On Fri, 2004-05-21 at 12:18, Andre Costa wrote: > Hi Wolfgang, > > On Thu, 20 May 2004 17:50:30 +1000 > "Wolfgang Gill" <wolfgang@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > On Wed, 19 May 2004 22:28:49 -0300, Andre Costa wrote > > > Hi, > > > > > > I have a P4 at work, and I have been having bad times trying to make > > > > > > it work with hyper-threading enabled. > > > > > > What happens are occasional lockups -- system appears to hang > > > (keyboard, mouse and X freeze, although machine still responds to > > > pings; all other services -- ssh, web, postgres -- are also dead). > > > > > > Last time it froze, its last words were: > > > > > > May 19 14:11:19 dali kernel: APIC error on CPU1: 00(40) > > > > > > May 19 14:11:39 dali kernel: hda: dma_timer_expiry: dma status == > > > 0x24 > > > > > > I know about APIC problems, but the fact is that if I pass 'noapic' > > > to the kernel before boot, the sibling CPU is detected but it > > > doesn't seem to be activated: it appears on top and gkrellm but it > > > never does anything (i.e. it remains with 0% usage). > > > > > > I googled around, and this dma_timer_expiry problem seems to be > > > kernel 2.6.x related. This leads me to think this is specific to > > > Fedora kernel, since RH back-ported many 2.6 features into its 2.4 > > > kernel... > > > > > > I am compiling a vanilla kernel as we speak, will try it out during > > > the weekend. However, given the fact that Fedora kernel is supposed > > > to provide superior performance compared to vanilla kernels, I would > > > > > > like to use it instead, if at all possible... > > > > > > So, my questions are: > > > > > > 1. any success stories out there about SMP + Fedora on P4s? > > > 2. any black-magic to use besides 'noapic', 'acpi=ht' and 'apm=off'? > > > 3. do vanilla kernels work with Fedora just fine (w/ or w/o SMP)? > > > > > > BTW: FC2 is not an option in the near future, so please don't > > > suggest I upgrade ;) > > > > > > TIA > > > > > > Andre > > > > > > -- > > > Andre Oliveira da Costa > > <snip> > > > > My first suggestion would be to update your mother board BIOS. There > > maybe there are some bugs in the APIC code in the BIOS. Or change the > > APIC level from 1.4 to 1.1. > > Mmmh... ok, I will try that -- I do recall seeing this on BIOS setup. > > > I don't have any APIC problems with my servers, as I run Tyan MPX > > mother boards, and have not seen APIC problems at all. I've run RH9, > > FC1 & RHEL3 WS on these boards without any problems. > > It should be something specific to my mobo then. Bad luck =( > > Thks for the ideas, > > Andre > > -- > Andre Oliveira da Costa > That may very well be possible, as I had similar problems with MSI Dual CPU Boards. So I decided to go for Tyan boards, and all the problems went away. Wolf
