Hi all, Can please someone tell me if there are known issues with the beige G3 on-board Ethernet and SuSE 6.4 (kernel 2.2.14)? Better yet, where can I look for further info/docs? My problem is that under certain circumstances (for example nmap'ing that interface from another computer -but not every time-, sometimes just using the interface) the eth0 stops working, and then the computer often freezes shortly after and auto-restarts in a few minutes (-??- with dirty filesystem). No logs at all, even with tail -f /var/log/messages. I've also tried with another G3: same behaviour. The problem does not appear if I do the same tests on eth1 (Apple Fast Ethernet card -DEC chip 21140-, or Intel Pro100+), or if I use a blue/white G3 configured the same way. This is the setup (test machine; in production the services will be splitted on two computers): - G3/233, 192MB RAM (used two computers: same results), with a Apple Fast Ethernet PCI Card and/or a Intel EtherExpress Pro100+ PCI card. - SuSE 6.4 with current patches, kernel 2.2.14 - SuSEfirewall installed and working (NAT for internal LAN, blocking unused ports on internet interface) - postfix 1999/12/31-pl13 - cyrus imapd 1.6.24 (with cyrus sasl 1.5.24) - squid 2.3 stable4 + patches - *not* running telnet, ftp, bind, nscd, ssh, identd, http, portmap, nfs etc. etc. (only inetd) If I only use the two PCI cards (leaving on-board Ethernet disabled), everything is (seems to be...) fine: the G3 has just survived 7 consecutive nmap scans. After two weeks of tests I'm completely stuck (tried everything I know and looked through a lot of docs; also installed NetDrivers-2.1.6 from www.scyld.com, although I remember that on-board Ethernet support is compiled in the kernel)... any clues? thanks in advance, and sorry for the long post nicola
On Thu, Feb 15, nicola moretti wrote:
Hi all,
Can please someone tell me if there are known issues with the beige G3 on-board Ethernet and SuSE 6.4 (kernel 2.2.14)? Better yet, where can I look for further info/docs?
There is either a bug in the hardware that stops the package transfer (and maybe lockup the machine) or there is a bug in the driver. This is a known behaviour and it is possible that it still occours with recent kernels (2.2.19pre or 2.4.2pre). I never had that bug with our beige G3, there are some different chipset revisions. Please try 2.2.18 from our ftp server: ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/ppc/kernel/2.2.18/k_pmac-2.2.18-0.ppc.rpm You need to update the modutils: ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/ppc/kernel/modutils-2.4.1-0.ppc.rpm Please tell me what you do exactly with nmap. Maybe I can trigger that bug here. Gruss Olaf -- $ man clone BUGS Main feature not yet implemented...
Olaf Hering wrote:
On Thu, Feb 15, nicola moretti wrote:
Hi all,
Can please someone tell me if there are known issues with the beige G3 on-board Ethernet and SuSE 6.4 (kernel 2.2.14)? Better yet, where can I look for further info/docs?
There is either a bug in the hardware that stops the package transfer (and maybe lockup the machine) or there is a bug in the driver. This is a known behaviour and it is possible that it still occours with recent kernels (2.2.19pre or 2.4.2pre).
Olaf, thank you for the reply. At least now I know that I'm not that MUCH stupid and unskilled... Sidenote: having disabled the on-board Ethernet, it now *seems* that the computer is also more responsive (not to mention stable... dozens of nmap and nessus scans with no trouble at all).
I never had that bug with our beige G3, there are some different chipset revisions.
Three "official" logic board revisions, as far as I can tell from Apple's tech spec DB (maybe even more "actual" revs? Apple doesn't always roll minor modifications to new part numbers). Being it a 233 G3, I guess that I'm using the oldest one. I have two identical G3s here, one of them 100% for testing: if you want, I can make whatever further testing you may need for identifying this bug; just drop me a note.
Please tell me what you do exactly with nmap. Maybe I can trigger that bug here.
Nothing strange: two or three 'nmap -sT -O' are usually enough to crash. But if you haven't encountered the problem yet, I guess that you'll never hit it at all: my machines crash anyways, with or without nmap, it's just a matter of patience... (3-5 days average uptime, with very very light system load)
Gruss Olaf
regards nicola
On Mon, Feb 19, nicola moretti wrote:
I never had that bug with our beige G3, there are some different chipset revisions.
Three "official" logic board revisions, as far as I can tell from Apple's tech spec DB (maybe even more "actual" revs? Apple doesn't always roll minor modifications to new part numbers). Being it a 233 G3, I guess that I'm using the oldest one. I have two identical G3s here, one of them 100% for testing: if you want, I can make whatever further testing you may need for identifying this bug; just drop me a note.
There is a hardware bug in some/all bmac chips. The current driver put only one packet in the transmit queue, so 2.2.18 should be safe.
Please tell me what you do exactly with nmap. Maybe I can trigger that bug here.
Nothing strange: two or three 'nmap -sT -O' are usually enough to crash. But if you haven't encountered the problem yet, I guess that you'll never hit it at all: my machines crash anyways, with or without nmap, it's just a matter of patience... (3-5 days average uptime, with very very light system load)
I will try that. Gruss Olaf -- $ man clone BUGS Main feature not yet implemented...
Olaf Hering wrote:
On Thu, Feb 15, nicola moretti wrote:
Hi all,
Can please someone tell me if there are known issues with the beige G3 on-board Ethernet and SuSE 6.4 (kernel 2.2.14)? Better yet, where can I look for further info/docs?
There is either a bug in the hardware that stops the package transfer (and maybe lockup the machine) or there is a bug in the driver. This is a known behaviour and it is possible that it still occours with recent kernels (2.2.19pre or 2.4.2pre).
<snip>
Please try 2.2.18 from our ftp server: ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/ppc/kernel/2.2.18/k_pmac-2.2.18-0.ppc.rpm You need to update the modutils: ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/ppc/kernel/modutils-2.4.1-0.ppc.rpm
Olaf, Looks like you were completely right: - fresh 6.4 installation -> crash at first ftp attempt - updated kernel to 2.2.18 -> 300+ MB transferred and counting... Just one final note: the SuSE support DB is a bit messy (and slightly inaccurate) about how to update the system and its configuration files to 2.2.16+ kernel on "old world" Apple machines. I may send you the complete and correct how-to (well, how I did it...) if you want. best regards, and thank you again for your help nicola
participants (2)
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nicola moretti -
Olaf Hering