Anyone else try running Linux (in my case Ubuntu 6.06) on the E521 with the AMD 64 X2 processor? I am having a problem when using xorg where my USB devices, more often my mouse, but my keyboard has had the problem as well stops working. It is almost like the interrupts start getting masked, but it isn't that. Because when the mouse stops working I am usually able to still use the keyboard.
It happens after a while, and usually in times of heavy use. I guess really instead of heavy I would say normal. But it has never happened that it will be working and then I let it lay idle for a while and then reach for it again and it be frozen.
This started happening under the amd64 version of Ubuntu but I have tried several different versions by now and the problem continues to happen.
As far as troubleshooting it has been a real pain. There is never a message in the kernel log or shown by running dmesg. Actually once or twice I have seen the irq status -71 received, but I am pretty sure that is not the cause, becuase it has only happened about twice out of maybe 40 occurances. And there is no message in the Xorg log either.
I have tried the default amd64-generic kernel the latest amd64-generic, the latest amd64-k8 kernel (I think 2.6.15-27.48) I have tried running the i386 uniprocessor kernel and the latest k7-smp kernel. All of them have the same problem.
In an effort to get to the bottom of it I have re-compiled the kernel according to the directions here: http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/Kernel_Compilation_Dapper and turned on debugfs and collected data, but there doesn't seem to be anything of interest. It seems I get hundreds of thousands of lines of -115 status (Which I believe is the controller just telling the device that yeah, I hear ya and I am going to do something EINPROGRESS) and then nothing. The mouse appears to continue to function at least the circuit which senses movement and turns the LED into bright mode. And under Windows I have had no problems at all.
The only solution that always works is to disconnect the USB cable and then reconnect it, which grabs a new device file /dev/input/event7 and probably does some other magic registers with the USB controller, and a bunch of other stuff and then the mouse starts working again.
The only other consistent problem I have noted is the IOAPIC stuff complains about a bug, and sometimes it won't boot and panics, other times it figures out a way to get by and does so. Because of this I have tried booting with noapic and other than changing the way /proc/interrupts looks there seems to be no change in the problem. Eventually under usage the mouse stops responding entirely. Even looking at cat /dev/input/mice there is nothing getting there.
I have upgraded the BIOS to 1.0.3 that had no effect. And also turned off the Cool and Quiet support in the bios.
Any thoughts, recommendations of how to proceed, or any other suggestions are appreciated.
As things work under windows, it is I think a bit of a grey area, but do things only work under windows as Dell drivers do some tweakings with timings or whatever?
I know I have never had a less stable Linux system that I have now with the C521 :(
With respect to getting attention from Dell ...
The linux.dell.com website has email lists. One of them
is for linux on desktop systems. There is a Dell person
who seems to be reading these. I have just started subscribing.
FC6 came out with a new kernel last week marked 2.6.18-1.2849.
With this one I can't boot with the "nolapic" options I was
using before.
The driver I downloaded from Dell's web site is Windows specific, and only solves the mouse problem under Windows, not Linux.
I am going to install a Delll Serial/PS2 PCI adapter card and see if that will eliminate the problem under Linux. I'm not using the PCI slot in the C521 for anything else, and I have an old PS2 Keyboard and Mouse available, so that might be a good $15.00 fix, at least until Nvidia or Dell offers a driver for Linux. I'll let you know if it works.
It's interesting that if you search "Dell Linux Desktop" in Google, the first page it brings up is the Dell C521 page on Dell's website. Strange given that the C521 will not run Linux without hardware modifications!.
I did do some superficial research and did read people were using Fedora Core 6 on a C521 and there was no mention of issues, I also saw those same links. so I felt I was on a safe bet.
We got six C521 for one of our labs with intention to run Debian Linux.
After installation of Debian 4.0 (etch), I started getting similar problems with
USB mouse and keyboard.
It seems the reason for the problem is that two device modules, ethernet and USB, share the same IRQ.
In /proc/interrupts, you can see that both ohci-hcd:usb2 and eth0 getting onto IRQ 5.
I was trying to reload b44 module (for eth0) by using modprobe, insmod, and modifying the kernel boot options
to force b44 onto the different unused IRQ, for example, 3.
It didn't work and the network module always was getting IRQ 5.
I wonder if it is hardcoded in the bios.
Someone mentioned that there is a work-around by using a pci add-on USB card. Could you please post your
/proc/interrupts. Thanks.
TIME. I'll go talk to some lawyers and see if we have hope. I'm tried of Dell and other companies tricking their customers. I actually did ask a Dell support person before purchasing this system whether it runs ok with a stock RHEL4 install (2.6.9-34.ELsmp x86_64) kernel and was given a positive/affirmative answer.
I also did try using the 2.6.18.1 vanilla sources (only changing it to compile specifically for AMD64/Opteron and not EM64T). Then you have to use acpi=off otherwise it will hang but it boots otherwise. Then of course the mouse/keyboard problems remain.
myfreeforum
14 Posts
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Posted November 15th, 2006 07:00
I know I have never had a less stable Linux system that I have now with the C521 :(