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Foxconn deliberately sabotaging their BIOS to destroy Linux ACPI

@ 2008/07/25

I disassembled my BIOS to have a look around, and while I won't post the results here,I'll tell you what I did find.

They have several different tables, a group for Windws XP and Vista, a group for 2000, a group for NT, Me, 95, 98, etc. that just errors out, and one for LINUX.

The one for Linux points to a badly written table that does not correspond to the board's ACPI implementation, causing weird kernel errors, strange system freezing, no suspend or hibernate, and other problems, using my modifications below, I've gotten it down to just crashing on the next reboot after having suspended, the horrible thing about disassembling any program is that you have no commenting, so it's hard to tell which does what, but I'll be damned if I'm going to buy a copy of Vista just to get the crashing caused by Foxconn's BIOS to stop, I am not going to be terrorized.

Comment from Kougar @ 2008/07/26

BIOS's are not universal. Different ACHI/ACPI support depending on OS, HPET 32bit or 64bit depending on type of Vista install otherwise sync errors will occur, etc.

BIOS has to be built then configured with the OS in mind.

Comment from phlegm @ 2008/07/25

Foxconn is not a first-tier manufacturer so they probably just decided to cut corners on the BIOS to either save money or launch earlier. This guy needs calm down and stop buying cheap motherboards. Quality costs.

Comment from piotke @ 2008/07/25

Bit odd, as linux is just an operating system. Bios should be universal.

Comment from jmke @ 2008/07/25

Quote:

Foxconn:

Dear Ryan,

Making idle treats is not going to solve anything.

As already stated this model has not been certified under Linux nor supported.

As you are unhappy with the product- using a non-support operating system nor certified, please contact your reseller for a refund.

the guy has no case; Foxconn says this board is not designed or made to run Linux. So don't be surprised that it doesn't.

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