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614756
October 19th, 2006 14:00
Linux USB Problems on Dimension E521 AMD 64 X2
Hi,
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.
Thank you,
Kevin
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.
Thank you,
Kevin
No Events found!
Duli
31 Posts
0
January 2nd, 2007 16:00
mellis0
5 Posts
0
January 2nd, 2007 20:00
Message Edited by mellis0 on 01-02-200704:19 PM
thermostat
7 Posts
0
January 2nd, 2007 23:00
* While previously my keyboard was recognized in BIOS mode when it was connected through the hub, it is no more. I plugged the mouse and the keyboard into the regular USB ports in order to check the BIOS settings and to choose an operating system in the bootloader. However, with the OS (Windows or Linux) loaded the USB hub works fine.
* Before the BIOS upgrade it usually took no more than one hour until the mouse or the keyboard was hanging, if not connected through the powered USB hub. Now the system is running for five hours without any freezing issues though both mouse and keyboard are plugged into the ports of the desktop directly. There weren't even any problems when I started two quantum chemical calculations both requiring a big lot of CPU load and memory simultanously for half an hour and was crawling the web at the same time.
I use openSUSE 10.2 x86_64 with kernel 2.6.18.2. Only my mouse and keyboard are connected directly to the USB ports, any other devices (printer, WLAN stick) are still connected through the powered hub, and all seem to work well.
Those who have experienced problems with E521:
* Do you have any other USB devices than the mouse and the keyboard connected? Do the problems keep if you disconnect everything except for the mouse and the keyboard?
* Which PCI devices do you have in your desktop?
Interesting to see, if everything keeps working on my system the next days.
lotiopep
2 Posts
0
January 3rd, 2007 09:00
after upgrading BIOS I can, at least, start ubuntu 6.06 (I have an E521 AMD 64x2 5000+ pc). Before that I couldn´t pass the "auto adjust in progress" step. I've been working without any mouse and keyboard problems. But i'm just a beginner and I cannot test the computer like you would. I mean that I'm trying to do things that you would find very easy and for me it's a big problem (upgrading to ubuntu 6.10 from CD!!!, setting a ADSL connection!!!!, well... actually everything).
Thank you very much for your help.
earl92
10 Posts
0
January 4th, 2007 20:00
How can a bios upgrade solve mouse/keyboard problems one machine while others seem to still have those problems. We are talking about the same Dell E521 aren't we?
I'm open to suggestions.
(Dell E521, Athlon-X2-64 4200).
batsy
6 Posts
0
January 4th, 2007 20:00
I have an AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+
Default factory configuration other than a PCI Soundcard (Installed by me) and an AGP Video card (Installed by Dell).
noisefan
7 Posts
0
January 5th, 2007 05:00
I have since my last post 2 days before (it was in the evening and 9 hours after work begin) no locks of mouse or keyboard. I have a C521 here.
earl92
10 Posts
0
January 5th, 2007 08:00
Duli
31 Posts
0
January 5th, 2007 08:00
Message Edited by Duli on 01-05-200705:02 AM
Duli
31 Posts
0
January 5th, 2007 08:00
Message Edited by Duli on 01-05-200704:08 AM
efrynn
3 Posts
0
January 5th, 2007 09:00
The boot params we are using are: ro acpi=off noapic irqpoll pci=routeirq
We are currently experimenting without the acpi=off. It has been ok for 15 mins now
insertBillHere
6 Posts
0
January 5th, 2007 12:00
As it happens, this config works fine for me. I've loaded VMware Server, and I can install/test 64-bit OSes all day long with no problems, even though the base OS is 32-bit. It seems there are still issues with ACPI, APIC and/or HPET in Dell's [EC]521 Athlon design. Historically, Dell has timing issues in their high-end designs (one of the reasons they eventually gave up on 8-socket systems). Over the next few months, I wouldn't be suprised to see changes to the Linux kernel that take these effects into account. I hope to see Dell release additional BIOS updates to further stabilize their systems (and maybe support 8GB ram). At that point I could be convinced to buy another one :-) Meanwhile, the system is doing what I need it to, namely, running 32- and 64-bit virtual machines.
Now if I can only get the GigE card in the pci-E slot running....
(E521, Athlon-64 x2 5000+, 4GB RAM, 2x 250GB SATA, nVidia 7300LE)
efrynn
3 Posts
0
January 5th, 2007 12:00
ro noapic irqpoll pci=routeirq
earl92
10 Posts
0
January 5th, 2007 13:00
mwette
38 Posts
0
January 5th, 2007 13:00
"noapic" and "nolapic" and you have an Athlon X2 process that you
check /proc/cpuinfo and/or /proc/interrupts to see if you have
two cores running. When I got my machine, it was only booting with
one core running. /var/log/dmesg will also provide some insight.
My guess is that the issue with the various distributions is kernel
version and build options. With one of the FC6 releases my kernel
would not boot with no args. I was able to narrow it down to the
option change CONFIG_X86_APIC_AUTO=y. I reported the problem and
redhat changed it back to "is not set".