linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] x86/AMD: Apply erratum 688 on machines without a BIOS fix

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Date:   Mon, 31 Oct 2016 23:54:44 +0200
From:   sonofagun@...nmailbox.org
To:     Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>
Cc:     linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Nikos Barkas <levelwol@...il.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] x86/AMD: Apply erratum 688 on machines without a BIOS fix


> Ok, Ubuntu 16.04.1 is running on the box now, no issues so far. Any
> special workload I should run?
No, will simply crash without running something special! If you get no 
issues then that is bad news. I get frequent and repeatable crashes. I 
forgot to mention that all those crashes occur at program launch. If the 
program launches, it does not crash. Unfortunately with Ubuntu it is not 
possible to keep oopses from the error report program. On the laptop  we 
have a Debian installation, I will switch to it and get crash 
information there so that we figure out why it behaves that way. Besides 
that, I have some more tests to do but I am running out of ideas so I 
might not be able to help you more on it as my laptop appears to be 
really broken! Poor performance might be the result here and not the 
cause of my issues. The 688 fix just makes the system respond better. As 
far as I am concerned, I do not wish any module options for turning on 
the fix. I would prefer to use DMI maching for this specific machine and 
thus having the fix automatically.

All subsystems of the laptop appear to be good(RAM has been tested and 
the HDD has passed our test). There is a sound issue on the HDA but such 
issues are common on most laptops and will be dealt soon.

> Is it a desktop system or a laptop?
I got no reply on this question so I suppose you have a desktop. Since 
my APU is installed on a laptop, I expect different behaviour.
There were many intel based laptops that had fewer lanes on the DMI 
interconnect bridging northbridge and southbridge. Maybe my laptop has 
the A-Link in reduced mode. That could explain my performance issues. It 
must be easy to verify that as all documents are available for its 
northbridge and southbridge. I will check the settings of both chips 
thoroughly.

My brother has spotted a C70 board. Normally I would not buy it but it 
has a better but slower(without CPB) F14 CPU and I am curious if it will 
behave better like your board does. I might order it if it is still 
available.