Strange problem: if_xe only works in GENERIC kernel

[Joerg Wunsch]

I'm running into a strange problem with 8-current (or 8.0-RELEASE) on
an elderly Thinkpad 600E.

As long as I'm using the GENERIC kernel, an Intel Etherexpress PC card
works as expected:

interrupt storm detected on "irq11:"; throttling interrupt source
xe0: <Intel EtherExpress(TM) PRO/100 PC Card Mobile Adapter16> at port 0x100-0x10f iomem 0x20000000-0x20000fff irq 11 function 0 config 1 on pccard1
xe0: version 0x45/0x04, 100Mbps capable
xe0: Ethernet address: 00:a0:c9:bc:b5:ef
xe0: [ITHREAD]

However, as soon as I start removing unneeded stuff from the kernel
config file, the driver completely jams.  It just sits there, the
machine blocks, until I eventually pop out the card, when I get the
following messages:

cbb1: ready never happened, status = 00
xe0: <Intel EtherExpress(TM) PRO/100 PC Card Mobile Adapter16> at port 0x100-0x10f iomem 0x20000000-0x20000fff irq 11 function 0 config 1 on pccard1
xe0: version 0xff/0x07, 100Mbps capable
xe0: Ethernet address: 00:a0:c9:bc:b5:ef
xe0: [ITHREAD]
xe0: detached
cbb1: Bad Vcc requested

As the CPU is a little slow, recompiling kernels takes an eternity on
it (even with NO_KERNELCLEAN), so I could not isolate it to a single
line in the config file so far.

Upgrading from 8.0-RELEASE to 8-stable does not change that behaviour.

-- 
cheers, J"org               .-.-.   --... ...--   -.. .  DL8DTL

http://www.sax.de/~joerg/                        NIC: JW11-RIPE
Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-)