BIOS Checksum Error

[Clive42]

Hello, I have been getting some Hard Drive Activity which lead me to look at the REPORTS App. Which says ` BIOS Checsum Error` Can any one help me resolve this problem,, Please see PDF letter for details.. Many thanks, Clive42

 

[Condobloke]

G'day Clive, Welcome to linux.org

Is there any other information in that report, apart from bios checksum error ?

There are many reasons that you would be getting hard drive activity....your browser, linux update, etc etc

Did asrock rule out flashing the bios completely ?

The internet connections you see being made....are to where/what/who ?

 

[Clive42]

Hello Condobloke, and thanks for getting back to me. I took a Pic of the Report, not much detail on the check sum issue but a whole list of operations which had transpired, rather beyond my limited understanding, I`m 69 yrs, retired, and not as adgile as I used to be, and subject to many interuptions as I have become a live-in Carer..
ASROCK does not supply BIOS chips, only a list of Downloads for different updaed verions, and Instructions of how to Flash it using Windows while the chip was on the mother board. Asrock gave me three sites I could contact who could supply me a ready programmed BIOS chip.. This seemed to me the best way forward, a replacement, but Sadly NO success., (From e-bay, chip is square, 32 pin and a bugger to remove from the onboard socket...)
I have a Screen photo of the BIOS error REPORT but I can not get the file to this spot to send it.. and I`ve now run out of time .. Sorry, I will try again tomorrow. Hope we can pick it up again from there, kind regards, Clive Sunday. 6am BST. cold, wet and dark, coming into winter..
At last, got the JPG file,, it was hiding from me..
As you can see in the pic, it says Warning BUG , green highlight etc..
I asume Checksum is compared with a ref. number stored somewhere for it to say its in error, so I wonder where the ref. number is stored? ... May be I should remove the button Battery for a week with the PC power lead disconnected, and do the reset discharge to 0v proceedure. If I can get this error sorted, I can move on... kind regards Clive.

 

[Clive42]

Hello Condobloke, and thanks for getting back to me. I took a Pic of the Report, not much detail on the check sum issue but a whole list of operations which had transpired, rather beyond my limited understanding, I`m 69 yrs, retired, and not as adgile as I used to be, and subject to many interuptions as I have become a live-in Carer..
ASROCK does not supply BIOS chips, only a list of Downloads for different updaed verions, and Instructions of how to Flash it using Windows while the chip was on the mother board. Asrock gave me three sites I could contact who could supply me a ready programmed BIOS chip.. This seemed to me the best way forward, a replacement, but Sadly NO success., (From e-bay, chip is square, 32 pin and a bugger to remove from the onboard socket...)
I have a Screen photo of the BIOS error REPORT but I can not get the file to this spot to send it.. and I`ve now run out of time .. Sorry, I will try again tomorrow. Hope we can pick it up again from there, kind regards, CliveView attachment 7446 Sunday. 6am BST. cold, wet and dark, coming into winter..
At last, got the JPG file,, it was hiding from me..
As you can see in the pic, it says Warning BUG , green highlight etc..
I asume Checksum is compared with a ref. number stored somewhere for it to say its in error, so I wonder where the ref. number is stored? ... May be I should remove the button Battery for a week with the PC power lead disconnected, and do the reset discharge to 0v proceedure. If I can get this error sorted, I can move on... kind regards Clive.

 

[Condobloke]

Bug #133146 “ACPI Warning: Incorrect checksum in table " : Bugs : linux package : Ubuntu

Binary package hint: linux-image-2.6.22-9-generic During boot I get the following warning: [ 0.684000] ACPI: EC: Look up EC in DSDT [ 0.696000] ACPI Warning (tbutils-0158): Incorrect checksum in table [TCPA] - 00, should be 9A [20070126] [ 0.696000] ACPI: SSDT 3F681A10, 0043 (r1...

bugs.launchpad.net

Checksum errors are due to the BIOS getting the checksum wrong or possibly (very very rarely) the firmware data being corrupt. It's more likely to be a BIOS bug. The original bug report reported that table TCPA was producing the error - this is not a problem since the kernel doesn't care about the checksum being correct for this ACPI table anyhow.
This is not a kernel issue, it's just a warning.

