Hi, a friend of mine is having problem with its network card.
He's using MDK 9.2 and 2.4.22 kernel: this network card previuosly worked. Now no more.
He sent me dmesg.txt and here's the output.
Something looks strange...he also says that, while booting, the system takes a long time to activate eth0 and I see it goes in time-out while entering and leaving promiscuous mode.
ANyway...here's dmesg:

vailable.
ACPI: have wakeup address 0xc0001000
found SMP MP-table at 000fbc70
hm, page 000fb000 reserved twice.
hm, page 000fc000 reserved twice.
hm, page 000f6000 reserved twice.
hm, page 000f7000 reserved twice.
On node 0 totalpages: 131056
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 126960 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
ACPI: RSDP (v000 AMI ) @ 0x000fab70
ACPI: RSDT (v001 AMIINT SiS740XX 0x00001000 MSFT 0x0100000b) @ 0x1fff0000
ACPI: FADT (v001 AMIINT SiS740XX 0x00000011 MSFT 0x0100000b) @ 0x1fff0030
ACPI: MADT (v001 AMIINT SiS740XX 0x00001000 MSFT 0x0100000b) @ 0x1fff00c0
ACPI: DSDT (v001 SiS 746 0x00000100 MSFT 0x0100000d) @ 0x00000000
ACPI: Local APIC address 0xfee00000
ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x01] lapic_id[0x00] enabled)
Processor #0 Pentium(tm) Pro APIC version 16
ACPI: LAPIC_NMI (acpi_id[0x01] polarity[0x1] trigger[0x1] lint[0x1])
ACPI: Skipping IOAPIC probe due to 'noapic' option.
Using ACPI for processor (LAPIC) configuration information
Intel MultiProcessor Specification v1.4
Virtual Wire compatibility mode.
OEM ID: SiS Product ID: 746 APIC at: 0xFEE00000
I/O APIC #2 Version 17 at 0xFEC00000.
Enabling APIC mode: Flat. Using 1 I/O APICs
Processors: 1
Building zonelist for node : 0
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=linux ro root=305 noapic devfs=mount splash=silent hdc=ide-scsi resume=/dev/hda6 splash=silent
bootsplash: silent mode.
ide_setup: hdc=ide-scsi
bootsplash: silent mode.
Initializing CPU#0
Detected 1666.641 MHz processor.
Console: colour dummy device 80x25
Calibrating delay loop... 3329.22 BogoMIPS
Memory: 514644k/524224k available (1508k kernel code, 9192k reserved, -1961k data, 156k init, 0k highmem, 0k BadRAM)
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: 256K (64 bytes/line)
Intel machine check architecture supported.
Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
CPU: After generic, caps: 0383fbff c1c3fbff 00000000 00000000
CPU: Common caps: 0383fbff c1c3fbff 00000000 00000000
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2000+ stepping 02
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
enabled ExtINT on CPU#0
ESR value before enabling vector: 00000000
ESR value after enabling vector: 00000000
Using local APIC timer interrupts.
calibrating APIC timer ...
..... CPU clock speed is 1666.7308 MHz.
..... host bus clock speed is 266.6769 MHz.
cpu: 0, clocks: 2666769, slice: 1333384
CPU0<T0:2666768,T1:1333376,D:8,S:1333384,C:2666769>
mtrr: v1.40 (20010327) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
mtrr: detected mtrr type: Intel
ACPI: Subsystem revision 20030813
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfdb31, last bus=2
PCI: Using configuration type 1
Looking for DSDT in initrd ... not found!
ACPI: Interpreter enabled
ACPI: Using PIC for interrupt routing
ACPI: System [ACPI] (supports S0 S1 (swsusp) S4 S5)
ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (00:00)
PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT]
ACPI: Power Resource [URP1] (off)
ACPI: Power Resource [URP2] (off)
ACPI: Power Resource [FDDP] (off)
ACPI: Power Resource [LPTP] (off)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 10 *11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 10 11 12 14 15, disabled)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 *10 11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 *10 11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKE] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 *10 11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKF] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 *10 11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKG] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 10 11 12 14 15, disabled)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKH] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 *10 11 12 14 15)
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] enabled at IRQ 5
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKE] enabled at IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKF] enabled at IRQ 5
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKH] enabled at IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] enabled at IRQ 5
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] enabled at IRQ 11
PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
PCI: if you experience problems, try using option 'pci=noacpi' or even 'acpi=off'
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
kinoded started
VFS: Disk quotas vdquot_6.5.1
devfs: v1.12c (20020818) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
devfs: boot_options: 0x1
vesafb: framebuffer at 0xc0000000, mapped to 0xe0807000, size 1875k
vesafb: mode is 800x600x16, linelength=1600, pages=3
vesafb: protected mode interface info at c000:bdb0
vesafb: scrolling: redraw
vesafb: directcolor: size=0:5:6:5, shift=0:11:5:0
Looking for splash picture.... silenjpeg size 107888 bytes, found (800x600, 107840 bytes, v3).
Got silent jpeg.
Got silent jpeg.
Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 92x32
fb0: VESA VGA frame buffer device
pty: 1024 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with HUB-6 MANY_PORTS MULTIPORT SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI ISAPNP enabled
ttyS00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
ttyS01 at 0x02f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 32000K size 1024 blocksize
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta4-2.4
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
SIS5513: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:02.5
SIS5513: chipset revision 0
SIS5513: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
SIS5513: SiS 962/963 MuTIOL IDE UDMA133 controller
ide0: BM-DMA at 0xff00-0xff07, BIOS settings: hdaMA, hdbMA
ide1: BM-DMA at 0xff08-0xff0f, BIOS settings: hdcMA, hddMA
hda: Maxtor 6Y160L0, ATA DISK drive
hdb: Maxtor 6Y120L0, ATA DISK drive
blk: queue c0180d20, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
blk: queue c0180e5c, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
hdc: TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-R5002, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hda: attached ide-disk driver.
hda: host protected area => 1
hda: 320173056 sectors (163929 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=19929/255/63, UDMA(133)
hdb: attached ide-disk driver.
spurious 8259A interrupt: IRQ7.
hdb: host protected area => 1
hdb: 240121728 sectors (122942 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=14946/255/63, UDMA(133)
Partition check:
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1 p2 < p5 p6 p7 >
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0: p1 p2 < p5 >
ide: late registration of driver.
md: md driver 0.90.0 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27
md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
md: autorun ...
md: ... autorun DONE.
Initializing Cryptographic API
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.
Resume Machine: This is normal swap space
Swsusp 1.0.3: kswsuspd starting
RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
Freeing initrd memory: 299k freed
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
Mounted devfs on /dev
Journalled Block Device driver loaded
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Mounted devfs on /dev
Freeing unused kernel memory: 156k freed
Got silent jpeg.
Real Time Clock Driver v1.10e
usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
usb.c: registered new driver hub
usb-ohci.c: USB OHCI at membase 0xe0a53000, IRQ 5
usb-ohci.c: usb-00:03.1, Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0 Controller (#2)
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 3 ports detected
usb-ohci.c: USB OHCI at membase 0xe0a55000, IRQ 11
usb-ohci.c: usb-00:03.0, Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0 Controller
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 3 ports detected
ehci_hcd 00:03.2: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 2.0 Controller
ehci_hcd 00:03.2: irq 11, pci mem e0a5d000
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3
ehci_hcd 00:03.2: USB 2.0 enabled, EHCI 1.00, driver 2003-Jun-19/2.4
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 6 ports detected
usbdevfs: remount parameter error
