I'm trying to finalize my laptop for dual boot. Whitebox linux being the one that's giving me problems. XP being the other boot option. I tried other Distro's, all RH based, same results.

When I boot to XP, all works fine, browser, etc... But when I boot to Linux I get a couple of notices and can not get my NIC(s) to function properly i.e. pass traffic.

At boot what I see:

stoargeDisabling IRQ #10
networkDisabling IRQ #11
soundDisbaling IRQ $10

all else works. I've configured eth0 and eth1 with netconfig and got the proper subnet, netmask and gateway set up. But can not access anything outside the local system.

What I have; New Gateway (GW) M680XL laptop with 1 GIG RAM

Device manager says:

eth0 = Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5705-2, driver=tg3

eth1 = Intel Pro /wireless 2200BC, driver=ipw2200

Not concerned about the eth1, but really need to get eth0 to work.

Why would tg3 show as NIC drivers ?

I tried to change the IRQ but it's locked out in the BIOS and GW says my warranty would be void if I update the BIOS. (The MoBo maufacture has updated BIOS, but GW doesn't use it yet).

After reviewing posts on different fourms, I disabled PnP, still no go.

I also read that EAGAIN could cause IRQ issues. I no idea how to configure or set EAGAIN or tell if its the issue or not.

Any comments, suggestion, appreciated. Been working on this for almost 2 weeks now.

TIA

I've never seen this problem myself but according to the kernel code (linux/kernel/irq/spurious.c) something is generating spurious interrupt signals which are not being handled correctly. Maybe 'cat /proc/interrupts' will give some clue what is happening? You could also try using the BIOS to disable any hardware (like the wifi) that you don't need.

Thanks MB, I just read an article on RH's archieve site about upgrading to AS3.0 drivers over using tg3 for the NIC I have. So I just DLed the new Broadcom drivers and will see if this does it. Of course it was also (the article) based on the 2.4 kernel and I'm running 2.6...

I did cat /proc/sbin and looked into the IRQ directories, but nothing was present for the IRQ's in question. I'll dig a little more in the /interrupts directory and see what I can find.

I do use the WiFi when I have XP up and would like to get it going for the Linux boot, but if not, well I guess not.