Re: [gentoo-amd64] Re: Problem with emerge on a dual-processor machine [SOLVED]

[Vesna Petrovic]

On 10/31/06, Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@×××.net> wrote:
>
> "Vesna Petrovic" <vesna.petrovic@×××××.com> posted
> 60bedadc0610311046q23d77c5fu671c7330a2f09a14@××××××××××.com, excerpted
> below, on  Tue, 31 Oct 2006 13:46:29 -0500:
>
> >  The system has 2 AMD Opeteron Processors 252,  5 disks - 1IDE Maxtor
> > 6B200R0 and 4 SCSI Maxtor 6L300S0, and probably irrelevant ATAPI 48X
> DVD-ROM
> > DVD-R CD-R/RW drive, Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme
> > BCM5703X Gigabit Ethernet (rev 02), RAID bus controller: Silicon Image,
> Inc.
> > SiI 3114 [SATALink/SATARaid] Serial ATA Controller (rev 02), FireWire
> (IEEE
> > 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB22/A IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller
> (PHY/Link),
> > VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV350 AP [Radeon 9600]
> > 05:00.1, Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV350 AP [Radeon 9600]
> > (Secondary).
> >   Kernel version is 2.6.17 built using gentoo-sources.
>
> I have but a few possibilities to suggest, but I can say I've been using a
> similar system since late 2003, upgrading it over time, and know it works.
> FWIW, Tyan s2885 mobo here, dual Opteron 242s, four-way SATA RAID on SiI
> 3114 SATA controller, 8 gig memory, Firewire, Radeon 9200 (so the ATI r200
> series not the r300 series you have, mine is AGP), a DVDRW, CDRW, and
> older
> PATA hard drive on PATA, etc.
>
> Possibilities:
>
> I had bum memory for awhile.  Twas a mess, until I got a BIOS upgrade that
> allowed me to declock it a notch (to pc3000 level from the pc3200 it was
> rated).  A memory upgrade cured that.
>
> The usual possible hardware suspects including the power supply train
> (from the one in the computer itself, to what's coming in on the line, to
> the UPS if any), and possibly overclocked CPUs.  With all those hard
> drives, it's possible you are simply underpowered.  I think I'm running a
> 550 watt rated Vantec that's rated to 650-ish spike.
>
> At one point there was an issue with the firewire driver and x86_64 SMP.
> Since I'm not using Firewire for anything here, IIRC I disabled it in BIOS
> as well as the kernel driver for it.  I've not followed up but I'd /guess/
> the problem is fixed by now.  Still, it's worth trying that, and disabling
> any other stuff (like USB possibly in a server environment, which it seems
> you are in) you don't actually use.
>
> Those are all shots in the dark, but this is mainly to say that what I
> have here seems to work very well, at least since I fixed the memory
> issue, which was simply generic memory not worth its rating and an
> inability at the time to declock it in BIOS.
>
> --
> Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
> "Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
> and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman
>
> --
> gentoo-amd64@g.o mailing list
>
>
Bob, Duncan, thank you.
You were right, the problem does seem to be memory. I swapped the memory
modules, and the system was not freezing any more. I started getting
'Segmentation fault' errors during compile, so I limited the memory clock in
BIOS @ 166MHZ. Now everything works fine.
How can I find out what is the best value to set the memory clock limit to?
I tried 200MHz, and the segmentation faults still occurred. When I set 183
MHz, BIOS reported that the memory clock is 'unknown'. So I set it to
166MHz, which was the next value in the list. Is this a good method for
determining the best value?

    Vesna