Hello Linux Questions forum!

I have an Acer 1520 laptop with RTL8139 Gigabit Ethernet adapter and RH 9.1 installed on it. everything seems to work well except when there is sustained network activity (like running a VNC viewer or transferring big files), the machine locks up...hard! No kernel dumps or X-window complaints. Even pinging the machine from an external terminal returns nothing. Power off is the only way to reset it! :( Has anyone seen this problem before?

It is possible that there is a hardware interrupt conflict causing this. What can I do to fix it? I have added the output from dmesg below. HEELLLPPP!!!!!!


Cheers,
Bill

Linux version 2.4.20-8 (bhcompile@stripples.devel.redhat.com) (gcc version 3.2.2 20030222 (Red Hat Linux 3.2.2-5)) #1 Thu Mar 13 17:18:24 EST 2003
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f800 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000000009f800 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000000d8000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000001ff70000 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000001ff70000 - 000000001ff7a000 (ACPI data)
BIOS-e820: 000000001ff7a000 - 000000001ff80000 (ACPI NVS)
BIOS-e820: 000000001ff80000 - 0000000020000000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000fffe0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
0MB HIGHMEM available.
511MB LOWMEM available.
On node 0 totalpages: 130928
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 126832 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Kernel command line: ro root=LABEL=/ hdc=ide-scsi
ide_setup: hdc=ide-scsi
Initializing CPU#0
Detected 1801.089 MHz processor.
Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
Calibrating delay loop... 3591.37 BogoMIPS
Memory: 510892k/523712k available (1312k kernel code, 10256k reserved, 996k data, 128k init, 0k highmem)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
CPU: L1 I Cache: 64K (64 bytes/line), D cache 64K (64 bytes/line)
CPU: L2 Cache: 1024K (64 bytes/line)
CPU: After generic, caps: 078bfbff e1d3fbff 00000000 00000000
CPU: Common caps: 078bfbff e1d3fbff 00000000 00000000
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3000+ stepping 0a
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
mtrr: v1.40 (20010327) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
mtrr: detected mtrr type: Intel
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfd557, last bus=1
PCI: Using configuration type 1
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
PCI: Using IRQ router VIA [1106/3177] at 00:11.0
PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 00:11.1
IRQ routing conflict for 00:0b.1, have irq 11, want irq 10
PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with 00:10.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with 01:00.0
isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
Initializing RT netlink socket
apm: BIOS not found.
Starting kswapd
VFS: Disk quotas vdquot_6.5.1
pty: 2048 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS MULTIPORT SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI ISAPNP enabled
Real Time Clock Driver v1.10e
floppy0: no floppy controllers found
NET4: Frame Diverter 0.46
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size 1024 blocksize
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta-2.4
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
VP_IDE: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:11.1
PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 00:11.1
IRQ routing conflict for 00:0b.1, have irq 11, want irq 10
PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with 00:10.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with 01:00.0
VP_IDE: chipset revision 6
VP_IDE: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
VP_IDE: VIA vt8235 (rev 00) IDE UDMA133 controller on pci00:11.1
ide0: BM-DMA at 0x1c80-0x1c87, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio
ide1: BM-DMA at 0x1c88-0x1c8f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio
hda: TOSHIBA MK6025GAS, ATA DISK drive
blk: queue c03be900, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
hdc: Slimtype DVDRW SOSW-852S, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hda: host protected area => 1
hda: 117210240 sectors (60012 MB), CHS=7296/255/63, UDMA(100)
ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
Partition check:
hda: hda1 hda2 hda3 hda4 < hda5 hda6 >
ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
md: md driver 0.90.0 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27
md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
md: autorun ...
md: ... autorun DONE.
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
IP: routing cache hash table of 4096 buckets, 32Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 32768 bind 65536)
Linux IP multicast router 0.06 plus PIM-SM
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
Freeing initrd memory: 147k freed
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
Journalled Block Device driver loaded
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 128k freed
usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
usb.c: registered new driver hub
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:10.3
IRQ routing conflict for 00:0b.0, have irq 10, want irq 11
ehci-hcd 00:10.3: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0
ehci-hcd 00:10.3: irq 11, pci mem e0848800
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
ehci-hcd 00:10.3: USB 2.0 enabled, EHCI 1.00, driver 2003-Jan-22
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 6 ports detected
