Bug 18138 – sis900.o for the pci network controller fails to load when livecd boots for the first time

• Product: Gentoo Release Media
• Status: RESOLVED TEST-REQUEST

[Description Nicolai Schleifer 2003-03-25 03:48:13 UTC]

I own a new Fujitsu/Siemens Amilo-EL Notebook. Installing Gentoo-1.4_rc3 and 
Gentoo-1.2 fails when booting for the first time. sis900.o cannot be loaded. 
The Knoppix CD 3.1 boots without errors. It seems to be a kernel version 
problem, i.e. the Gentoo Kernel being "too new", the older 2.4.19 seems to 
work. How can i replace the livecd Kernel with a self compiled one easily, are 
there docs about that?

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Insert any Gentoo livecd into the drive and boot
2. Watch the load of sis900.o fail
Actual Results:  
I cannot further install Gentoo, because the network controller doesn't work.

Expected Results:  
Load sis900.o correctly, so that eth0 can be configured.
If needed, i can type the error messages off the screen.

[Comment 1 David Cozatt 2003-03-25 14:02:03 UTC]

I have this nic and it works fine if you boot 1.4-rc3 and use gentoo nonet and then insmod sis900.
Mind you the mobo is ecs k7s5a. May differ from yours

bus_drivr

[Comment 2 Bob Johnson (RETIRED) 2003-04-04 12:32:53 UTC]

please try latest experimental livece @ www.gentoo.org/~livewire 

[Comment 3 Bob Johnson (RETIRED) 2003-04-05 13:55:59 UTC]

need test please 

[Comment 4 David Cozatt 2003-05-02 15:28:22 UTC]

no prob with 1.4-rc4 on my mobo. sis900 is detected and networking came up  
without a hitch. The sound module isn't recognised.  
 
bus_drivr 

[Comment 5 Hermann Gundel 2003-05-17 10:03:09 UTC]

Hmm, problem seems to be worse here. When using the Gentoo Live CD 1.4.rc4, I got a kernel panic, when it comes to configuration of hotplug and pci.
When I start with "gentoo 1024 nohotplug", it comes up nicely, but died on a "insmod sis900" with
Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000006
followed by a kernel panic.
This occurs reproducable on my (new) desktop machine (PIV 2,6 GHz, lots of devices)

Hermann

[Comment 6 Hermann Gundel 2003-05-17 10:36:23 UTC]

Tested with  Livecd-experimental-05-16-2003.iso  -  still the same problem. Kernel panic after "insmod sis900"

Hermann

Used 1.4.rc2 before, which did load the sis900 module, but it did not seem to work (pings to and from the machine failed). 

[Comment 7 Bob Johnson (RETIRED) 2003-05-17 11:10:33 UTC]

try booting with "gentoo nodetect nousb"  
then manually modprobe sis900 
if that doesnt work,  
type just "acpi" at the prompt 

[Comment 8 Hermann Gundel 2003-05-19 17:52:01 UTC]

Thanks, booting with "gentoo nodetect nousb" + modprobe worked and let me continue installation. This did work with rc4 already. Both 'nodetect' and 'nousb' were needed to succeed.

[Comment 9 Andrew Cooks (RETIRED) 2003-11-25 01:56:47 UTC]

Please test with latest LiveCD and reopen this bug if the problem persists.