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

‎Linux USB Problems on Dimension E521 AMD 64 X2

Responses(256)
Solutions(0)

ethelle

1 Message

0

January 7th, 2007 17:00

After BIOS update on Ubuntu 6.10, USB works at last!

But I got some kernel panic and freeze now, DELL really s, I'm sure I will never buy another PC from them.

S

someone23

1 Message

0

January 8th, 2007 18:00

HELP! I have x64 SUSE 10.2, with 1.1.4 BIOS, but I am still having mouse/keyboard problems, and my USB printer does not work! This is NOT COOL!!!!

vincecate

11 Posts

0

January 9th, 2007 11:00

@batsy wrote:
# wget http://www.offenders.org/freedos.img
# dd if=freedos.img of=/dev/sdb (your pendrive device)
# mkdir /mnt/usb
# mount /dev/sdb /mnt/usb
# cp DME521-010104.EXE /mnt/usb
# umount /mnt/usb

The mount does not work for me.

I tried mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb
mount -t msdos /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb
mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb

The first says I must specify the type. The others say wrong type. What type should it be?

Thanks,

-- Vince

B

batsy

6 Posts

0

January 9th, 2007 12:00

I forgot the step which creates the filesystem. Here are the corrected steps.

# wget http://www.offenders.org/freedos.img
# mkfs.msdos -I /dev/sdb
# dd if=freedos.img of=/dev/sdb (your pendrive device)
# mkdir /mnt/usb
# mount /dev/sdb /mnt/usb
# cp DME521-010104.EXE /mnt/usb
# umount /mnt/usb

Message Edited by batsy on 01-09-200708:16 AM

vincecate

11 Posts

0

January 10th, 2007 06:00

If I don't do the dd I can then mount it, but after the dd I can not mount it.
I think the dd wipes out what the mkfs does. I am on an Ubuntu AMD64 system.

F

fiestachickens

3 Posts

0

January 10th, 2007 12:00

I've been following these posts pretty closely, and it looks as if the problems have been largely resolved with the new BIOS update. So would anyone actually recommend getting an E521n with the new fix?

M

mwette

38 Posts

0

January 10th, 2007 12:00

the "dd" should put the filesystem there. Also you need to be
careful about using "sdb" versus "sdb1". I played with this
a bit. There are two ways to set up a USB card to boot. One
makes it look like a floppy, the other makes it look like a
real disk, with MBR and partition table. I believe the Dell
boxes want to see the filesystem version. Try the "dd" command
on /dev/sdb and then see if you can mount /dev/sdb1. I'm not
sure this freedos.img is workable.

D

Duli

31 Posts

0

January 10th, 2007 13:00

fiestachickens wrote:
I've been following these posts pretty closely, and it looks as if the problems have been largely resolved with the new BIOS update. So would anyone actually recommend getting an E521n with the new fix?

Hello, as I understand, the problem has been resolved with the C521n, but still happens on th E521 (several people teeling suse 10.2 used to work, but not anymore).

I have a friend with C521, not E521, so I cannot confirm you. You should ask people that owns the E521 version, in order to be sure!!!!

Good luck!

U

UNOmar

3 Posts

0

January 10th, 2007 14:00

I purchased a Dimension E521 with the AMD Athlon 64 3800+ processor at the beginning of this year. It has bios version 1.1.4 and runs openSuse 10.2. I still have mouse issues despite trying various methods to fix it as well as the occasional keyboard issue. The system came with the newer version of the bios so I can't vouch that it worked with the old versions.

-UNOmar

F

fiestachickens

3 Posts

0

January 10th, 2007 15:00

@UNOmar wrote:
I purchased a Dimension E521 with the AMD Athlon 64 3800+ processor at the beginning of this year. It has bios version 1.1.4 and runs openSuse 10.2. I still have mouse issues despite trying various methods to fix it as well as the occasional keyboard issue. The system came with the newer version of the bios so I can't vouch that it worked with the old versions.

-UNOmar

Have you tried a USB hub that has an external power source?

U

UNOmar

3 Posts

0

January 10th, 2007 17:00

I haven't tried that yet. It's a work PC and of all the junk we have lying around a powered usb hub is not one of them. I might pick one up after work though if that seems to be fixing the problem for everyone.

jrminter

10 Posts

0

January 10th, 2007 19:00

I have a Dimension C521 and have been working without freezes by using an externally-powered USB hub. I installed the new BIOS. Thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and installed a new KVM switch that handles both PS/2 and USB mice (my Windows XP box has PS/2 connectors.) Anyway, I had a freeze with the new BIOS and without the hub. I plugged in the hub and am working now and connected the KVM mouse/keyboard connector via the hub. The hub was effective before. I'll post if I have problems with the new configuration.

jrminter

10 Posts

0

January 10th, 2007 19:00

BTW - i am running Mandriva 2007 x86_64 upgraded to Cooker packages (2007.1)

D

donnyr3

5 Posts

0

January 11th, 2007 14:00

An update: I am using a C521 with Athlon 64 4000+ running Ubuntu 6.06 (for AMD 64). I ugraded to the new BIOS Ver 1.14 over a week ago and the system has been up and active 24/7 since then.

There has not been any problem with the mouse or keyboard which are directly connected without a hub.

Don

A

ajsoft

3 Posts

0

January 11th, 2007 14:00

@jrminter wrote:
BTW - i am running Mandriva 2007 x86_64 upgraded to Cooker packages (2007.1)

I have the same but using Mandriva 2007 32 bit and all works fine with BIOS 1.1.4. This, of course, is consistent with what the SuSE users have reported. 32 bit works fine with BIOS 1.1.4. 64 bit still doesnt

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