I have been unable to load several versions of Linux on my IBM APTIVA PC due to possible IRQ conflicts. After trying to resolve this problem to the best of my ability, I am documenting all my efforts, all the related info. I was able to gather and the results here in as logical a manner as possible. Any assistance to resolve this issue is greatly appreciated.

Vijay

When I try to install Gentoo 1.2 for eg., the PC starts to boot from the CD, then there are several lines on the screen indicating IRQ conflict. Finally the PC stalls. At this point the last two lines
refer to IRQ 14 and IRQ 15.

MY PC
I have an IBM Aptiva 333Mhz, 4Gig, 156Mb. 4 years old.
(1) my PC is a very compact model and light as a
Desktop. There is space inside for just ONE hard
drive.
(2) I use an AOC 7Elr monitor that is not listed
under Mandrake. So I need to work in text mode initially for install.
(3) I upgraded RAM by 128Mb about 6 months ago.

Some suggested changing the actual slots of the Cards to change the IRQ. I am not sure to what extent the problem will be solved.

Any suggestions/solutions appreciated.

A. IRQ MAP/LIST FOR MY PC
IRQ - Device

0 System Timer
1 Standard Keyboard
2 Programmable Interrupt Controller
3 Com Port 2
4 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IQ Steering
4 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IQ Steering
4 SiS 5597/ 5598
4 SiS 7001 PCI to USB Open Host Controller
5 Crystal Sound Fusion Game Device
6 Standard Floppy Disk Controller
7 LPT1
8 System CMOS/Real Time Clock
9 SCI IRQ Used by ACPI Bus
10 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IQ Steering
10 ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IQ Steering
10 Rockwell PCI Modem Emulator
10 Crystal Sound Fusion Audio Accelerator
11 Rockwell 56K PCI Fax Modem
12 PS/2 Mouse
13 Numeric Data Proccessor
14 SiS 5513 DUAL IDE Processor Controller
14 Primary IDE Controller
15 SiS 5513 DUAL IDE Processor Controller
15 Secondary IDE COntroller (Dual IDE Info.)

B. DISTRO INSTALL EFFORTS:
I also tried to load:
1. Red Hat 7.3
2. Knoppix and Damn SMall Linux (The screen goes blank after initial boot)
3. BBC Linux
4. Mandrake 9.1 (Initially installed OK but then all KDE programs
crashed, then there were errors on loading packages for KDE, on later installs this extended to GNOME as well, finally the install started freezing while loading xcdroast programs)
5. Free BSD 5.1 (Errors installing some packets, dependencies).

C. BIOS:
After much efforts I was able to locate the PNP OS in BIOS and tried disabling PNP OS. However, this didn't have any effect. Moreover, when in manual for IRQ my PC allows a choice between PCI and Lead that is all. I am unable to choose/delete IRQ for individual devices.

D. IBM SITE INFO.:
I went to the IBM site, since my PC is IBM, hoping to find help. The
IBM LINUX Main site says that my PC type Aptiva isn't supported for Linux.

E. MEMORY TEST:
My PC has several standard built in tests such as CPU test, Memory test etc., All these were completed successfully without any errors.

F. GOOGLE SEARCH:
Google search for this issue yielded the following site. However, it
only discusses the issue AFTER Linux is loaded. Not Before.
http://linuxselfhelp.com/HOWTO/PPP-HOWTO/modem.html

G. I tried to disable some PCI IRQs in my Bios. However, my efforts didn't have any results. Still the same old IRQs were exhibited. It is almost as if the Bios didn't function.

H. ERROR MESSAGE LINES ON THE SCREEN
Here are the lines that comeup when booting lnx-bbc. Pretty much the same lines comeup for the other Distros that fail to boot. For Knoppix and Damn Small Linux there is just a blank screen some time after the initial boot.
____________________________________

The Initial few lines fly by so fast. It is hard to note them. I did my Best.
Here they are:

Loading root.bin
Disabling PCI/ (...something)
Based on Swansea Univ. Computer Society

(Lines after this stay pretty still and are easy to read, Case of letters may vary)

