Bug 35133 – Logs are filled with errors from my 3COM Tornado card that will eventually crash my computer

• Status: RESOLVED UPSTREAM
• Product: Gentoo Linux

[Description Mitchell 2003-12-05 05:50:33 UTC]

When I startx with my PCMCIA network card plugged in and enabled, X takes a few
minutes to start up.  The computer is now very slow overall and the network card
will not function.  When I look in /var/log/messages (I'm using syslog-ng if
that makes any difference) the log is being flooded with the following two messages:

Nov 28 15:17:50 localhost eth0: Host error, FIFO diagnostic register 0000.
Nov 28 15:17:50 localhost eth0: PCI bus error, bus status 80000020.

I cannot stop the network card via '/etc/init.d/pcmcia stop' or
'/etc/init.d/net.eth0 stop'.  If I pull the PCMCIA card out, my computer gets a
kernel panic passed to it from syslog-ng.

I can avoid this problem by using startx without my network card plugged.  Once
X is running, I plug my network card in, it is recognized, and I receive no errors.

My network card itself is configured by pcmcia-cs-3.2.4 and uses the drivers
provided by it.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.Plug in PCMCIA network card
2.startx

Actual Results:  
The computer's speed is signifigantly diminished.  The logger is getting flooded
with:

Nov 28 15:17:50 localhost eth0: Host error, FIFO diagnostic register 0000.
Nov 28 15:17:50 localhost eth0: PCI bus error, bus status 80000020.

The network card also stops working.

Expected Results:  
Their should be no errors or conflicts between X and my network card.

Portage 2.0.49-r15 (default-x86-1.4, gcc-3.2.3, glibc-2.3.2-r3, 2.4.20-gentoo-r9)
=================================================================
System uname: 2.4.20-gentoo-r9 i686 Pentium III (Coppermine)
Gentoo Base System version 1.4.3.10
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CFLAGS="-O3 -march=pentium3 -fprefetch-loop-arrays -funroll-loops"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
COMPILER="gcc3"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /var/qmail/control /usr/kde/2/share/config
/usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/3.1/share/config
/usr/share/config"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/env.d"
CXXFLAGS="-O3 -march=pentium3 -fprefetch-loop-arrays -funroll-loops"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="sandbox ccache autoaddcvs"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gentoo.oregonstate.edu
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY=""
SYNC="rsync://rsync.us.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="x86 apm avi crypt cups encode foomaticdb gif gpm imlib kde libg++ libwww
mad motif mpeg ncurses pdflib png quicktime spell truetype xml2 xv zlib gdbm
berkdb slang readline arts svga java X sdl tcpd pam ssl perl python oggvorbis
gtk qt opengl -gnome -esd gtk2 mozilla pcmcia pnp -nls dvd oss xmms jpeg sse mmx
-mikmod fbcon directfb tiff"

 dmesg | grep eth0
eth0: 3Com 3CCFE575CT Tornado CardBus at 0x280, 00:00:86:59:80:f6, irq 9
eth0: Setting full-duplex based on MII #0 link partner capability of 01e1.

Kernel line in grub:
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/bzImage root=/dev/hda3 pci=usepirqmask vga=792

[Comment 1 Tim Yamin (RETIRED) 2003-12-05 08:53:57 UTC]

Can you please try vanilla-sources * 2.4.20 * to confirm whether this is a Gentoo bug?

[Comment 2 Mitchell 2003-12-06 09:46:30 UTC]

The same problem occurred with the vanilla sources.

I emerged vanilla source 2.4.20, setup the /usr/src/linux symlink to it, and built my kernel as close as I could to gentoo-sources-2.4.20-r9.  After the kernel booted, I needed to reemerge pcmcia-cs to get my pcmcia card working with the the new kernel.  After I did that, I rebooted and started X with the same result happening.

[Comment 3 Tim Yamin (RETIRED) 2003-12-14 13:23:33 UTC]

I'm not too sure if we can do that much if this is a problem in the underlying vanilla core. Can I suggest that you try a recent 2.4 series kernel, like a 2.4.23 vanilla or a 'ck' kernel? If this still persists in the latest vanilla kernel, then this should be filed upstream.

[Comment 4 Mitchell 2003-12-22 15:40:51 UTC]

The problem is still persisting with the later vanillas.

[Comment 5 Tim Yamin (RETIRED) 2003-12-22 15:50:36 UTC]

We can't really do much here as this is a problem in the underlying vanilla sources. Can I recommend that you try the 2.6 sources and see if the problem persists - if it does, please file a bug at <http://bugme.osdl.org> or send mail to the LKML <http://www.lkml.org>. Thanks a lot.

[Comment 6 Mitchell 2004-01-01 17:02:58 UTC]

I haven't found a way of getting my NIC to work with the 2.6 kernel.  Because of that issue, testing it with the 2.6 kernel has been an impossiblity.