Re: SMP, APIC and networking issues...

From: Jorge Nerin (comandante@zaralinux.com)
Date: Sat Sep 01 2001 - 15:59:29 EST


Alan Cox wrote:
>>The supposed trick is to boot with a "noapic"
>>option, since this is believed to be a APIC issue,
>>not a driver issue (as mentioned, this problem
>>has been seen for both 3com and intel cards).
>>
>>Is "noapic" still the recommended approach for SMP
>>kernels or is it advisable to use 2.4.9 to solve
>>this specific issue ?
>>
>
> If you are still seeing the problem then yes try noapic, but also let
> me know if its happening with current kernels. The apic has multiple effects
> and not all of them are necessarily hardware issues at all
>
> The big one is that interrupts can get delayed and become much more
> asynchronous which can obviously have impacts on driver races

I'm having nic hangs with recent kernels, the last one in wich I saw
this is with 2.4.9-ac3, and I'm currently running 2.4.9-ac5, the nic is
a 3Com Corporation 3c905B 100BaseTX [Cyclone] (rev 64) linked with a
twisted cable to another computer.

I have a dual 200mmx, motherboard is a gigabyte 586dx, lots of apic
errors, but so far not a lot of hangs, is home machine, no server.

Aug 27 15:50:26 quartz kernel: NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
Aug 27 15:50:26 quartz kernel: eth0: transmit timed out, tx_status 00
status e601.
Aug 27 15:50:26 quartz kernel: diagnostics: net 0cf2 media 8880 dma
0000003a.
Aug 27 15:50:26 quartz kernel: eth0: Interrupt posted but not delivered
-- IRQ blocked by another device?
Aug 27 15:50:26 quartz kernel: Flags; bus-master 1, dirty 149028(4)
current 149028(4)
Aug 27 15:50:26 quartz kernel: Transmit list 00000000 vs. c51cf300.
Aug 27 15:50:26 quartz kernel: 0: @c51cf200 length 80000062 status
00010062
Aug 27 15:50:26 quartz kernel: 1: @c51cf240 length 80000062 status
00010062
Aug 27 15:50:26 quartz kernel: 2: @c51cf280 length 80000062 status
80010062
Aug 27 15:50:26 quartz kernel: 3: @c51cf2c0 length 80000062 status
80010062
Aug 27 15:50:26 quartz kernel: 4: @c51cf300 length 8000006e status
0001006e
Aug 27 15:50:26 quartz kernel: 5: @c51cf340 length 8000006e status
0001006e
Aug 27 15:50:26 quartz kernel: 6: @c51cf380 length 8000006e status
0001006e
Aug 27 15:50:26 quartz kernel: 7: @c51cf3c0 length 80000062 status
00010062
Aug 27 15:50:26 quartz kernel: 8: @c51cf400 length 80000062 status
00010062
Aug 27 15:50:26 quartz kernel: 9: @c51cf440 length 80000062 status
00010062
Aug 27 15:50:26 quartz kernel: 10: @c51cf480 length 80000062 status
00010062
Aug 27 15:50:26 quartz kernel: 11: @c51cf4c0 length 80000062 status
00010062
Aug 27 15:50:26 quartz kernel: 12: @c51cf500 length 80000062 status
00010062
Aug 27 15:50:26 quartz kernel: 13: @c51cf540 length 80000062 status
00010062
Aug 27 15:50:26 quartz kernel: 14: @c51cf580 length 80000062 status
00010062
Aug 27 15:50:26 quartz kernel: 15: @c51cf5c0 length 80000062 status
00010062

BTW I switched to a rtl8139 from a rtl8029 for speed upgrade, but it was
slow as a dog in my system, due to (as someone said) bad motherboard
chipset for busmaster transfer, and nic hangs, so switched to a 3com
905, with the same results, speed is somewhat better, but it also hangs.

-- 
Jorge Nerin
<comandante@zaralinux.com>

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