Re: Major 2.1.x problem index

Noel Maddy (noel@megsinet.net)
Thu, 9 Jul 1998 00:07:35 -0400


On Wed, Jul 08, 1998 at 12:47:12PM +0100, Jamie Lokier wrote:
> Noel Maddy <noel@megsinet.net> wrote:
> > That might be me -- I posted a few weeks back that I am always getting
> > a freeze on bootup unless I do 'hda=noautotune'. It happens with
> > every kernel from 2.1.99 through 2.1.106, including 2.1.105-ac5,
> > but 2.1.98 boots fine without the noautotune parameter.
> >
> > Once it boots, I can safely `hdparm -X34 -d1' the drive without freezing.
>
> Ok, I haven't been getting freezes at bootup, but in general use with
> DMA instead.

Hmm...I wonder what the difference is. My system is nearly identical
to yours -- PA-2011 (it's a VIA VP2, btw), 64 MB SDRAM, Matrox Millennium II,
K6/200 (instead of your 233), SoundBlaster AWE 64 Value (instead of your
SB 16), and 5.7G Maxtor IDE instead of your Quantum.

> I'm trying something similar now:
>
> At LILO, `ide0=nodma'
> In /etc/rc.d/rc.local, `hdparm -X34 -d1 /dev/hda'
>
> The results from `hdparm -t -f /dev/hda' are consistent with DMA working
> (~9.30 MB/sec).

As are mine...

I'm beginning to think that you're right about this being a general
DMA problem. I just upgraded to XFree86 3.2.2.2 (from Debian slink),
and now using X will lead to an identical freeze after a minute or
two of use. This happens even if I don't enable DMA on /dev/hda.
The higher the resolution I use, the sooner the freeze occurs.

When it freezes, it's total -- nothing works, not even Alt-SysRq-* .
System doesn't respond to ping, either. Not pretty.

Interestingly enough, this freeze happens with both 2.0.33 and
2.1.10x kernels. I'm wondering if there's a DMA bug somewhere,
and both the new XFree86 and the 2.1.99+ kernels are tickling
it.

> I'm going to stick with the same kernel (2.1.105) and these settings for
> a while, and see if the freezes have gone away.

Good luck --

> [A Wintel PC with no Windows and no Intel chips <grin>] ].

<duplicate grin>

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Noel Maddy <noel@megsinet.net>

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