Problems with network on RH9

[Ross Clement]

Hi. I've installed redhat 9 on a self-built xp2000+/asus a7n266-vm computer. Using the onboard nvnet network to connect to a LAN. Everything seems fine, except that accessing network functions seems to halt the processor. E.g. if I'm downloading a large file, then the computer becomes near unusable. Or, if I'm listening to music with xmms (playing files), and am browsing the web at the same time, then the music cuts out every time the browser fetches a page (or part thereof).

I suspect that it's an OS problem, because booting into Windows 2000 on the same machine, and using IE and musicmatch, shows no such problems.

Can anyone advise what I should look at to try to fix the problem?

Thanks in anticipation,

Ross Clement.

[Steven E. Protter]

Microsoft has $40 Billion in the bank and tests a much wider array of hardware than Red Hat can afford.

The problem more likely is non-standard hardware.

Though the motherboard should not be a problem, it could contribute to the issue.

You might want to consider switching to a supported NIC card. I have had great success with Bay Networks and Intel.

If nvnet network cards aren't on the hardware list then Red Hat didn't test it, and you'll need to add a NIC or write your own driver.

Check with the motehrboard maker for a Linux network driver.

SEP

[Caesar_3]

Hello!

What you need to do is to check in the
moments of unusable OS run top to see what
process take CPU, also run free to see the
memory.

About the xmms could be that it have some bugs
so try for mp3 files use mpg123 and see if
you have the problem.

The xp2000 it's AMD processor? If so
you may need to do some changes in the
kernel for this processor.

Caesar

[Vitaly Karasik_1]

which NIC and driver do you use?

Vitaly

[Manuel Wolfshant]

Make sure that DMA is enabled and functional. to do that, (assuming your hard disk is master on the first IDE channel) run
hdparm /dev/hda

you should get something similar to:
/dev/hda:
multcount = 16 (on)
I/O support = 1 (32-bit)
unmaskirq = 1 (on)
using_dma = 1 (on)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
nowerr = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 8 (on)
geometry = 2482/255/63, sectors = 39876480, start = 0
busstate = 1 (on)


the important information is the line:
using_dma = 1 (on)
If in your case it says =0 (off), please install the latest kernel from RH updates. The one you use does not know about the chipset used in your motherboard and does not properly initialise the IDE, which in turn reduces the hard disk transfer speed.

The new kernel also includes some low latency patches which might improve overall behaviour and responsivness of the system.

[rcmikey]

The Asus a7n266-vm motherboard is based on the nVidia nForce chipset. This chipset is well supported in Linux, using the nForce drivers available from nVidia (much like HP's D315 business PC, which uses the same nVidia chipset). Try downloading and installing the driver set available from their web site under "Download Drivers", "Platform", "Unified Driver", "Linux".

Be sure to read the web pages and documentation carefully, as you will most likely need to recompile the driver package using the source RPMs (SRPM) files.

[rcmikey]

Sorry for the double post -- but I should have mentioned that the nForce chipset has integrated network and audio. Since your issue appears to spring up when there is activity on the network and audio devices, the nForce chipset update will likely help with the issue.

You will also want to make sure that you have the very latest (non beta) BIOS available for the motherboard. After updating the BIOS, you should probably clear CMOS (using the jumper on the motherboard) to make sure everything is right with the motherboard. Avoid making any changes to the default BIOS settings and you should be fine (especially the APIC setting -- leave that at defaults).

Good luck!

[Ross Clement_1]

Hi. Thanks for the replies everyone, but I'm still confused.

I have the nvidia drivers installed (for network and audio). The machine wouldn't recognise the ethernet connection until I'd installed nvidias drivers. After that, things worked fine until I noticed the slowdowns.

I've checked with 'top', but there are no real clues as to where the processing time is going. E.g. if I'm downloading with Mozilla, I just get 'mozilla-bin' at the top of the list sucking up all the power.

I tried adding a new network card today, but that doesn't work at all (despite being auto-detected and configured). Basically, I can set it as the network device, but attempting to use any network based programs (such as ping) doesn't work.

I tried downloading and installing the latest kernel I could find, but that doesn't work at all with either network interface (it finds the nvidia network card, but when I try and use it, says that it doesn't seem to be present). It is aliased properly (as far as I can see) in /etc/modules.conf. I'm sure it's not a problem with xmms, as the entire machine grinds to a halt during network access, not just xmms playback. I'm sure it's not a problem with the network that I'm connected to as there are several other redhat machines (two rh9, one rh8) connected to the same network, and they don't have the same problem.

I'm told that there is a common problem where network card speeds are auto-detected, and that I should set the speed of the card to 100Mb/s instead of auto-detect. But, I can't find a place in the OS to do this. Trying to use ethtool doesn't work.

I don't have the latest bios, I have version 1005 instead of 1006.

So, apart from trying a new bios, I'm still stumped.

Cheers,

Ross-c

[Ross Clement_2]

Hi. Thanks to everyone for the help. In the end I managed to get an SCM1225tx PCI lan card working on the computer. Bit of a waste of a PCI slot (only have three of them) when there's onboard lan, but the computer is working fine now, and I have other things to worry about :-)

Also, apologies, but I can't assign 'points' to people on this thread. Every time I've returned my 'account' seems to have disappeared and I have to register again.

Cheers,

Ross-c