three intel hardware components

archlinux20130905 · 2013-09-05 14:33:13

Dear all,

I have three hardware components from Intel, which aren't directly recognized by archlinux-2013.09.01-dual. This is the abbreviated output of lspci -vvv :

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller (rev 04)
	Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 1977
	Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
	Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort+ >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
	Latency: 0
	Capabilities: [e0] Vendor Specific Information: Len=09 <?>
	Kernel modules: intel_agp

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev d4) (prog-if 01 [Subtractive decode])
	Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
	Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
	Latency: 0
	Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=02, sec-latency=32
	I/O behind bridge: 0000a000-0000afff
	Memory behind bridge: fe900000-fe9fffff
	Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 0000000040000000-0000000043ffffff
	Secondary status: 66MHz- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort+ <SERR- <PERR-
	BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR+ NoISA+ VGA- MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B-
		PriDiscTmr- SecDiscTmr- DiscTmrStat- DiscTmrSERREn-
	Capabilities: [50] Subsystem: Device 0000:0000

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 04)
	Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
	Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
	Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 19
	Region 4: I/O ports at 0400 [size=32]
	Kernel modules: i2c_i801

Here is the output of lsmod | grep -i agp :

intel_agp               8688  0 
intel_gtt              10172  1 intel_agp
agpgart                22047  4 drm,ttm,intel_agp,intel_gtt

and here is lsmod | grep -i 801 :

i2c_i801                9873  0 
of_i2c                  1774  1 i2c_i801
i2c_core               19967  6 drm,i2c_i801,drm_kms_helper,i2c_algo_bit,of_i2c,radeon

Does this mean that the components 00:00.0 and 00:1f.3 are working after all and I don't have to do anything else? I'm asking this, because I had a similar result for ipw2200 a while ago. lspci -vvv showed me "Kernel modules: ipw2200" for my wireless card and ipw2200 was loaded as a module, so I thought that everything was fine until I discovered that the wireless connection wasn't working. I found out that I had to install ipw2200-fw through pacman. After that a new line appeared and said: "Kernel driver in use: ipw2200" and the connection worked after that.

This experience leads me to the conclusion that 00:00.0 and 00:1f.3 may not be working despite the fact that the modules are loaded. (modprobe -v intel_agp doesn't give any output; it's the same for the other modules). But how can I know for sure whether this hardware is working or not? What do I have to do to load the suggested kernel drivers for them and make the line "kernel driver in use" appear?

Hardware component 00:1e.0 seems to be unsupported. However if one goes to http://kmuto.jp/debian/hcl/ and follows the instructions there, it tells me that a possible module (or is it a kernel driver?) for this component is: i810_rng

What do I have to do to make i810_rng work with Arch Linux?

Regards
Chris

mich41 · 2013-09-05 15:50:52

0:1f.3 is SMBus, some driver is useful to dump SPD of RAM sticks or explore SMBus devices, if you care about such things.
The remaining two devices don't need any unusual drivers.

i810_rng is a driver for random number generator present on some Intel chipsets. If this module refuses to load then you most likely don't have this hardware.

archlinux20130905 · 2013-09-05 17:32:45

Thanks for the help, mich41. So the device 0:1f.3 and the other two devices are already correctly configured and no additional kernel drivers are needed? Or do I have to do something in order to enable 0:1f.3?

Pse · 2013-09-06 02:27:22

The first two (the bridges) are essential parts of the system and do not require any special drivers to operate. The other device, the SMBus controller, can be used to query certain devices attached to it. In your case, the necessary kernel module to read from the SMBus is already loaded (i2c_i801), but not used by any other part of the system. This is completely normal and expected. You do not need to do anything else for these devices to operate correctly.

Last edited by Pse (2013-09-06 02:28:35)

archlinux20130905 · 2013-09-06 06:23:38

Thank you for the help. This means that Arch Linux supports all the hardware in my Asus Z9200VA "out of the box". Only ipw2200-fw had to be installed manually. Well, the four special buttons ("power modes", "e-mail", "internet browser", "touchpad enable/disable") directly below the lcd screen, on the right side do not work with KDE so far and the blue FN-button doesn't activate the other blue buttons either but maybe KDE can be configured to react to these buttons. In Windows XP one could use one of these special buttons to directly power off the WLAN card for example (the LED got disabled as well) or to control the sound volume.

Do you or anyone else happen to know, whether all these special buttons generate some kind of keyboard events in Linux? Are these keyboard events intercepted by KDE? If the answer is "yes to both", then maybe the four buttons as well as the FN-buttons could be bound to corresponding shell scripts, which would restore the buttons' original functions? Or even better: give each button a new (more useful) function. :-)

I think that at least the button "power modes" could be used for something else.

Last edited by archlinux20130905 (2013-09-06 06:24:54)

ewaller · 2013-09-06 14:58:56

FYI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Management_Bus

Often, you will find low bandwidth system monitoring functions on the SMB. It is not uncommon for temperature sensors, fan tachometers, ambient light detectors, or even accelerometers to be found on that bus. You might try (with absolutely no guarantee of success) sensors-detect.

ewaller$@$odin ~ [1]1008 %pacman -Qo sensors-detect
/usr/bin/sensors-detect is owned by lm_sensors 3.3.4-1
ewaller$@$odin ~ 1009 %

archlinux20130905 · 2013-09-07 07:04:47

I was afraid to use sensors-detect in the end, because the man-page says that it can destroy hardware. However the command sensors doesn't include such warnings. And indeed after typing in sensors, I got output from a temperature sensor. So now I know, what this SMBus is doing in my system. Thanks for the help.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-09-05 14:33:13

three intel hardware components

#2 2013-09-05 15:50:52

Re: three intel hardware components

#3 2013-09-05 17:32:45

Re: three intel hardware components

#4 2013-09-06 02:27:22

Re: three intel hardware components

#5 2013-09-06 06:23:38

Re: three intel hardware components

#6 2013-09-06 14:58:56

Re: three intel hardware components

#7 2013-09-07 07:04:47

Re: three intel hardware components

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