| 5 | | We have now addressed the problem both in sensors-detect and on the kernel front: |
| 6 | | * In sensors-detect, we have added a heuristic to detect the memory voltage controller in question, and more generally any device using the same, unusual access protocol. When such a device is found, the I2C/SMBus address in question is skipped. The new code went in SVN on May 11th, 2008, and will ship in lm-sensors 3.0.2 (and 2.10.7). |
| 7 | | * As not everybody will be using a safe version of sensors-detect immediately, the i2c-piix4 kernel driver has also been modified to no longer attach to the SMBus on the Sapphire AM2RD790 motherboard. The change went in kernel 2.6.26-rc2, and will be included in kernel 2.6.25.4 as well. Hardware monitoring on this board is implemented by the Super-I/O chip, so you don't need the SMBus for that. |
| | 5 | On May 2nd, 2008, we have had one report that running sensors-detect on a Sapphire AM2RD790 [http://lists.lm-sensors.org/pipermail/lm-sensors/2008-May/023020.html killed the user's CPU]. Apparently there is a memory voltage controller on the SMBus which went mad when probed by sensors-detect. |
| 9 | | With both changes, using sensors-detect should be safe again. Nevertheless, it is strongly advised that you skip SMBus probing when running sensors-detect on this motherboard. |
| | 7 | Since then, we have addressed the problem both in sensors-detect and on the kernel front: |
| | 8 | * In sensors-detect, we have [changeset:r5245 added a heuristic] to detect the memory voltage controller in question, and more generally any device using the same, unusual access protocol. When such a device is found, the I2C/SMBus address in question is skipped. The new code went in SVN on May 11th, 2008, and will ship in lm-sensors 3.0.2 (and 2.10.7). |
| | 9 | * As not everybody will be using a safe version of sensors-detect immediately, and as other tools and kernel drivers could cause the same problem, the only safe way to address the problem was in the kernel. So the i2c-piix4 kernel driver has been [http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=c2fc54fcd340cbee47510aa84c346aab3440ba09 modified to no longer attach to the SMBus on the Sapphire AM2RD790 motherboard and its DFI sibling]. The change went in kernel 2.6.26-rc2, and will be included in kernel 2.6.25.4 as well. Hardware monitoring on this board is implemented by the Super-I/O chip, so you don't need the SMBus for that. |
| | 10 | |
| | 11 | As a summary: |
| | 12 | * If you are running a 2.6.25.4 or later kernel, you can use sensors-detect, and more generally lm-sensors, on this motherboard safely. |
| | 13 | * If you are running an older kernel, but you are using lm-sensors 3.0.2 or later, running sensors-detect should be safe. Nevertheless, it is strongly advised that you '''skip SMBus probing'''. |
| | 14 | * If you are running an older kernel, and an older version of lm-sensors, then '''do not run sensors-detect'''. Simply load the it87 hardware monitoring driver, that's the one you need. |
