntu not being able to perform some trivial operation or scan of a mapped memory device.

Hi everybody again,
if this error causes no problems, then why does it even exist? That is to say, why is there even an error message of its own for an error that is negligible? I find that very confusing, and in my quest for more knowledge on basically everything, I'd like to understand that too.
Additionally, there remains the problem of my wireless card not working, which I have found in other posts on the error #81[49435000] too. Can anyone tell me what the second number means? I had guessed it to be the address that the error occurred in, knowing this notation from Windows systems, which I grew up with. But googling, I came up with lots of posts (in other forums), that stated the same number in brackets. To be honest, I didn't find it with any other number (!), which indicates to me that it doesn't give the address but, well... something else. Help, anyone?
Plus, I've found out now, that I don't really have to do a lot of configuration to get the desktop effects to work. But miraculously, they do not work like they're supposed to be, and they don't give me any graphics-errors either. I don't wanna jump to conclusions, but it seems that my GPU is innocent, seeing that my "Dynamic Setting" for CPU Voltage uses 1667 MHz-mode whenever I turn on even the slightest effects of the compiz engine. Now, I admit it may be the engine's fault, but I don't really have faith in that explanation.
Again: Help, anyone? :\
Your's truly,
J

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to do some research because I don't use Kubuntu
and have not used KDE in about 5 years.

The wireless is the big issue I guess?

Run your package manager and make sure that jockey-kde is installed. That is what
allows you to load proprietary kernel modules.

Hwyl!
 Fletch

Fletcher Williams -- small, witchier elf

"I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor.
And I'm happy to state that I've finally won out over it."
                                  --"Elwood P. Dowd" from 'Harvey'

j-frost wrote:
> Your question #11939 on System76 changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/system76/+question/11939
>
> j-frost posted a new comment:
> Hi everybody again,
> if this error causes no problems, then why does it even exist? That is to say, why is there even an error message of its own for an error that is negligible? I find that very confusing, and in my quest for more knowledge on basically everything, I'd like to understand that too.
> Additionally, there remains the problem of my wireless card not working, which I have found in other posts on the error #81[49435000] too. Can anyone tell me what the second number means? I had guessed it to be the address that the error occurred in, knowing this notation from Windows systems, which I grew up with. But googling, I came up with lots of posts (in other forums), that stated the same number in brackets. To be honest, I didn't find it with any other number (!), which indicates to me that it doesn't give the address but, well... something else. Help, anyone?
> Plus, I've found out now, that I don't really have to do a lot of configuration to get the desktop effects to work. But miraculously, they do not work like they're supposed to be, and they don't give me any graphics-errors either. I don't wanna jump to conclusions, but it seems that my GPU is innocent, seeing that my "Dynamic Setting" for CPU Voltage uses 1667 MHz-mode whenever I turn on even the slightest effects of the compiz engine. Now, I admit it may be the engine's fault, but I don't really have faith in that explanation.
> Again: Help, anyone? :\
> Your's truly,
> J
>

Short notice: Checked jockey-kde, it is installed, but I reinstalled it just to make sure. Thanks, but still: Help, please!!!
Your's truly,
J

Sorry, it's been a day. I should have said, open up a terminal and run it from the
command line. Try:

sudo jockey-kde

You should get a GUI interface that mentions what proprietary drivers are
available. See if a wireless card is mentioned. If so, try to install it (there
should be a clickie options to have it installed).

Julian F. Rost wrote:
> Your question #11939 on System76 changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/system76/+question/11939
>
> Julian F. Rost posted a new comment:
> Short notice: Checked jockey-kde, it is installed, but I reinstalled it just to make sure. Thanks, but still: Help, please!!!
> Your's truly,
> J
>

Hi again,
the only driver that exists is the one for my graphics card, which is already ticked and installed. It popped up on me shortly after booting for the first time - the jockey, that is.
Any other ideas?
Your's truly,
J

OK, good.

Let's see if the wireless chip is even getting seen.

