[systemd-devel] [PATCH v3 3/4] manager: add a global watchdog reboot timestamp

[Chris Paulson-Ellis]

On 01/02/12 19:05, Lennart Poettering wrote:
> (As I figured out newer Intel chipsets all have watchdogs now, so I am
> actually quite keen to see this implemented in systemd now, since I can
> actually test it.)

Just a warning to anyone who's thinking of depending on the chipset 
watchdog... In my experience, many boards are not correctly wired up to 
reset properly when the chipset watchdog fires. Although it works most 
of the time, I've had boards hang under testing using the iTCO_wdt 
watchdog driver. I expect the chipset & processor reset fine, but the 
rest of the board doesn't. On boards like these I use the softdog driver 
instead as Linux rarely hangs so badly that it can't run the emergency 
restart code. We're developing external watchdog hardware to allow us to 
continue to use these cheap PC boards with confidence.

C.