From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1QT68x-0006vH-7Z for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Sun, 05 Jun 2011 05:44:59 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id E80AC1C010; Sun, 5 Jun 2011 05:44:43 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtp.gentoo.org (smtp.gentoo.org [140.211.166.183]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B31181C010 for ; Sun, 5 Jun 2011 05:44:43 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-vw0-f53.google.com (mail-vw0-f53.google.com [209.85.212.53]) (using TLSv1 with cipher RC4-SHA (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) (Authenticated sender: mattst88) by smtp.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 27E651BC016 for ; Sun, 5 Jun 2011 05:44:43 +0000 (UTC) Received: by vws13 with SMTP id 13so2731135vws.40 for ; Sat, 04 Jun 2011 22:44:41 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.52.180.135 with SMTP id do7mr962872vdc.273.1307252681082; Sat, 04 Jun 2011 22:44:41 -0700 (PDT) Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-alpha@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-alpha@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.52.165.101 with HTTP; Sat, 4 Jun 2011 22:44:21 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: References: From: Matt Turner Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2011 01:44:21 -0400 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [gentoo-alpha] Problems with SMP on Alpha UP2000+ To: gentoo-alpha@lists.gentoo.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Archives-Salt: X-Archives-Hash: c69291d34c7f75faceca3ccbd1d76a59 On Sat, Jun 4, 2011 at 6:23 PM, Magnus Lindholm wrote: > Hi, > > I have a UP2000+ system with dual 21264 @ 667MHz/4MB cache and 2GB RAM. The > system runs fine with RedHat 7.2 Linux (downloaded from hp website) with an > 2.4 SMP kernel. However, running Gentoo with an SMP kernel will eventually > make the system freeze (i.e make -j2 when building a new kernel only lasts > for a 30 seconds or so). I've also tried NetBSD-5.1, FreeBSD-6.4, and a few > other Linux distros with the 2.6 kernel (make -j2 makes the system freeze). > It seems like Linux kernel 2.4 is the only OS that works with SMP on my > system. Has anyone else experienced something similar with an UP2000+ Alpha > system? First I suspected faulty hardware, but RedHat 7.2 seems to work just > fine so... > > I heard somewhere that Linux going from 2.4 to 2.6 made some significant > re-structuring of the SMP code that broke SMP support on some systems? > > The system has a Matrox Millenium and a 3Com 3c509B Ethernet card and a SCSI > disk hooked up to the on-board SCSI. I've tried unplugging the NIC and a > using a DEC PowerStorm 3D30 in stead of the Matrox Millenium, different CPU > modules and different RAM modules. All with the same results. There are no > error messages to be seen anywhere when the system freezes up. > > > Regards > > Magnus It's been my experience that UP2000s are quite fragile. Not entirely sure if it's the Cchips/Dchips on the board or the CPUs themselves. Maybe the SMP scheduler in 2.4 isn't good enough to sufficiently load both CPUs or something. Anyway, this doesn't seem to be an uncommon problem at all. If you're in Europe, I have a bunch of 833 MHz Slot B CPUs living with a friend in Finland. Perhaps you'd like to give a pair of these a try and if they work, buy them? Get on IRC, #alpha and #gentoo-alpha on Freenode and let's talk. Thanks, Matt