[Avila] watchdog on avila (GW-2348)

[David Acker]

Tim Harvey wrote:
> For my use I wrote a driver for the 2347/2348 boards that implemented the
> standard watchdog API but then realized that the typical 1sec heartbeat from
> userspace was typically not enough to keep the watchdog tickled reliably so I
> implemented a heartbeat in my driver.  I still ended up with issues on certain
> kernel versions during certain system calls where the timer in my kernel driver
> was not getting enough attention.

Could you post the source to your driver?  Maybe Gateworks could include 
this in their next BSP release so that we can use the hardware needed to 
have a working watchdog. My "Avila Network Computer Operating Manual" 
does not mention the DS1819 at all but does mention the IXP425's watchdog.

I wish the CPU reset line was tied to the flash reset 
line...interestingly enough I have seen this very same issue with 
another board using the same Intel NOR flash and an XScale.  I dealt 
with it by making my userspace watchdog program try an orderly reboot 
before the hardware one kicked in.  The orderly reboot properly resets 
the flash.  This doesn't handle kernel faults but it catches failures in 
critical userspace programs.  Also, setting the kernel to reboot on 
panic seemed to reset the flash properly (unless the panic was in the 
JFFS2 driver).
-Ack