Re: Linux 2.4.2-ac21

[Keith Owens]

On Fri, 23 Mar 2001 00:02:54 +0100, 
Frank de Lange <[e-mail]> wrote:
>Linux 2.4.2-ac21 does not like my box, or the other way around:
>
>loading the agpgart module (MGA G400 AGP) -> system hangs
>loading the SCSI module (53c875) -> system hangs
>
>In both cases, the magic SysRq sequence does not work, but it is still possible
>to ping the box from the outside. Connecting to it (ssh) does not work,
>however. I backed out both the SCSI driver patches as well as the agpgart
>patches, but this did not fix the symptoms. Looks more like a module-loading
>related issue, but I have not found it yet.
>
>All this on an SMP (Abit BP6) box by the way...

Activate the nmi watchdog with nmi_watchdog=1 in the boot parameters[*].
That will trip after 5 seconds and point to where it is hanging.  If
the nmi watchdog alone does not give enough data, add the kdb patch
(with nmi watchdog on) and start debugging.
http://oss.sgi.com/projects/kdb/download/ix86/, the -ac20 patch should
fit -ac21 as well.

Am I the only person who is annoyed that nmi watchdog is now off by
default and the only way to activate it is by a boot parameter?  You
cannot even patch the kernel to build a version that has nmi watchdog
on because the startup code runs out of the __setup routine, no boot
parameter, no watchdog.