Christopher M. Peñalver (penalvch) wrote on 2012-10-14:

#33

Invalid as per https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/133146/comments/32 .

tags:	added: jaunty needs-kernel-logs needs-upstream-testing
no longer affects:	linux-source-2.6.22 (Ubuntu)
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status:	Confirmed → Invalid

Comment #32 : Bug #133146 : Bugs : linux package : Ubuntu

Checksum errors are due to the BIOS getting the checksum wrong or possibly (very very rarely) the firmware data being corrupt. It's more likely to be a BIOS bug. The original bug report reported that table TCPA was producing the error - this is not a problem since the kernel doesn't care about...

bugs.launchpad.net

Colin Ian King (colin-king) wrote on 2012-03-19:

#32

Checksum errors are due to the BIOS getting the checksum wrong or possibly (very very rarely) the firmware data being corrupt. It's more likely to be a BIOS bug. The original bug report reported that table TCPA was producing the error - this is not a problem since the kernel doesn't care about the checksum being correct for this ACPI table anyhow.
This is not a kernel issue, it's just a warning.

I feel that this a red herring which will take you down a very, very deep rabbit hole.
If this were me, I would either ignore it, or buy a new pc if it bothered me that much
It is certainly nothing to do with some malicious program etc etc, phoning home.
If it were of any consequence whatsoever, the articles would certainly not be dated 2007 - 2009 etc etc

I am going to list a few other members here who will, no doubt, know much more about this than I will. Their opinions will be solid.

@dos2unix
@stan
@KGIII
@JasKinasis
@f33dm3bits

 

[Clive42]

Dear members. Thank you all for your time and trouble in this matter.
It has been a worry to me as I`ve had a tower machine being crashed slowly by remote control about a year ago so im a bit my suspecious of anything unusual occuring.
I will ignor unless anything comes to light in the mean time. Cinammon works well, will go to 20 version soon.. My next task will be to find out about setting up a fire wall correctly.
I am using Windows 10, laptop till am more aquqainted with Linux. Getting to know Libre Office and Thunderbird in the mean time..It may be free, but I have donated and to Linux.
My kind regards to you all,, Clive 42 ( wish I was 42 again, 69 and counting, Golly)

 

[Condobloke]

ENABLE FIREWALL
sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw status

Open Terminal (ctrl alt T) will open it......the copy and paste what i have typed in below in red.......

sudo ufw enable

....then hit enter.
you will be prompted for your password....type it in (you will not see ANY response when you type......just put the password in, this is normal)....and hit enter again

Thats it. Nothing else is necessary.
The firewall will now be turned ON each and every time you startup or reboot

If you feel the need to check if it is on.....
sudo ufw status .....will let you know that it is active. Thats it.

Welcome to the wonderfully simple world of Linux.

 

[Condobloke]

Just a thought.....

Are you aware that you can load the iso for Linux 20 or 19 or whetever, onto a USB stick, and then change the boot order on your win 10 laptop, and boot the usb stick so that you can play/practise with Linux on there ?

We can show/instruct you how to do that....it is actually very straightforward......and it will not hurt the win 10 installation.

 

[f33dm3bits]

Looking at your screenshot about the warning you are talking about. I wouldn't worry about it, it's just a warning and acpi only has to do with battery, power, and thermal readings. My system is brand new and I also got some strange acpi messages:

Oct 01 07:07:48 archlinux kernel: ACPI: Early table checksum verification disabled
Oct 02 06:10:01 archlinux kernel: ACPI: Early table checksum verification disabled
Oct 03 08:18:42 archlinux kernel: ACPI: Early table checksum verification disabled
Oct 03 08:30:37 archlinux kernel: ACPI: Early table checksum verification disabled
Oct 04 09:57:43 archlinux kernel: ACPI: Early table checksum verification disabled
Oct 04 11:10:30 archlinux kernel: ACPI: Early table checksum verification disabled

As well as:
Oct 03 08:31:35 lilith openrazer-daemon[1599]: 2020-10-03 08:31:35 | razer.device0 | WARNING | malformed serial: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xff in position 0: invalid start byte
Oct 03 08:31:35 lilith openrazer-daemon[1599]: 2020-10-03 08:31:35 | razer.device0 | WARNING | malformed serial: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xff in position 0: invalid start byte
Oct 03 08:31:35 lilith openrazer-daemon[1599]: 2020-10-03 08:31:35 | razer.device0 | WARNING | malformed serial: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xff in position 0: invalid start byte
Oct 03 08:31:35 lilith openrazer-daemon[1599]: 2020-10-03 08:31:35 | razer.device0 | WARNING | malformed serial: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xff in position 0: invalid start byte
Oct 03 08:31:36 lilith openrazer-daemon[1599]: 2020-10-03 08:31:36 | razer.device0 | WARNING | malformed serial: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xff in position 0: invalid start byte

Warnings are just a warning they aren't going to break your system, warnings can be about some part of a program using something that will be deprecated in the next version or the program not handling something correctly and the system picking up on that, as well as firmware bugs and such. Only thing that could cause problems are traceback calls which are resulted when programs crash, and usually you notice if something crashes. Lastly it's impossible to remove all warnings from your journal since most of the warnings are caused by the working of a program and how the system reacts to it.

