Beginning to Lose Heart :(
 

I have been struggling now for 3 weeks and two reinstalls trying to get my Linux install up and running on my system and it just seems that Linux I guess is a bit too sensitive for my hardware.

I have absolutely no problems whatsoever running Win XP, and can do just about anything there. I experience no problems with regard to boots or hardware. I guess thats what frustrates me..is that I dont know how people run Linux with it being this sensitive. Its just a simple Athlon-based system 1800XP running on a very well reviewed and accepted MSI motherboard (K7T266A Pro 2). Perhaps I need another box...if so, can someone suggest a winning combination that will give me no problems?

However, when I have installed Linux, it keeps randomly freezing up where the keyboard blinks and mouse dies. This might happen 5 minutes after I boot, or 5 hours...in one case I went 2 days without any problems.

It is a Kernel panic issue, the familar "Aieee killing interrupt handler" and "not synching' message so many have around here. I have read almost every post here, and attempted to get it resolved and it seems to be a very futile effort.

Before I just uninstall all this and chalk it up to the same experience I had 4 or 5 years ago...is there anything I can possibly do to try to diagnose this problem? Im not sure this is the right forum, so if a moderator sees this, and believes it belongs elsewhere..please feel free..I welcome your involvement.

Thanks,
Kork:confused:

don't give up, although i've had alot of trouble with redhat 9 myself, i'd can tell you redhat 7.2 works, that's the version i use.

perhaps a hardware conflict
 

I know Windows has a lot more work-arounds for common hardware conflicts than Linux does. Maybe check the devices in XP's control panel and see if there are two devices on the same setting. If it is a conflict, you will get vastly better performance in both Windows and Linux once it's straightened out. Good luck!

Harry

Regarding the hardware conflicts, thats a touchy subject with Windows of course because of its PnP code. In APIC mode, WIndows supports extended IRQs and has always done sharing. So its not that unusual to see the Ethernet card share an IRQ with the video display adapter. Not an optimal situation, but its something that really cant be helped in Windows.

In fact, just last night I was trying to get that sharing resolved, so I simply moved my ethernet card into a different slot on my mother board. It did split them, but then the ethernet card refused to work. As much as I tried to configure it, it just wouldnt configure. As soon as I moved it back to the orignal slot. it worked perfectly.

Anyway, I have been told that I might get some relief if I can boot with noapic, but Im not sure how thats done. I boot from a floppy so I get that "boot:" prompt when it boots, so do I put in "noapic" there or "linux=noapic" or "linux noapic" or Im just not sure and cant seem to locate a resource that says anything about that.

***Update... I found out how to do the boot, and did the noapic and the ide=nodma. Still it will not stop the kernel panic. I really really have to question and operating system that cant support standard hardware. Now I know that I'll get flamed for that..but yanno, one thing I CAN say... Windows runs on my hardware without a glitch and Linux doesnt. If you have to work THIS hard to make it work, is it REALLY worth it?? Is Windows THAT bad...ahh..No.

Id reply but then there would be this Win vs Lin thing , then they would get upset and lock it


rakriege
MCSE

So? I've seen more than one machine that Linux works great on and Windows can't even attempt. Hardware is just wierd like that.

try and older version of Redhat may be RH 7.2 or something and see whether that helps

may be this may help

http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/.../msg00748.html

from

http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/lin...09.3/0506.html

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I had thought it was healed in pre10, but no. With a BusLogic 44x VLB
SCSI controller and an IBM 2x cdrom, a bad CD still can cause the kernel
to kill the interrupt handler (Aieee?) and then the SCSI driver just tries
to re-initialize over, and over, and over, and over; of course the machine
is then dead.in.the.water for all practical purposes including any kind of
shutdown.... -Tom

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so may be some driver problem, may be u haven't configured ur keborad an dmouse properly or some kernel diver problem a lot of trial and error can only solve ur problems

regards
jayakrishnan

Thanks very much gentlemen for your help!

I DO have a Mandrake 9.1 distribution that I might try ... I downloaded that from Linuxiso. the Red Hat disks come from a packaged set from Red Hat. The disks checked out ok.

I do notice when I am in windows, that I have alot of IRQ sharing..which is normal in APIC mode. For instance, my ethernet card shares the same IRQ as my display adapter. Also, even though I have set USB to DISABLED in my BIOS, Linux still configures the on board drivers for OHCI and UHCI (?). It also configures the 1394 Firewire controller I have, which I really do need at all, but its part of the sound blaster audigy card and cant be removed.

So if I am getting IRQ stacking in Windows, could this be an indicator of whats going on in Linux? I know that my BIOS has APIC enabled, but if I change it, Windows wont boot because its installed in APIC (vs PIC) mode. I would not like to change that WinXP.

I guess my view is...shoot if Windows can work painlessly with my hardware, why the heck cant Linux? I know that its much more complex than that, but seems like Linux should be able to work here.

So, any suggestions on hardware slotting or maybe installing Mandrake 9.1? I dont want to go and make massive changes or pull out hardware if there isnt conclusive proof that there is a solid culprit. Again..thanks for all of your suggestions and help.

Kork