[rt61] Lockups running Feisty on x86-64
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
linux (Ubuntu) |
Fix Released
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned | ||
linux-source-2.6.20 (Ubuntu) |
Won't Fix
|
Undecided
|
Kyle McMartin |
Bug Description
I am running a Feisty system on x86-64 (Intel Core 2 QX6700 -- quad core on Intel D975XBX2 motherboard with up-to-date BIOS version BX97520J.
The problem is that for the past week or ten days or so, I've been experiencing very strange lockups, and I'm not sure what to blame. The system was quite stable until recently.
There are actually two ways that I experience this crash, although I think the underlying problem is the same. First of all, sometimes when I am not at my system the system locks up hard -- it does not respond to the keyboard or network (not even ping). Second, sometimes while I am actually using the system, it stops responding to the keyboard and network, although the mouse pointer continues to move in response to the mouse. In fact even after the keyboard stops working, clicking and moving windows sometimes works for a little while, although that stops working after a few seconds too. Also, on a couple of occasions, rather than not responding to the keyboard, the system started repeating the last key I pressed (actually echoing it in a terminal window, etc) as though I had the key held down to autorepeat -- and this continued even after I unplugged the keyboard!
The time until the lockup occurs really varies -- sometimes I don't even have time to log in from the gdm screen, while other times my system is usable for an hour or so.
My only theory is that there is some kernel deadlock where one CPU gets stuck waiting for a lock, while the other CPUs keep limping on until they try to take the lock too. However, I've never managed to get any trace message out of the kernel related to this problem.
I've tried many things to see if they make the problem go away: booting with "maxcpus=1", disabling X with "/etc/init.d/gdm stop" after boot, unplugging the keyboard and mouse completely, but the problem always remains.
Sorry for the vagueness of this report. Please let me know if there is anything you can think of that would help gather more info.
Changed in linux-source-2.6.20: | |
status: | Needs Info → Confirmed |
status: | Confirmed → Needs Info |
status: | Needs Info → Confirmed |
status: | Confirmed → Needs Info |
In desperation, I started trimming down my module list as much as possible. I have a wifi card (1814:0301, "RaLink RT2561/RT61 802.11g PCI") driven by rt61 that I am not using at all (it shipped with my system and I never bothered to take it out, but I am using wired networking with e1000 exclusively).
Blacklisting the "rt61" module seems to have made my system much more stable. So perhaps rt61 has some locking bugs?
If someone could tell me how to build a linux image and restricted modules (I need that pesky fglrx module to see anything under X) package from source, I could turn on CONFIG_ PROVE_LOCKING etc. and try to get some more info about the specific problem. Unfortunately I've gotten lost trying to follow the Ubuntu kernel packaging...