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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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