Re: random crashes with SMP system

Hello, I am posting to the list the solution I finally found
to a long-standing problem which seems to affect linux on
(some) Compaq EVO workstations (see below). These machines come
with an intel pro 100/vm ethernet adapter. Knoppix (and
various other distro's I've tried on the same HW) chooses
the eepro driver in this case, which in my case was causing
instability and system crashes. There is an intel-provided
OSS driver called e100, which works better at least in my
particular case. Since I've edited /etc/modules on my HD
installation and have replaced the eepro100 line with a
e100 one, I am happy to report that the system is behaving
fine. All is well that ends well!

I hope this can benefit other users,

--bald.


> I am encountering problems with an SMP machine.
> At work, I've got a Compaq Evo W6000, a dual-Xeon
> monster of a workstation. It works fine with the
> knoppix CD, but hangs more or less randomly since
> I have installed to hard disk... I had initially
> installed the 15/04/03 version, then the 06/06/03.
> I've tried the 2.4.21 kernel from the 26/07/03 CD,
> as well as the 2.4.20 pentium kernel from mepis,
> to no avail. I have also tried lots of combinations
> of noacpi/nosmp/nomce boot options with lilo, but
> none has helped. I _think_ the crashes occur when
> in graphical mode and accessing the internet (through
> a proxy if that matters...), but it is really hard to
> tell. The model is supposedly certified for linux
> (well RedHat and SuSE, not explicitly debian).
> When running off the CD, I am probably not stressing
> the SCSI system, since the CD player is IDE. That's
> the main difference I can think of... Basically I've
> run out of ideas and am looking for suggestions. If you
> have some, or have met such a beast before, I'd be glad
> to hear.
> 
> Thanks for your attention,
> 
> bald.