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,5), internal journal
Adding Swap: 634528k swap-space (priority -1)
hub.c: new USB device 00:03.1-1, assigned address 2
SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
hdc: attached ide-scsi driver.
scsi0 : SCSI host adapter emulation for IDE ATAPI devices
Vendor: TOSHIBA Model: DVD-ROM SD-R5002 Rev: 1033
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Vendor: TOSHIBA Model: DVD-ROM SD-R5002 Rev: 1033
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Vendor: TOSHIBA Model: DVD-ROM SD-R5002 Rev: 1033
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Vendor: TOSHIBA Model: DVD-ROM SD-R5002 Rev: 1033
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Vendor: TOSHIBA Model: DVD-ROM SD-R5002 Rev: 1033
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Vendor: TOSHIBA Model: DVD-ROM SD-R5002 Rev: 1033
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Vendor: TOSHIBA Model: DVD-ROM SD-R5002 Rev: 1033
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,7), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
NTFS driver 2.1.4a [Flags: R/O MODULE].
NTFS volume version 3.1.
NTFS volume version 3.1.
NTFS volume version 3.1.
usb_control/bulk_msg: timeout
usb-ohci.c: unlink URB timeout
usb.c: USB device not accepting new address=2 (error=-110)
hub.c: new USB device 00:03.1-1, assigned address 3
sis900.c: v1.08.06 9/24/2002
eth0: Realtek RTL8201 PHY transceiver found at address 1.
eth0: Using transceiver found at address 1 as default
eth0: SiS 900 PCI Fast Ethernet at 0xd400, IRQ 5, 00:0b:6a:33:0b:6b.
ACPI: Processor [CPU1] (supports C1)
ACPI: Power Button (FF) [PWRF]
inserting floppy driver for 2.4.22-10mdk
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0 at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Attached scsi CD-ROM sr1 at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 1
Attached scsi CD-ROM sr2 at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 2
Attached scsi CD-ROM sr3 at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 3
Attached scsi CD-ROM sr4 at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 4
Attached scsi CD-ROM sr5 at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 5
Attached scsi CD-ROM sr6 at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 6
sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 40x/40x writer cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
sr0: mmc-3 profile capable, current profile: 0h
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12
sr1: scsi3-mmc drive: 40x/40x writer cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
sr1: mmc-3 profile capable, current profile: 0h
sr2: scsi3-mmc drive: 40x/40x writer cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
sr2: mmc-3 profile capable, current profile: 0h
sr3: scsi3-mmc drive: 40x/40x writer cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
sr3: mmc-3 profile capable, current profile: 0h
sr4: scsi3-mmc drive: 40x/40x writer cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
sr4: mmc-3 profile capable, current profile: 0h
sr5: scsi3-mmc drive: 40x/40x writer cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
sr5: mmc-3 profile capable, current profile: 0h
sr6: scsi3-mmc drive: 40x/40x writer cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
sr6: mmc-3 profile capable, current profile: 0h
sr0: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr0: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr1: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr1: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr2: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr2: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr3: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr3: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr4: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr4: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr5: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr5: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr6: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr6: mmc-3 profile: 0h
usb_control/bulk_msg: timeout
usb-ohci.c: unlink URB timeout
usb.c: USB device not accepting new address=3 (error=-110)
hub.c: new USB device 00:03.0-1, assigned address 2
usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x46d/0x840) is not claimed by any active driver.
hub.c: new USB device 00:03.0-3, assigned address 3
usb.c: USB device 3 (vend/prod 0x5dc/0x80) is not claimed by any active driver.
eth0: Media Link On 10mbps half-duplex
NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
eth0: Transmit timeout, status 00000004 00000249
NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
eth0: Transmit timeout, status 00000004 00000249
NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
eth0: Transmit timeout, status 00000000 00000251
NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
eth0: Transmit timeout, status 00000000 00000240
zcip uses obsolete (PF_INET,SOCK_PACKET)
device eth0 entered promiscuous mode
NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
eth0: Transmit timeout, status 00000000 00000260
device eth0 left promiscuous mode
NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
eth0: Transmit timeout, status 00000000 00000240
Installing knfsd (copyright (C) 1996 okir@monad.swb.de).
intel8x0: clocking to 48000
NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
eth0: Transmit timeout, status 00000000 00000240
NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
eth0: Transmit timeout, status 00000000 00000240
Looking for splash picture.... found (800x600, 14470 bytes, v3).
Splash status on console 0 changed to on
Looking for splash picture.... found (800x600, 14470 bytes, v3).
Splash status on console 1 changed to on
Looking for splash picture.... found (800x600, 14470 bytes, v3).
Splash status on console 2 changed to on
Looking for splash picture.... found (800x600, 14470 bytes, v3).
Splash status on console 3 changed to on
Looking for splash picture.... found (800x600, 14470 bytes, v3).
Splash status on console 4 changed to on
Looking for splash picture.... found (800x600, 14470 bytes, v3).
Splash status on console 5 changed to on
NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
eth0: Transmit timeout, status 00000000 00000240
NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
eth0: Transmit timeout, status 00000000 00000240
NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
eth0: Transmit timeout, status 00000000 00000240
sr0: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr0: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr0: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr0: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr0: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr0: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr1: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr1: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr1: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr1: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr1: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr1: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr2: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr2: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr2: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr2: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr2: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr2: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr3: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr3: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr3: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr3: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr3: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr3: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr4: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr4: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr4: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr4: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr4: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr4: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr5: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr5: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr5: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr5: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr5: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr5: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr6: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr6: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr6: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr6: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr6: mmc-3 profile: 0h
sr6: mmc-3 profile: 0h


