I have an MS-6570 (K7N2 Delta Series) MB
with an nForce2 chipset, running
2.4.22-12mdkenterprise and 9.2 RC2.
Unfortunately the so called "Athlon Powersaving"
bit of the nForce2 chipset is set by default
during boot. This makes my system unstable
during heavy disk operations, specifically
during fsck.ext3 of a large file system.
The system hangs completely. I have to turn the
power off and on again to boot.
I solved the problem by running the athcool program:
athcool off
Running athcool again:
athcool stat
athcool version 0.3.0
enabling/disabling Athlon Powersaving mode
nVIDIA nForce2 (10de 01e0) found
'Halt Disconnect and Stop Grant Disconnect' bit is disabled.
Now I can run fsck.ext3 again and again on large
file systems without the system ever freezing.
PROBLEM: after 38 re-boots the initscript makes
a forced fsck of my 8 GB /usr fs.
My system freezes 4 times in a row, and I have to
boot in rescue mode from the install CD.
Then I run 'athcool off' manually, followed by
a manual fsck.ext3 of the /usr fs.
Until now I have put 'athcool off' into rc.local,
BUT it should really be placed up front, before
the fsck.ext3 of /usr during the boot sequence.
Maybe somebody on this list could help me
finding a better place to put 'athcool off'?
I have given up waiting for a BIOS upgrade
that could turn off this "feature".
-- Bjarne Thomsen
lspcidrake:
unknown : Nvidia Corporation|nForce2 AGP Controller
[BRIDGE_HOST]
unknown : Nvidia Corporation|nForce2 Memory Controller
[MEMORY_RAM]
unknown : Nvidia Corporation|nForce2 Memory Controller
[MEMORY_RAM]
unknown : Nvidia Corporation|nForce2 Memory Controller
[MEMORY_RAM]
unknown : Nvidia Corporation|nForce2 Memory Controller
[MEMORY_RAM]
unknown : Nvidia Corporation|nForce2 Memory Controller
[MEMORY_RAM]
unknown : Nvidia Corporation|nForce2 LPC / Legacy / System
Management [BRIDGE_ISA]
unknown : Nvidia Corporation|nForce2 SMBus 2.0 Controller
[SERIAL_SMBUS]
usb-ohci : Nvidia Corporation|nForce2 USB 1.0 OHCI Controller
[SERIAL_USB]
usb-ohci : Nvidia Corporation|nForce2 USB 1.0 OHCI Controller
[SERIAL_USB]
ehci-hcd : Nvidia Corporation|nForce2 USB 2.0 Enhanced Controller
[SERIAL_USB]
nvnet : Nvidia Corporation|nForce2 MCP Networking Adapter
[NETWORK_ETHERNET]
unknown : Nvidia Corporation|nForce2 APU [MULTIMEDIA_AUDIO]
snd-intel8x0 : Nvidia Corporation|nForce2 Audio Codec Interface
[MULTIMEDIA_AUDIO]
unknown : Nvidia Corporation|nForce2 External PCI Bridge
[BRIDGE_PCI]
unknown : Nvidia Corporation|nForce2 UDMA 100 IDE Controller
[STORAGE_IDE]
ohci1394 : Nvidia Corporation|nForce2 Firewire Controller
[SERIAL_FIREWIRE]
unknown : Nvidia Corporation|nForce2 AGP Host to PCI Bridge
[BRIDGE_PCI]
aic7xxx : Adaptec|7892B [STORAGE_SCSI]
3c59x : 3Com Corporation|3c905C-TX [Fast Etherlink]
[NETWORK_ETHERNET]
pdc-ultra : Promise Technology|PDC20376 FastTrak 376 Controller
[STORAGE_RAID]
Card:NVIDIA GeForce FX (generic): NVidia|0x322 [DISPLAY_VGA]
unknown : Linux 2.4.22-12mdkenterprise ehci_hcd|nVidia
Corporation nForce2 USB 2.0 EHCI Controller [Hub|Root Hub]
unknown : Unknown|USB OHCI Root Hub [Hub|Root Hub]
unknown : Unknown|USB OHCI Root Hub [Hub|Root Hub]
--
Bjarne Thomsen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Institute of Physics & Astronomy
