Ideas Needed

[2Whyzzi]

I've got a buddy with a PCCHIPs mainboard (I know, I know) - ahem - make that a dual processor PCCHIPs mainboard Intel LX M720 that pukes on install when "Checking 'HLT' Instruction ..."

There is only one CPU installed, and no APIC module. The BIOS is most recent one we could find (99 April 01), and it still doesn't make a difference.

Anyone have ideas on what I can do to get passed this annoyance? Or are we stuck purchasing a new mainboard (I've told him I'd try everything in my power to get his system running with linux).

BTW: The only other thing in the box is a G200 AGP 8Meg
128Megs of RAM
20Gig WD Harddrive

Thanks in advance,
Whyzzi

[leech]

First let's start with which linux distro(s) have you tried? That might help determine what the problem is. Also take a look to see if that chipset is even supported with any of the kernels. Good luck, if I find anything else out for you, I'd help of course.

Leech

[nehalmistry]

yuk!

first of all, he is better of getting a single-chip mobo by a different manufacturer other than PCCHIPS....

my celeron 733 on a pcchips mobo ran 40% the speed of my current mobo.... yes.... thats right.... pcchips is the worst

[2Whyzzi]

Another Question

SuSE Support said get bios update. PCCHIPS said we no longer support this motherboard. Somehow, I'm just not surprised.

Anyway, another question:

background:
We've moved SuSE 7.1 Professtion to a Shuttle HOT-555 Intel VX, using a Pentium 120MHz, 48Megs of Ram (ouch need more) Soundblaster 16 Vibra, and Intel MD5628D HA Modem dual booting between 2Gig Windows Drive and a 4.3Gig Linux drive.

The question has to do with modem stalling. This rig tests perfectly under windows (no problems downloading, etc), but stalls at 6~8% of a download (email/attachments, netscape/konquorer downloads). I've both the 333-5 HAM driver from the intel site, and the 408-2 beta driver from the Linmodem site, using an init string I got from the intel site. Since both of these drivers stall, and the modem has no problems running under windows, it has to be a linux configuration issue.

But for the life of me I cannot find the problem. Currently I launch the internet from kinternet using wvdial.

Any ideas would be most helpful. Thank you.

Whyzzi

[kewlcat]

Get a real modem!

What do you mean by "stall"? Crash? Not dialing?

Note that the Intel drivers are meant for 2.2.x kernels, is that what you are using? Drop to 2.2.x and see if it works.

My advice? Your 120 MHz machine is losing cycles to the winmodem anyway. Get a real ISA modem, there are some PCI ones as well.

-Rahul

[2Whyzzi]

I knew I'd forget something

I am pretty the only part that is done in software on this modem is the command list? The rest is hardware, thats why Intel chose to call it a HAM (Hardware Accelerated Modem)... uh - maybe I should rephrase that...

Yeah, sorry - the kernel is the SuSE supplied 2.2.18. Oh, did you know that the beta 408-2 Intel HAM driver is 2.4.x compatible? Although I did have to change the souce of rtc.c? ... the copy I downloaded had a : where it needed a ; before I could get it to compile. Still have the same stalling problem as the 333-5 driver.

To clarify stalling - No not crashing, and not hanging up the modem. KInternet icon display remains connected, but the download percentage just stops, usually between 6~8%. Oh yeah, and NO PINGING gets through after that point! I've launched a shell and verified this. Even KInternet's "Verify connection" doesn't work (but all that is really just a ping to the ISPs DNS servers).

Computer is fine, and I can 'right-click' on the kinternet icon and disconnect, no prob.

To be honest, I have not waited long enough to find out if the ISP disconnects because of inactivity. I could try it suppose, but I think that it would be a waste of time.

Other ideas? Anyone?

Thanks in advance,
Whyzzi

[kewlcat]

Hmmmm

Well, that makes it a lot harder to diagnose. Is it only when downloading, not if you just browse? And does it stall after the connection has been up for the same period of time? If you are testing with a particular download, try some other shorter ones. Also try HTTP instead of FTP to see if it helps.

-Rahul

[rugger]

I know

Oh dear , what next,quad prcessor pcchips boards


Anyway, try starting the kernel with the no-hlt option.

IE, when LILO comes up, type the name of the kernel to start with (not sure, because different install disks use different names) and append the work 'no-hlt' (without quotes) after the other options.

Obviously the HLT instruction is broken on this PcChips board. What that means is that when linux runs the HLT command, the CPU shuts down, but is never awakened by an interrupt (like it should)

[2Whyzzi]

Hey! It worked! Thanks Rugger!

SuSE Support had given us NOAPIC and MAXCPUS=0, so I typed (based on NOAPIC) NOHLT. I guess its all a question of symantics. Your NO-HLT works like a charm. Many, Many thanks from my friend and myself.

Now, is there a downside to disabling this instruction? Are there any programs that you are aware of (ie advanced power management) that rely on this instruction in order to work?

Whyzzi

[Wombat]

If the CPU isn't HLTed, then it's just chugging away. It should just burn a few more watts of power. Not a huge deal (unless you're cooling is bad to begin with).

[zaphod38]

OT...again !

When I crashed my OS installations recently, I'd become so despondent with my machine (I think I've ranted about this in another thread ) that I disconnected the Marvel's BOB and had everything packed in the box, leaving only the card in the machine as a demonstration to any potential buyers.
I still had to reinstall the OSs and the drivers and it was during this rebuild that I realised I'd probably 'spat the dummy' a little too eagerly.
Then, when I came back to this forum and I read threads like this one, I wonder if there's any other 'community' as helpful as this one and it's kinda made me hold onto to the Matrox so I can 'stay in the club' (cue the schmaltzy violin music !!!).
...and I guess as long as I'm gonna keep fiddling with Linux (and messing it up occasionally!), I'm in good company for assistance.

Thanks guys

zaphod

[2Whyzzi]

Re: I knew I'd forget something

To clarify stalling - No not crashing, and not hanging up the modem. KInternet icon display remains connected, but the download percentage just stops, usually between 6~8%. Oh yeah, and NO PINGING gets through after that point! I've launched a shell and verified this. Even KInternet's "Verify connection" doesn't work (but all that is really just a ping to the ISPs DNS servers).

OK.. just last night I fixed the "stalling" problem.

For anyone wanting to use linux and a modem here is what you can try if you experience similiar symptoms:

It seems that SUSE in their infinate wisdom decided not to set the MRU and the MTU parameters in th /etc/ppp/options file. By uncommenting and setting these values (MRU=296? and MTU=1500) and saving the options file the internet connection was 100% stable.

I tested this by downloading complete Mozilla 0.9.3 for Linux. Worked like a charm.
Whyzzi