Hi, im using Slackware 10 and seem to be having a problem with DMA timeouts on the 4am cron which is locking the machine solid.
Any ideas please?

Hi, and welcome to LQ!

And first we need more info.
What motherboard are you using, what job(s)
are happening at 4am, can you post a few of
the errors you're getting, what kernel do you use?

Generic guide - most helpful!



Cheers,
Tink

Hi and sorry for my lack of information given.

Kernel Version 2.6.8
Distro Name Slackware 10.0.0

Mount Type Partition Percent Capacity Free Used Size
/ reiserfs /dev/hda1 41% 11.53 GB 8.03 GB 19.56 GB
/home reiserfs /dev/hda2 18% 44.86 GB 9.75 GB 54.60 GB
/media reiserfs /dev/hde1 54% 52.29 GB 62.21 GB 114.50 GB
/data reiserfs /dev/hdf1 19% 90.11 GB 21.70 GB 111.81 GB
/divvy reiserfs /dev/hdg1 52% 53.15 GB 58.66 GB 111.81 GB
Totals : 39%

Hardware InformationProcessors 1
Model AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2600+
Chip MHz 2086.89 MHz
Cache Size 256 KB
System Bogomips 4112.38
PCI Devices 00:0a.0 Multimedia audio controller: Ensoniq 5880 AudioPCI
00:0f.0 RAID bus controller: Promise Technology, Inc. PDC20276 IDE
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE
00:13.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV 36 [GeForce 5700 256M]

IDE Devices hda: MAXTOR 4K080H4 (Capacity: 74.53 GB)
hdc: HL-DT-ST GCE-8481B
hdd: DVD-ROM DDU1621
hde: Maxtor 6Y120L0 (Capacity: 114.50 GB)
hdf: SAMSUNG SP1203N (Capacity: 111.82 GB)
hdg: SAMSUNG SP1203N (Capacity: 111.82 GB)

USB Devices Linux 2.6.8 uhci_hcd UHCI Host Controller 0000:00:10.2
Linux 2.6.8 uhci_hcd UHCI Host Controller 0000:00:10.1
Linux 2.6.8 uhci_hcd UHCI Host Controller 0000:00:10.0
A4Tech USB Optical Mouse

The 4am "thing" is slocate updatedb i think,
The machine just locks solid and takes a couple of cold boots to get going again, as resetting dosnt work, it gets stuck on "DMA timeout"
Hope this info is ok

Much better ...


Does that problem also occur with the stock-2.4.26
kernel that came with slack?

Can you somehow check which drives it happens
with? I recall (from browsing here, not from experience)
that there's quite a few problems with the promise
controllers....

You could, for example, make a test-run and tar
stuff from all mount-points that live on separate drives
individually onto one drive.


Cheers,
Tink