Module Failures
 

I have tons of UNIX experience, but Linux is rather new ... so be kind. :-)

I have a new R505EL Sony Vaio laptop. I installed Redhat 7.3 on it and everything worked quite well. I blew it away and did a fresh install of 8.0 yesterday, but now there are problems.

Symptom #1: System locks up when loading networking. I can skip this section and the system boots ok. I tested it and found that IFCONFIG freezes my machine.

Symptom $2: The PCMCIA driver also locks up, but I disabled this for now ... I only mention in case there is relevance.

I reviewed syslogs and did a few other commands and learned the following:

lsmod reveals that my network module is not loaded. It is an intel on-board adapter and the module seems to be e100.o. If I load it by hand, the insmod program hangs and I can see that e100.o shows up but stays as "initializing".

lsmod also shows a driver, "ohci1394", as "initializing". If my assumption is correct, initializing is bad. Perhaps this is why my PCMCIA driver will not load. ( I think PCMCIA is on the 1394 bus).

Lastly, I noticed in the boot messages that modprobe vomits profusely with the word "Oops" followed by a stack dump in the Checking For New Hardware section.

The irony of all this is that my 8.0 disc 1 booted ok and I had the install run from an FTP site. The entire install went through the network so 8.0 had no problem working from the CD. It is the installed version that seems to fail. Because of this detail, I believe I have the right drivers on the system ... I just gotta get it configured right. But what do I know? :-)


That's pretty much all the detail I can provide. Until I resolve this, I will not have any networking support at all. That's a real bummer!

Please offer suggestions if you have any. Thank you all!!!

Jerry

Maybe recompile the kernel with the modules compiled in it.