KnownIssues

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Known Issues with the PA-RISC Linux Kernel

This page lists known limitations of the current implementation of the PA-RISC Linux kernel. If not mentioned otherwise, this list applies to the latest GIT version (at the time of this writing this means version 2.6.22-rc2). Please note that this list is likely to be incomplete and is NOT meant to be a TODO or "wanted features" page! BTW, if you think you have found a bug not listed here then please report it to the PA-RISC Linux mailing list.

Some of the issues described here might never be resolved, partly due to the fact that documentation is unavailable/missing, it would not fit with the current kernel design or there is simply lack of manpower.

Also keep an eye on the hotspots and the available TestCases

Missing/Incomplete PA-RISC specific Drivers

  • VisualizeFX graphics cards
    • No graphics support written, cards can only be used in text mode via the sticon driver. There is interest in a driver being written, but because no programming documentation has been released by HP this will be a difficult task. There is a reverse engineering attempt on VisualizeFX.
  • Accelerated X11 support for Visualize-EG graphics cards
    • So far there is only basic framebuffer support via stifb. Lack of manuals/time. Anyway, an acceleration support for NGLE cards is in progress.
  • HP-PB bus and HP-PB cards
    • This bus system and type of cards are mainly used on old HP9000/800 servers. Much of the programming manuals are not available, and since there is not much demand to support such old machines progress for these devices is almost non-existent (although some brave souls have been seen hacking on them from time to time)
  • ccio and ncr53c8xx (ncr53c720) - apparently not 64 bit clean
  • ns87415 - DMA support doesn't seem to work (transfer speeds <=3MB/s)
  • snd_ad1889 - playing music with alsa native interface produces garbled sound, OSS emu does work however. This is because alsa native use mmap on the device, which parisc-linux doesn't support (yet).
  • EISA DMA support is not implemented yet
  • PCI-to-PCI bridge issue (loop in `/proc/iomem` `/proc/ioports`)

Broken Device Drivers and File Systems

Hardware drivers, networking support, file systems etc. that are expected to work on all supported architectures of the Linux kernel, but don't function properly on PA-RISC Linux:

  • matroxfb - 64 bit kernel issue: screen stays black, i.e. graphics card is not properly initialized <-- HAS THIS BEEN FIXED?
  • Promise IDE P-ATA controller (PDC202XX_NEW) - DMA issues, but booting with 'nodma' works. Try a siimage controller if you really need IDE.

Other Missing Features (related to palo, glibc, userspace etc.)

  • 64 bit userland, missing bits:
    • 64 bit binutils that will build DSO's
    • 64 bit glibc
    • Multiple stub sections for the 64 bit linker.
  • Low latency
  • XFree86/X.org BIOS init emulation support
  • MSI/MSI-X PCI device support
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