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614732
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
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myfreeforum
14 Posts
0
November 17th, 2006 16:00
t35t0r
16 Posts
0
November 17th, 2006 16:00
http://t35t0r.googlepages.com/home
Lobotomik
1 Rookie
•
20 Posts
0
November 17th, 2006 16:00
Download the 2.6.18 clean source from kernel.org
Apply the 2.6.18.2 patch
Use the Ubuntu Dapper .config file (/boot/config-2.6.17-10-generic)
Choose optimisation for AMD64 and leave the other options as they are
Build the kernel
Through this procedure I've obtained a kernel that does not have the locking mouse problem. It still needs some work, because I have not got neither ALSA nor ESD so the sound is output directly through OSS emulation, and only one process can get to the audio at any one time. I have not yet compiled nVidia drivers, and the open source module does not go above 1024x768, for some reason. My Ralink card has no driver, so I'll also have to build it myself (the source is available from Ralink, thank them!). But it boots, it works, it connects to the internet using the built-in LAN connection, etcetera.
I'd be pleased to send you the .deb file if you want to try them; just let me know how.
t35t0r
16 Posts
0
November 17th, 2006 17:00
http://rafb.net/paste/results/GMc4cR54.html
If you let me see what you have I can diff.
Basically I gave up and went to compusa and purchased an overpriced USB card with a NEC chipset. If you plugin the keyboard to this card it won't come up until after the kernel boots ..a minor pain if you want to get into the bios or modify your grub/lilo. So I'm back to 2.6.14.7 because RHEL4's HALD is broken with anything higher.
jbquenot
4 Posts
0
November 17th, 2006 17:00
However I'm worried that the SATA CD-Rom driver is not recognized, nor the sound card.
thermostat
7 Posts
0
November 17th, 2006 19:00
Therefore it might be better to use an external powered USB hub. A few are reported not to work, but many others do (personally I can confirm that the Trust HU-5540 works). It is still possible to get into the BIOS or to make changes in GRUB, while I haven't experienced any problems with USB devices for nearly a week now.
donnyr3
5 Posts
0
November 18th, 2006 03:00
The mouse froze constantly in this distribution as well as Ubuntu and Fedora 6.0. I was going to try a PCI Serial/PS2 card, but have not been able to find one. As an alternative, I connected a Belkin USB hub (powered) between the keyboard/mouse and the usb port on the back of the computer. That appears to have solved the problem for me. I installed the Gnome desktop in Suse 10.1 and have played lots of games including breakout which is very mouse intensive. There is no evidence of any mouse problem or keyboard problem with the USB hub between my mouse and keyboard, and the C521.
The actual hub installed is a Belkin powered hub made for the Mac Mini (Apple) but I'm sure its electronically the same as any of their current hubs.
This will have to be the bandaid I use until the original problem with the Dell hardware is solved. (Either through a Bios update, or a Linux kernel fix.
Good luck!
Don
Lobotomik
1 Rookie
•
20 Posts
0
November 18th, 2006 13:00
> I even went into #ubuntu/irc.freenode.net and not a single person
> would give me their config file.
They *wouldn't* give you ther config file? People are getting more paranoid by the day. Maybe they're right, though...
As for where to get the Ubuntu config file, please, read my previous post again.
.Nacho.
mwette
38 Posts
0
November 19th, 2006 05:00
OK. I did some digging. I have Dell C521 and I'm running FC6 i686
(not x86_64). The original kernel with FC6 was named "1.2798". If
I booted this kernel with "acpi=off", then I would get both cores
and the problem with the mouse hanging. If I booted this kernel w/o
args I would get one core and no mouse hangups. When I upgraded to
1.2849 booting with "acpi=off" would hang. Without arguments this
kernel would boot one core - no mouse hangups. I wanted to dig into
why the new kernel would not boot with "acpi=off", so I downloaded
the source and diffed the config files. I deleted the option
"CONFIG_X86_APIC_AUTO=y" that had been added to 1.2849 and now I
can boot with "acpi=off" and get both cores. The mouse still hangs
however. This kernel (1.2849) is based on 2.6.18.2, I believe.
The older kernel (1.2749) is based on 2.6.18.1, I believe.
Looking through the patch file for 2.6.18.2, there are changes for
usb devices. I see lots of mutex lock/unlock pairs added.
Duli
31 Posts
0
November 19th, 2006 23:00
Any news about this problem?!
It's just impossible to work with linux on this machine!!! :-(
I see that the bug reported at kernel bugzilla tracker stills with no solution...
Cheers,
Duli
mwette
38 Posts
0
November 19th, 2006 23:00
I am getting different behavior than others. If I can help, I will try.
I have C521 with Athlon X2 3800+ and ATI X1300 graphics.
I'm using FC6 with the 2.6.18-1.2849 i686 kernel. Boot
options (cat /proc/cmdline) ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb apic=debug.
I am getting one core running. I do get sound but the "alsactl store"
command does not work. I am not getting the mouse freezing issue
unless I recompile the kernel to remove CONFIG_X86_ACPI_AUTO and
boot with "acpi=off" (while I do get two cores running).
Duli
31 Posts
0
November 20th, 2006 15:00
Without the noapic option I get a "kernel panic" and no boot at all.
Anyway, I think it was you who was very kind and helped me in fedoraforum.org (http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=136879).
I did not try to recompile the kernel yet. I´ll try that.
I think you have commented your progress in kernel bug tracker, right? Did you mention there the test with the kernel compilation? Might be useful.
Thanks for all the help... We have to call attention (dell´s and kernel developers') for this issue, because I think it´s really important.
If I got any success I´ll let you know!
Cheers!
Duli
mwette
38 Posts
0
November 21st, 2006 00:00
output of "cat /proc/interrupts" ? I'm interested to see how INT0
is mapped.
jrminter
10 Posts
0
November 22nd, 2006 15:00
Message Edited by jrminter on 11-22-200611:22 AM
Duli
31 Posts
0
November 22nd, 2006 16:00
Unfortunately, my FC6 no longer boots... It just gest stuck right after the "booting the kernel" message... I guess I won´t be able to show you that output. I´ll perform another fresh install and then I´ll do that and post here... Well, it seems the kernel is really unstable... :-(