 From a command line, enter:

dmesg | less

and search for the string wlan

Oh, as an aside, do you have a switch on the outside of the laptop that allows you
to switch the wireless receiveer on and off? make sure it's "on" if you do. I've
acidently switched mine off taking my laptop in and out of he case. :)

Hwyl!
 Fletch

Fletcher Williams -- small, witchier elf

"I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor.
And I'm happy to state that I've finally won out over it."
                                  --"Elwood P. Dowd" from 'Harvey'

Julian F. Rost wrote:
> Your question #11939 on System76 changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/system76/+question/11939
>
> Julian F. Rost posted a new comment:
> Hi again,
> the only driver that exists is the one for my graphics card, which is already ticked and installed. It popped up on me shortly after booting for the first time - the jockey, that is.
> Any other ideas?
> Your's truly,
> J
>

Hi again,
I've tried the "dmesg | less" thing, but the string 'wlan' does not exist (If you want, I can copy the whole thing here, it's not too big).
What does that mean now?
Help greatly appreciated.
Your's truly,
J

Oh, uhm, sorry, I just found out that "wlan" does actually exist in the document:

[16348.025910] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

That's the line it appears in. Need anything else? Can't really get anything out of this, maybe you can explain?
Thank you in advance, I'd be much obliged.
Your's truly,
J

Good sign.

What is the result of

ifconfig -a

It should show at least three interfaces. One labeled "lo" and possible "eth0" and
"eth1".

Also, what application are you using to handle networking? The KDE interface to
network-manager?

Julian F. Rost wrote:
> Your question #11939 on System76 changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/system76/+question/11939
>
> Julian F. Rost posted a new comment:
> Oh, uhm, sorry, I just found out that "wlan" does actually exist in the
> document:
>
> [16348.025910] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
>
> That's the line it appears in. Need anything else? Can't really get anything out of this, maybe you can explain?
> Thank you in advance, I'd be much obliged.
> Your's truly,
> J
>

The result of ifconfig -a is

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:90:f5:66:e9:01
          inet addr:192.168.0.101 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::290:f5ff:fe66:e901/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:1446500 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1425728 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:1234158567 (1.1 GB) TX bytes:932513597 (889.3 MB)
          Interrupt:21 Base address:0x8400

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
          RX packets:313 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:313 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:15750 (15.3 KB) TX bytes:15750 (15.3 KB)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:15:af:65:93:8a
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

wmaster0 Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr 00-15-AF-65-93-8A-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

and I'm using, as you've correctly guessed, the KNetworkManager.
Anything else? Can you help me?
Great expectations from
J

OK, the hardware is there. let's see what drive you are maybe using. Try the
following command and let me know what you get:

lsmod | egrep mac80211

Oh! Also, I don't recall, who the vendor? DELL? HP? Sytem76? IBM?

Hwyl!
 Fletch

Fletcher Williams -- small, witchier elf

"I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor.
And I'm happy to state that I've finally won out over it."
                                  --"Elwood P. Dowd" from 'Harvey'

Julian F. Rost wrote:
> Your question #11939 on System76 changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/system76/+question/11939
>
> Julian F. Rost posted a new comment:
> The result of ifconfig -a is
>
> eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:90:f5:66:e9:01
> inet addr:192.168.0.101 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
> inet6 addr: fe80::290:f5ff:fe66:e901/64 Scope:Link
> UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
> RX packets:1446500 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
> TX packets:1425728 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
> collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
> RX bytes:1234158567 (1.1 GB) TX bytes:932513597 (889.3 MB)
> Interrupt:21 Base address:0x8400
>
> lo Link encap:Local Loopback
> inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
> inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
> UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
> RX packets:313 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
> TX packets:313 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
> collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
> RX bytes:15750 (15.3 KB) TX bytes:15750 (15.3 KB)
>
> wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:15:af:65:93:8a
> UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
> RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
> TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
> collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
> RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
>
> wmaster0 Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr 00-15-AF-65-93-8A-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
> UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
> RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
> TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
> collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
> RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
>
> and I'm using, as you've correctly guessed, the KNetworkManager.
> Anything else? Can you help me?
> Great expectations from
> J
>

Result of lsmod | egrep mac80211:

mac80211 165652 1 rtl8187
cfg80211 15112 1 mac80211

Anything else?
Greetings,
J

Julian;

Sorry for the delay. Real Life has been interesting.

Anyway, it seems that the driver you are using is "rtl8187" for Realtek.
There are some reported bugs with this driver, but I have no personal experience with it myself.

Which kernel are you running? The command "uname -a" will reveal it.

I don't know if this related to some know issues with the mac80211 kernel modules. I'm having some problems with that at the moment. Additionally, although I'm using a different driver than yours (iwl3945), I now have some problems with my wireless module while running the latest kernel (2.6.24-20-generic).

Anyway, for *your* issue :) let's try the following:

dmesg | egrep rtl8187

and also, let's see what you get from

egrep rtl8187 /var/log/messages

and

egrep rtl8187 /var/log/syslog

You may also want to start from here and see what else is related:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/194887

Thanks!