usb-uhci.c: $Revision: 1.275 $ time 17:26:20 Mar 13 2003
usb-uhci.c: High bandwidth mode enabled
PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 00:10.0
IRQ routing conflict for 00:0b.1, have irq 11, want irq 10
PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with 00:11.1
PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with 01:00.0
usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x1c20, IRQ 10
usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 00:10.1
IRQ routing conflict for 00:0b.2, have irq 11, want irq 10
usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x1c40, IRQ 10
usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:10.2
IRQ routing conflict for 00:0a.0, have irq 10, want irq 11
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:11.5
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:11.6
usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x1c60, IRQ 11
usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 4
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
usb-uhci.c: v1.275:USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver
usb.c: registered new driver hiddev
usb.c: registered new driver hid
hid-core.c: v1.8.1 Andreas Gal, Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@suse.cz>
hid-core.c: USB HID support drivers
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,5), internal journal
Adding Swap: 1020088k swap-space (priority -1)
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,1), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,2), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,3), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
ohci1394: $Rev: 693 $ Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org>
PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 00:0b.2
IRQ routing conflict for 00:0b.2, have irq 11, want irq 10
PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with 00:10.1
ohci1394_0: OHCI-1394 1.1 (PCI): IRQ=[11] MMIO=[c0005800-c0005fff] Max Packet=[2048]
ieee1394: SelfID completion called outside of bus reset!
ieee1394: Host added: Node[00:1023] GUID[000ae40449105877] [Linux OHCI-1394]
SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
scsi0 : SCSI host adapter emulation for IDE ATAPI devices
Vendor: Slimtype Model: DVDRW SOSW-852S Rev: PRS9
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0 at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 24x/24x writer cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
r8169 Gigabit Ethernet driver 1.2 loaded
divert: allocating divert_blk for eth0
PCI: Found IRQ 14 for device 00:0c.0
IRQ routing conflict for 00:0c.0, have irq 11, want irq 14
r8169: PCI device 00:0c.0: unknown chip version, assuming RTL-8169
r8169: PCI device 00:0c.0: TxConfig = 0x10000000
eth0: Identified chip type is 'RTL-8169'.
eth0: RealTek RTL8169 Gigabit Ethernet at 0xe0946400, 00:0a:e4:a1:86:ea, IRQ 11
eth0: Auto-negotiation Enabled.
divert: not allocating divert_blk for non-ethernet device eth1
divert: no divert_blk to free, eth1 not ethernet
Linux Kernel Card Services 3.1.22
options: [pci] [cardbus] [pm]
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:0b.0
IRQ routing conflict for 00:0b.0, have irq 10, want irq 11
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:10.3
PCI: Enabling device 00:0b.1 (0000 -> 0002)
PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 00:0b.1
IRQ routing conflict for 00:0b.1, have irq 11, want irq 10
PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with 00:10.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with 00:11.1
PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with 01:00.0
Yenta IRQ list 02f8, PCI irq10
Socket status: 30000006
Yenta IRQ list 02f8, PCI irq11
Socket status: 30000006
cs: IO port probe 0x0c00-0x0cff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x0100-0x04ff: excluding 0x4d0-0x4d7
cs: IO port probe 0x0a00-0x0aff: clean.
lp: driver loaded but no devices found
hub.c: new USB device 00:10.3-2, assigned address 2
usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x126f/0x5000) is not claimed by any active driver.
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
scsi1 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Vendor: TTI-MSA Model: USB 2.0 MD Rev: PMAP
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
WARNING: USB Mass Storage data integrity not assured
USB Mass Storage device found at 2
USB Mass Storage support registered.
Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
SCSI device sda: 503808 512-byte hdwr sectors (258 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: sda1

8139 is 100Mbps chipset. You are using 8169. Are you sure you did not load the 8139too module by mistake? Check "lsmod" to see which modules you have loaded.

It is quite possible that module for 8139 chipset would load even when using 8169 - so this might be the source of your problems.

Hi..and thanks for the suggestion.

I checked the modules and indeed it is loading the 8169 driver. So this is not the problem. I suspect that all the IRQ routing conflicts which pop up during boot up could be connected. What do you think? What does this mean? Is there a way to correct this? (My older desktop BIOS allows some control over this, but the Acer BIOS is next to useless...) Could there be a problem with the 8169 driver itself? Everything else seems to work OK.

Cheers!

Just a brief note to say that a complete re-install seems to have fixed the problem. Still have no idea what went wrong... Something deep in the bowels of Linux must have been subtly corrupted...

Cheers!