i386: Enable NMI watchdog by default I've had good experiences with having this on by default on x86-64. It turns nasty hangs into easier to debug oopses. Enable the local APIC wdog by default for systems newer than 2004. This comes from a strange compromise: according to arjan the reason it was off by default was some old IBM systems that corrupted registered when NMI happened in SMI. Can't remember more specific, but >= 2004 should avoid these. It's probably overly broad because most older systems should be ok (and the really old systems won't be supported by the local apic watchdog anyways) Signed-off-by: Andi Kleen --- arch/i386/kernel/nmi.c | 9 +++++++++ 1 files changed, 9 insertions(+) Index: linux/arch/i386/kernel/nmi.c =================================================================== --- linux.orig/arch/i386/kernel/nmi.c +++ linux/arch/i386/kernel/nmi.c @@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ #include #include #include +#include #include #include @@ -204,6 +205,14 @@ static int __init check_nmi_watchdog(voi unsigned int *prev_nmi_count; int cpu; + /* Enable NMI watchdog for newer systems. + Actually it should be safe for most systems before 2004 too except + for some IBM systems that corrupt registers when NMI happens + during SMM. Unfortunately we don't have more exact information + on these and use this coarse check. */ + if (nmi_watchdog == NMI_DEFAULT && dmi_get_year(DMI_BIOS_DATE) >= 2004) + nmi_watchdog = NMI_LOCAL_APIC; + if ((nmi_watchdog == NMI_NONE) || (nmi_watchdog == NMI_DEFAULT)) return 0;