Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 21:59:30 +0200 From: "Daniel A." <alive@dienub.org> To: Mark Kane <mark@mkproductions.org> Cc: hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Good network card? Message-ID: <44EB6222.40706@dienub.org> In-Reply-To: <20060822144904.6165c8c6@localhost> References: <44EB4839.8050304@dienub.org> <20060822144904.6165c8c6@localhost>
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Mark Kane wrote: > On Tue, Aug 22, 2006, at 20:08:57 +0200, Daniel A. wrote: >> Hi, >> I am currently having a big deal of issues with the ethernet cards on >> my server, as well as a possible motherboard problem. >> This causes my server to reboot occasionally, but never in a >> predictable pattern. A while back, the reboots only occured once >> every two weeks - But now they're almost every other hour. I cant >> take it anymore. >> >> So, do you know if the "watchdog timeout"s caused by bad network >> cards can cause a complete system crash/lockup/reboot? If yes, >> shouldn't a kernel core be dumped? And if no kernel is dumped, does >> it mean that the issue is potentially with my IDE controller or >> harddrive? I noticed that, at a point where I had no internet >> connection (And hence, my server was not used - but still turned on), >> the server stayed up for 20 days straight without any issues at all - >> So my #1 suspicion right now is my network cards. > > Hi. I'm not completely sure on this part. The only watchdog timeouts > I've had was indeed a bad used network card, and it happened right > away when I started to configure the box. I replaced it with a brand new > one and it started working perfectly. I don't recall any crashes or > reboots, but it did constantly flood the screen with watchdog timeouts > and I couldn't do anything with the machine. > > Are there any other messages in /var/log/messages or dmesg that could > be related, or on the console itself when the machine reboots? Maybe it > is another problem causing the crashes that also causes problems with > the networking. It does seem weird that the onboard and the PCI would be > having the same problems though. Hi Mark, I really don't get any other messages, no. The only things remotely close to errors I get are the watchdog timeouts. Also, I've enabled all.log, and it does not seem as if there is any pattern to the crashes. FYI, this is an old Intel Pentium 4 server (2.4GHz). I've removed one faulty RAM block of 512MB, so I'm down at a measly 512MB instead of 1GB. I've tested it for 16 hours with memtest (Not 86) on a live system without any errors. I know that I should probably test it offline with memtest86 - But I just want the server to run :( Also, I'm getting a "Kernel Trap 12" or something - Which is the only thing I could read before the server rebooted, one day when I was lucky to have a CRT screen attached to the server AND while I was staring at it. And there are *never* any log traces or anything else, except when I execute "last", where it just says that my server rebooted at the given time. > > Maybe this will help in debugging it if it is a kernel panic: > > http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/developers-handbook/kerneldebug.html > >> Considering that I am quite poor - What PCI ethernet cards should I >> buy for my server? And could you suggest a cheap motherboard which >> isn't bad too? > > I like NICs from 3com, and Linksys' LNE100TX has been pretty stable > over the years. Both are around $20 here in the US, but I'd go with the > 3com for new purchases. > > As far as the motherboard, I'm not sure what type of CPU you have, but > I've been buying MSI boards lately and they have been working out well. > They're pretty well priced also. Pentium 4 Socket 478. But maybe I should upgrade my CPU/mobo combo if I find something good and cheap. > > By the way, what version of FreeBSD? Perhaps if it's an older version > and these problems have been happening since the beginning, it may be an > incompatibility and already fixed in a newer version. However that > wouldn't explain why it has gotten more frequent over time. Version 6.1-RELEASE, upgraded from from a 6.0-REL. > > -Mark >
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