Kerneloops resulting in a flashing Cap-lock led and a complete system freeze...

[Nikke]

Description: Ubuntu 8.10
Release: 8.10

This happens on a Lenovo T61 laptop.

It seems to happen quite randomly... I think it only happens when wireless radio is turned on, and more often (may be coinsidence) when the laptop is docked and an external monitor is connected via DVI and also connected to a wired network.

ProblemType: KernelOops
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.10
NonfreeKernelModules: ath_hal nvidia
Package: linux-image-2.6.27-7-generic 2.6.27-7.16
ProcCmdLine: User Name=UUID=4236659b-f536-459e-a12e-392238f8374e ro quiet splash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.27-7.16-generic
SourcePackage: linux
Title: WARNING: at /build/buildd/linux-2.6.27/include/../net/mac80211/rate.h:152 ath_get_rate+0x11f/0x3e0 [ath9k]()

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi Nikke,

Sorry for the delayed response. Can you try installing the linux-backports-modules-intrepid package to see if it helps. It contains an updated compat-wireless stack which might already have patches to resolve this issue. Please let us know your results. Thanks.

[Nikke (nmellegard)]

Hello Leann
Thanks for your answer and sorry for my delay :)

I've just installed the backport-package, and will evaluate it over the next couple of days. I have since confirmed that it is most likely due to being connected to wireless and wired network simultaneously. I have almost consistently had freezes within an hour when both where connected and (at least to my recollection) none when either wired or wireless, but not both, was connected.

I'll report back within a week...

/Nikke

[Nikke (nmellegard)]

Hi again
Here are some (I'm afraid) quite non-scientific notes...

I've now worked a full day with the backports installed without a system freeze, so in that respect its seem to have worked!

But, there seem to be a side-effect; whether its related I can't say, but it appeared very timely...
Printing from Adobe acrobat reader (8.1.3-1) works only intermittently. Mostly the printing dialog just freezes up, but it freezes a bit differently from time to time
- Mostly the print dialog shows up completely blank (with just two white stripes where I think two combo-boxes are supposed to be), and after some time the adobe-window darkens as it does when its not responding
- Sometimes the print dialog does show up properly with printers listed and all, but clicking any button depresses the button but before anything else happens, it freezes
- Once in maybe 5-10 tries I do get something printed!

When it freezes it requires a terminal 'kill -9' to get the processes killed (clicking 'Force Quit'-button does not properly kill the process...). This happens at work with a web-login type of network (you need to sign in through a web-interface to get access to the net) with a kerberos authentication-thing for the print system. At home with a printer connected through a samba server I have seen no such problems...

The Adobe issue I haven't experienced prior to installing the backport, and the only other thing I've done to my system since, is the updates to the acpi-support packages that's been rolled out (version 0.114-0intrepid1 to 0.114-0intrepid2).
Neither reinstalling acroread nor removing the backports helped, so maybe its just coincidences...

I've also tried printing from both evince and epdfview. None of these two report a problem, but nothing gets printed. Ofcourse, I've tried many different document, among others ones I printed without problems before installing backports.

/Nikke

[Luis R. Rodriguez (mcgrof)]

Please upgrade to at least linux-image-2.6.27-11-generic.

Please see:

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k#Mostcommonknownissues

and to get the latest ath9k driver:

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k#Getthelatestath9kdriver

[Nikke (nmellegard)]

Will give it a try with the coming days.

Thanks!

[Nikke (nmellegard)]

Will give it a try over the coming days.

Thanks!

[Nikke (nmellegard)]

The backport-package solved the problem for me!

And forget the rant about the side-effect (though I guess anyone with half a brain already has :p). The next day all was fine again, so it probably was just the uni network acting up very untimely...

Thanks all
Nikke

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Thanks, I'll go ahead and mark this Fix Released against linux-backports-modules-intrepid.