Initializing RT Netlink Socket
Starting kswapd
defvs: v1.12a (20020514) Richard Gooch
(rgooch@atrf.csiro.au)
defvs: boot_options:0x1
pty:1024 unix98 ptys configured
Serial Driver Version 5.05c (2001-07-08)
with Hub-6 MANY_PORTS MULTIPORT SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI
ENABLED

ttys01 at 0x02f8(irq=3) is a 16550A
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:12.0
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE Driver
Revision: 6.31
ide:assuming 33Mhz system bus speed for PIO modes;
override with idebus-xx
SIS5513: IDE Controller on PCI Bus 00dev09
PCI assigned IRQ14 for device 00:01.1
IRQ Routing Conflict for 00:01.2 have IRQ 5, want IRQ
14
PCI sharing IRQ 14 with 00:14.0
SIS5513:Chipset Revision 208
SIS5513: Not 100% native mode will probe IRQs later

SIS5597
ide0: BM-DMA at 0x4000-0x4007, BIOS Settings:
hda: pio, hdb: pio
ide1: BM-DMA at 0x4008-0x400f, BIOS Settings:
hdc: pio, hdd: pio

hda: ST34323A, ATA DISK Drive
hdc: RW-321248 1.01 20020502,ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM DRIVE
ide0 at 01x1f0-0x1f7, 0x3f6 on IRQ14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177, 0x376 on IRQ 15

(After this line, my PC Freezes until rebooted.)

-----------------------------------------------------------

You have SiS 5597/5598 on-board graphics which might use RAM from the motherboard's RAM chips. This causes problems with some motherboards. Look in your BIOS and find where the amount of RAM used by the graphics chip is specified. Subtract that amount of RAM from your installed memory and make a note of it. For example, if the graphics chip uses 32MB of RAM and you have 156MB, make a note of the difference: 156-32=124. Just after the Linux installation starts, interrupt the sequence where it asks if you want to enter some options. With Mandrake 9.1, it is right at the start, and you are prompted to press F1 for options. When you get the options screen, type:

linux mem=124M

and press Enter. This lets the Linux installation know that it doesn't have all 156MB of memory to play with, and leaves some for the graphics chip. Otherwise, you get a memory conflict and the system freezes. I suspect that this is your problem; if so, this method should fix it.

As adviced, I tried the following commands at
Mandrake Boot:
1) text vga=normal mem=140M
2) text vga=normal mem=140M versf=off

For both the above KDE installed very well but didn't load on Boot.
Same way Windows tried to load but were immediately closed
I also tried the Ctr+Alt+BckSpc

Before the PC returned to the command mode the following
lines were displayed on the screen (Shared at the end of this message.)
Please advice on the further course of action. Thanks.

Vijay


Sharing here for your analysis:
using XFree86 SiS Driver Vs. 3.0.0
(--) SVGA: Using Programmable Clocks
(--) SVGA: Chipset: Sis 5597
(--) SVGA: Videoram: 4096K
(XX) SVGA: Option "Power_Saver"
(XX) SVGA: Using 24ppp, depth 24, Color wt.:888
(--) SVGA: Max. Allowed Dot Clock: 51.365 MHz
(XX) SVGA: Mode "1024x768":mode clock=44.900
(XX) SVGA: Mode "800x600" :mode clock=50.000
(XX) SVGA: Mode "640x480" :mode clock=45.800
(--) SVGA: Virtual Resoltuion Set to 1024x768
(--) SVGA: Using Linear Frame Buffer at
0x0E100000, Size 4Mb
(--) SVGA: SiS: Memory Mapped I/O selected at
0x0e1500000
(XX) SVGA: Using Hardware Cursor
(--) SVGA: Using XAA (XFree86 Acceleration Architecture)
(--) SVGA: XAA: Solid Filled Rectangles
(--) SVGA: XAA: Using 8 128x128 areas for pixmap coaching
(--) SVGA: XAA: Horizontal and Vertical Lines and Segments
Waiting for Xserver to shutdown

At Shutdown the following error message was observed:
Stopping devfsd daemon failed
another time this was observed
Stopping device manager failed
The rest were all OK

It would seem that your video RAM size is 4 MB. If your installed RAM is 156 MB, then the command you should try is:

linux mem=152M

You should also look here for installation tips:

http://www.mandrake.tips.4.free.fr/install.html

While they are specific to Mandrake 9.1, the BIOS tips are useful for most distributions, particularly the one about Plug n Play OS.