Topic: 5.6 stability - kernel panic - interrupt handler

[Simon]

Hi,

First of all let me say how impressed I am with the sme server and I don't want to knock it.

It ran flawlessly for abt 3 weeks as dedicated gateway/server with one user but one day suddenly halted with "Aiee - kernel panic" in interrupt handler. Since then I have tried it on 2 different machines (fresh install each time) with the same result sometimes within one hour. Both machines run IpCop flawlessly and have been running w2k flawlessly and continuously for several years (no the hardware isn't worn out). I have also run thorough checks on the hard disks and ram and reinstalled several times, each time on a fresh hd. Hardware is as follows:

1st pc: Asus P3BF, Intel BX chipsest, P-III 450 with 256 MB ram and 80 GB. Same problem also with fresh 15 GB HD.

2nd pc: Asus P2B, Intel BX chipsest, P-II 350 with 128 MB ram and fresh 15 GB HD.

Serial ports and parallel ports are all disabled and each NIC has its own, non-shared interrupt.

Does anyone else have the same problem ? It looks like a hardware fault to me, but as fas as I can tell the hardware is perfect and can't believe that 2 machines could have exactly the same fault.

I know there is another thread on kernel panic but this relates more to HD errors.

Any sugestions how to get this great software running reliably again ?

Simon

[guestHH]

best thing to do is send a bug-report to bugs@e-smith.com

[Steve Bush]

Are they the same brand/model NIC's?  Can you try a different brand/model?  I would say it could be a bios issue, but you have two completely different, very popular boards...

[Simon]

The NIC´s are no-name brand, one with RTL 8029 and one with RTL 8139. Perhaps I will try swapping them for something else. Thanks for the suggestion.

Simon

[Simon]

Well, I am now running with only the one RTL8139 NIC and so far no problems at all. In the harware compatibility list at Redhat, the RTL8029 was listed as "?" whereas the RTL8139 was "compatible". Perhaps this was the cause of the "Kernel panic in interrupt handler" failure.  Only time will tell.