[comp.sys.intel,comp.os.linux.advocacy] Intel Pentium Bug: BSDI Releases a patch!

[Ben Gertzfield <che@debian.org>]

This was posted to comp.os.linux.advocacy today.

Does this mean the patch for the Linux kernel will also be
binary-only?

Does that mean we won't be able to use it? :/

Ben

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------- Start of forwarded message -------
From: Navindra Umanee <navindra@cs.mcgill.ca>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.intel,comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Intel Pentium Bug: BSDI Releases a patch!
Date: 12 Nov 1997 06:38:39 GMT
Organization: School Of Computer Science, McGill University, Montreal
Message-ID: <64bitf$8cf@sifon.cc.mcgill.ca>

I'll be damned! Just got this on BugTraq:

From: Joe Ilacqua <NOSPAMBYMEspike@INDRA.COM>
Subject:      Intel Pentium Bug: BSDI Releases a patch
To: [list name snipped by me]

Apparently the issue can be addressed in software.  No details on how
it works are provided.

------- Forwarded Message

To: NOSPAMBYMEbsdi-users@bsdi.com
Subject: Beta test of Pentium hang work-around for BSD/OS 3.1 (and 3.0)
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 1997 16:38:48 -0700
From: Jeff Polk <NOSPAMBYMEpolk@bsdi.com>
Sender: NOSPAMBYMEowner-bsdi-users@mailinglists.org
Precedence: bulk
X-Sender: Jeff Polk <NOSPAMBYMEpolk@bsdi.com>
X-UIDL: fb8659ed152bd2ba9912c603b6a1b837

As many of you probably know, a bug was recently discovered in the
Pentium CPU that causes the CPU to hang when a certain instruction
is executed.  This bug has been widely reported in mailing lists
and news groups.  The bug enables an unprivileged user to hang the
system, requiring the system to be reset or power-cycled.

With information provided by Intel, BSDI has developed a workaround
for this problem.  A beta version of the mod for BSD/OS version 3.1
is now available for testing from

        ftp://ftp.bsdi.com/bsdi/patches/patches-3.1/M310-hangfix

This mod may also be applied to 3.0 based systems.

The workaround is enabled only on P5 processors, and should not
be necessary on Pentium Pro, Pentium II or non-Intel CPUs.

The mod is currently available only in binary form.  We anticipate
general release of the mod within a day or so.  We are interested
in hearing of any problems experienced with this change.  We are
also interested in hearing about testing on any non-Intel
Pentium-compatible systems.  Please send any reports to

        NOSPAMBYMEbsdi-hang-beta@BSDI.COM

We are not at liberty to discuss the mechanism of the workaround
at this time.

If you are installing the mod in a source kernel tree, you will
need to copy the files sys/i386/OBJ/{machdep.o,locore.o} to
your kernel compile directory before rebuilding your kernel.

Jeff
- --
     /\   Jeff Polk            Berkeley Software Design, Inc. (BSDI)
  /\/  \  NOSPAMBYMEpolk@BSDI.COM        5575 Tech Center Dr. #110, Colo Spgs, CO
80919


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