sound and networking conflict

AssociateX · Posted: Mon May 03, 2004 12:51 am Post subject: sound and networking conflict

I am having hardware issues. When ever I use any IRC client, I loose my cable connection and sound. I have to unplug my modem then plug it back in to get back online, and get this, after that my sound works again with out a reboot. What the heck is that all about? I tried xchat and konversation (it does not happen with irssi though), my computer can be on all day or just 5 minutes, as soon as I connect to IRC I loose my connection. I cant web browse, email or anything.

I'm using 2.6.5 gentoo-dev-sources, alsa with oss emulation, kde/arts, and the modem is a Motorolla SB4200.

cat /proc/interrupts
CPU0
0: 3274107 XT-PIC timer
1: 1923 XT-PIC i8042
2: 0 XT-PIC cascade
9: 0 XT-PIC acpi
11: 306575 XT-PIC ehci_hcd, ohci_hcd, ohci_hcd, Ensoniq AudioPCI, eth0, nvidia
12: 43302 XT-PIC i8042
14: 6380 XT-PIC ide0
15: 1782 XT-PIC ide1
NMI: 0
ERR: 0

If you have any help to offer, please do. Thank you.
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AssociateX
Gentoo rocks!

adaptr · Posted: Mon May 03, 2004 1:14 pm Post subject:

Everything is on IRQ 11 - including sound, video and networking.
I suggest you disable PnP in your BIOS and let the BIOS determine the IRQ assignments.
This should not normally cause any problems, but since you seem to have them...
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AssociateX · Posted: Mon May 03, 2004 5:09 pm Post subject:

adaptr, the settings in my BIOS called "PnP/PCI" are already set to "Auot(ESCD)", is that what you mean?

Thank you for your reply.
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AssociateX
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adaptr · Posted: Mon May 03, 2004 5:56 pm Post subject:

Partly, yes, but the biggest culprit is usually a setting called (in my Award BIOS): PnP OS installed Yes/No.
Even for Windows this is generally a bad idea (if you know what you're doing, i.e. you're not Joe Random Windows Luser, anyway ;-)

), but on Linux it can kill...

EDIT: Let me clarify that a bit - I realise it may not be clear to everyone:

Generally, you want the BIOS to auto-detect PnP PCI settings on boot; this is what ESCD/Auto does, and so is good.
This allows Linux to then re-detect in any way it likes (it usually uses either ACPI or direct probing I believe), and will not screw up the devices.

The "Plug-and-Play OS" setting tries to invoke ACPI scheduling from the BIOS, which is often broken or incomplete - Windows 2000 especially doesn't get along too well with it.
Or it may even let the state of the devices hanging, leaving it to the OS to sort it out.
Which might cause problems if you need certain functionality to boot into Linux...

If any BIOS / ATX experts are reading this - yes I may be simplifying things, or even be plain wrong about it - so enlighten us please!

Bottom line: fool around with BIOS settings, including trying to hard-set the IRQ's, and/or try reassigning them when booting, via modprobe or such.
_________________
>>> emerge (3 of 7) mcse/70-293 to /
Essential tools: gentoolkit eix profuse screen

AssociateX · Posted: Mon May 03, 2004 6:28 pm Post subject:

I have fiddled with the bios a bit and got some irqs to move but I still get the same sound and net failure. I also have the same bios set up that I had on my previous install of gentoo. The only thing that has changed is the gentoo install. Is there anything on gentoo that would help with this? Maybe in the kernel or some package that I may have missed on the install?

I'm considering reinstalling the whole system because of this. I have been asking in #gentoo on freenode for the last two weeks to no avail. This must be fairly rare. First I'm recompiling my kernel with a few things added:

[*] BSD Process Accounting

[*] Local APIC support on uniprocessors

If you can think of anything else that I should try in the kernel let me know please.

Thank you.
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AssociateX
Gentoo rocks!

adaptr · Posted: Mon May 03, 2004 7:09 pm Post subject:

Then the local APIC support seems the most likely cause.
Many many mainboards don't fully support these features, so crashes or conflicts are more likely with APIC support.
Try disabling that first.
_________________
>>> emerge (3 of 7) mcse/70-293 to /
Essential tools: gentoolkit eix profuse screen

AssociateX · Posted: Mon May 03, 2004 9:22 pm Post subject:

I tried adding noapic to lilo but the system ran for a while then did a hard lock up. I had to reset my box with the power switch. I took that out then.
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AssociateX
Gentoo rocks!

adaptr · Posted: Mon May 03, 2004 9:24 pm Post subject:

Then I would entirely disable it in the kernel - any and all Linux systems have run for years without this option (which was added somwhere in 2.4.x).
_________________
>>> emerge (3 of 7) mcse/70-293 to /
Essential tools: gentoolkit eix profuse screen

AssociateX · Posted: Mon May 03, 2004 9:45 pm Post subject:

OK, no apic but how about acpi?
What would be the best way for "PCI access mode"?
( ) BIOS
( ) MMConfig
( ) Direct
( ) Any

And what about PnP support in the kernel at all?
[ ] Plug and Play support
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AssociateX
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AssociateX · Posted: Mon May 03, 2004 10:09 pm Post subject:

cat /usr/src/linux/.config | grep -i apic
CONFIG_X86_GOOD_APIC=y
# CONFIG_X86_UP_APIC is not set

cat /usr/src/linux/.config | grep -i acpi
# Power management options (ACPI, APM)
# ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) Support
# CONFIG_ACPI is not set
_________________
AssociateX
Gentoo rocks!

adaptr · Posted: Mon May 03, 2004 10:24 pm Post subject:

PCI access mode : ANY
PnP support: YES
APIC: all OFF
ACPI support: either that, or APM
NOT both !

HTH

EDIT: just FYI:
APIC == Application-Programmable Interrupt Controller, i.e. a soft-programmable IRQ router (the on-board PC PIC is hardcoded, as in: with actual wires).
and
ACPI = Advanced Configuration and Power Interface, a method of power management introduced with the PCI bus system.

The only thing they have in common is that both provide ways to determine how IRQ signals are routed over the PCI bus...
Other than that, they're completely different ;-)

_________________
>>> emerge (3 of 7) mcse/70-293 to /
Essential tools: gentoolkit eix profuse screen

AssociateX · Posted: Wed May 05, 2004 12:31 pm Post subject:

I have enough of my new system installed to make a post here. Once I get enough of my X apps installed I'll make another post to tell if I got anything solved with my net and sound problem.

thank you
_________________
AssociateX
Gentoo rocks!

AssociateX · Posted: Thu May 06, 2004 5:16 am Post subject:

For some reason no matter what I did on the kernel recompile I could not get the system to boot again. Something was really wrong. I was ready for a system install, so that's what I did.

On the new system I compiled the eth0 drivers statically into the kernel. I also am using a firewall that I use on my original install that had no real problems, http://projectfiles.com/firewall/ if you care. I did not emerge hotplug either. Anyway, so far so good, the net and sound have not stopped working after I start a gui IRC client. I did not emerge so much alsa stuff either this time.

Everything seems to work now.

Thank you.
_________________
AssociateX
Gentoo rocks!