I've successfully installed debian 2.0 on my thinkpad 560e, but I'm
still getting frequent crashes. It boots and loads fine, and is
network accessible, but seconds after I start typing on the keyboard
it unloads the pcmcia card and reloads it. This behavior ONLY happens
if I type on the machine's keyboard, I can telnet in from elsewhere
and type all I like.
I've tried this with two different cards, a 3com 3c589 and a motorola
mariner, each exhibits the same behavior, and both work on a similar
laptop in slackware (and on the failing laptop in windows).
My log/messages file gets a whole series of these:
Aug 30 19:57:49 ankle kernel: loading device 'eth0'...
Aug 30 19:57:49 ankle kernel: eth0: 3Com 3c589, port 0x300, irq 3,
Auto port, hw_addr 00:60:97:41:81:78
Aug 30 19:57:49 ankle kernel: eth0: switched to 10baseT port
And eventually it crashes the machine.
Spread out in the log is also a random sampling of other errors, very
inconsistent:
Aug 30 15:01:31 ankle kernel: eth0: 91c92 hardware Tx buffer allocation failed,
status 0xff.
Aug 30 15:02:03 ankle kernel: eth0: SMC91c92 transmit timed out, Tx_status ff
status ffff.
Aug 30 15:02:03 ankle kernel: eth0: 91c92 hardware Tx buffer allocation failed,
status 0xff.
Aug 30 15:02:12 ankle kernel: smc91c92_cs: Unable to find hardware address.
Aug 30 15:02:15 ankle kernel: smc91c92_cs: using 8-bit IO window.
Aug 30 15:02:15 ankle kernel: smc91c92_cs: Yikes! Bad chip signature!
Aug 30 15:02:15 ankle kernel: smc91c92_cs: Yikes! Bad chip signature!
Aug 30 15:02:15 ankle kernel: eth0: 91c92 hardware Tx buffer allocation failed,
status 0xff.
Aug 30 15:02:45 ankle last message repeated 4 times
Aug 30 15:03:00 ankle last message repeated 3 times
Aug 30 16:05:34 ankle kernel: memory_cs: mem0: anonymous: unknown size
But in spite of these ominous looking errors, the ethernet stays up
fine (I was able to install debian via FTP!) as long as I don't type
on the keyboard.
The errors above are pretty rare, mostly it just cycles through the
unloading/loading messages without any errors.
I've tried excluding the IRQ/port, but that had no effect.
/proc/interrupts and /proc/ioports look okay anyway:
# cat /proc/interrupts
0: 3960057 timer
1: 4 keyboard
2: 0 cascade
3: 3119 3c589_cs
11: 1 i82365
12: 44 PS/2 Mouse
13: 1 math error
14: 210238 + ide0
# cat /proc/ioports
0000-001f : dma1
0020-003f : pic1
0040-005f : timer
0060-006f : keyboard
0080-008f : dma page reg
00a0-00bf : pic2
00c0-00df : dma2
00f0-00ff : npu
01f0-01f7 : ide0
0300-030f : 3c589_cs
03c0-03df : vga+
03e0-03e1 : i82365
03f0-03f5 : floppy
03f6-03f6 : ide0
03f7-03f7 : floppy DIR
03f8-03ff : serial(set)
(for completeness)
# uname -a
Linux ankle 2.0.34 #13 Sun Aug 30 21:17:55 PDT 1998 i586 unknown
# lsmod
Module Pages Used by
psaux 1 1 (autoclean)
3c589_cs 2 1
ds 2 [3c589_cs] 3
i82365 4 2
pcmcia_core 8 [3c589_cs ds i82365] 4
I've read everything I can find, and the only person I found with the
same error gave up on his machine. Does anyone have any ideas?
