PL 5000 Random Reboots

Robert Slade bsd at bathnetworks.com
Mon Sep 12 09:14:43 PDT 2005


On Sun, 2005-09-11 at 09:56, Robert Slade wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have been having problems with random reboots when using the SMP
> Kernel on the above Quad processor machine. It occurs with bot 5.4 and
> 6.0B4. It does not happen with a single processor kernel, well not in
> the last 12 hours.
> 
> Searching the mailing list and google has thrown up a number of possible
> causes:
> 
> a. there was an issue with the SMP kernel under load in 5.3 but the
> errata says the fix was incorporated in 5.4;
> 
> b. there appears to be some problems with with the ACPI with some
> machines. Unfortunately, the SMP kernel needs ACPI so turning it off is
> not an option. 
> 
> c. there appears to be an issue with some network cards and USB with
> interupt 'storms'. The machine has 2 network cards both identified in
> dmesg as Compaq Netelligent 10/100, athough only one is in use. I am
> getting tl0: tx underrun -- increasing tx threshold to 512 bytes when
> using vncserver to run xwindows with KDE which maybe related.
> 
> It looks like the most likely cause is ACPI, SMP or both, but as ACPI
> relates to interups, the interup 'storm' issue could be impacting.
> However I do not know enough about the workings of ACPI etc to be able
> to judge this. It looks to me that there is a number of things I could
> do to isolate the problem:
> 
> 1. try building a kernel without SMP but with ACPI to see what effect
> that has. Question is is this possible with 6.0B4?
> 
> 2. if the above gives a problem try changing the network cards for
> another type.
> 
> 3. fix the underrun issue but I am not sure how to do that.
> 
> I would be grateful for any comments ideas on the way forward as the
> machine is quite slow without the SMP kernel.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Rob      

I know replying to you own messages is a sign of something or other. I
have tried the machine with SMP disabled in the kernel and ACPI only. It
has been running for over 22 hours with any problems.

Next step - trying a new kernel with SMP enabled.

Rob



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