It looks really strange, isn't it?
Can you help him?
Many thanks.

Does he actually have a watchdog card installed? Or just support for one in the kernel. That may be part of the issue

I dunno if he has a watchdog card and neither me nor him know what it is :-D

And does he actually have 7 CD-RW drives? Because that's how many seem to be connected.

On the whole, what I see here is detection of devices that may not exist, which in general slows a system down quite a lot, and might well be tying up the motherboard's resources in such a way that the network times out.

I would guess that if neither of you knows what a Watchdog card is, that you don't have one (since even if his PC was not self-built but off-the-shelf, that's a kind of "feature" that would be mentioned if present).

On the whole, this looks to me like a cabling/connector issue that is affecting hardware detection.

Did your friend add or remove any hardware recently? New HDD, DVD-RW, anything? Physically move the PC to another location? Because this looks to me like maybe one or more cables or cards are no longer securely seated in their connectors and thus are being incorrectly detected.

Well I'll let him know that.
He only has 1 DVD and 1 CD-R as far as I know...
I don't event understand why kernel recognizes two different procs - Pentium first and then an Athlon....I'll let you know though...

One thing which caught my eye at the top of the list was:

found SMP MP-table at 000fbc70

Is he running a SMP (Multiple Processor) capable kernel? If he only has one processor it shouldn't cause a problem however it might be worth switching to a single processor kernel anyway as something is obviously causing a problem.

Yes...that was of the first things I also noticed.
He's using only 1 proc and I dunno why and how compiled such a kernel.
He's using MDK 9.2 along with 2.4.22mdk kernel.