Just my two cents.

 

[Clive42]

Just a thought.....

Are you aware that you can load the iso for Linux 20 or 19 or whetever, onto a USB stick, and then change the boot order on your win 10 laptop, and boot the usb stick so that you can play/practise with Linux on there ?

We can show/instruct you how to do that....it is actually very straightforward......and it will not hurt the win 10 installation.

Hello again Condobloke. Yes I`ve run Dual Boot on two other PCs ( windows/ Linux) I have now Three PCs. ... its a long story,,,,,, In my spare time ( not a lot as Caring for 98 yr old mother. Not the free man I`d like to be or as fast.. ) I have a go with the Linux. This New Laptop is on Windows 10, but when I feel cofident I can handle Linux, I will use Linux on this new machine.. I could do it any time soon, but if i get stuck, im stuffed so best carry on for a bit, but many thanks for the offer.. We are all in trouble with Covid here in the UK, so its best to have ` No Close Encounters of Any Kind` .. else, its masks, hand gel and no fun. kind regards, Clive 42

 

[Clive42]

Looking at your screenshot about the warning you are talking about. I wouldn't worry about it, it's just a warning and acpi only has to do with battery, power, and thermal readings. My system is brand new and I also got some strange acpi messages:

Oct 01 07:07:48 archlinux kernel: ACPI: Early table checksum verification disabled
Oct 02 06:10:01 archlinux kernel: ACPI: Early table checksum verification disabled
Oct 03 08:18:42 archlinux kernel: ACPI: Early table checksum verification disabled
Oct 03 08:30:37 archlinux kernel: ACPI: Early table checksum verification disabled
Oct 04 09:57:43 archlinux kernel: ACPI: Early table checksum verification disabled
Oct 04 11:10:30 archlinux kernel: ACPI: Early table checksum verification disabled

As well as:
Oct 03 08:31:35 lilith openrazer-daemon[1599]: 2020-10-03 08:31:35 | razer.device0 | WARNING | malformed serial: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xff in position 0: invalid start byte
Oct 03 08:31:35 lilith openrazer-daemon[1599]: 2020-10-03 08:31:35 | razer.device0 | WARNING | malformed serial: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xff in position 0: invalid start byte
Oct 03 08:31:35 lilith openrazer-daemon[1599]: 2020-10-03 08:31:35 | razer.device0 | WARNING | malformed serial: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xff in position 0: invalid start byte
Oct 03 08:31:35 lilith openrazer-daemon[1599]: 2020-10-03 08:31:35 | razer.device0 | WARNING | malformed serial: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xff in position 0: invalid start byte
Oct 03 08:31:36 lilith openrazer-daemon[1599]: 2020-10-03 08:31:36 | razer.device0 | WARNING | malformed serial: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xff in position 0: invalid start byte

Warnings are just a warning they aren't going to break your system, warnings can be about some part of a program using something that will be deprecated in the next version or the program not handling something correctly and the system picking up on that, as well as firmware bugs and such. Only thing that could cause problems are traceback calls which are resulted when programs crash, and usually you notice if something crashes. Lastly it's impossible to remove all warnings from your journal since most of the warnings are caused by the working of a program and how the system reacts to it.

Just my two cents.

OK thank,, you so `No worries then.. Clive 42

 

[Clive42]

ENABLE FIREWALL
sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw status

Open Terminal (ctrl alt T) will open it......the copy and paste what i have typed in below in red.......

sudo ufw enable

....then hit enter.
you will be prompted for your password....type it in (you will not see ANY response when you type......just put the password in, this is normal)....and hit enter again

Thats it. Nothing else is necessary.
The firewall will now be turned ON each and every time you startup or reboot

If you feel the need to check if it is on.....
sudo ufw status .....will let you know that it is active. Thats it.

Welcome to the wonderfully simple world of Linux.

Thank you so much, thats so simple,,, and the pass word I set will be different to the OS BOOT UP pass word I use .... I will give it a go tomorrow.. Clive42

 

[Clive42]

Thank you so much, thats so simple,,, and the pass word I set will be different to the OS BOOT UP pass word I use .... I will give it a go tomorrow.. Clive42

I have it, Fire wall is ON , thanks again,, Clive 42