Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 71380
sis900.o does not work and can crash system
Last modified: 2013-03-06 00:55:29 EST
From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 Galeon/1.2.0 (X11; Linux i686; U;) Gecko/20020408 Description of problem: On a test system that uses the sis900 chipset for networking, the sis900 module for the Advanced Server kernel will not load. In addition, some operations that try to load or use the module can induce a kernel panic. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1.Boot using kernel-2.4.9-e.{5,8} 2.Execute mii-tool 3.Boot using kernel-2.4.9-e.{5,8} 4.Execute reboot Actual Results: 1./etc/rc.d/init.d/network start fails when it attempts to initialize eth0 2.Execution of mii-tool induces a kernel panic. 3./etc/rc.d/init.d/network start fails when it attempts to initialize eth0 4./etc/rc.d/init.d/network stop induces a kernel panic. Expected Results: 1.Successful load of sis900.o and network initialization 2.mii-tool reports link status, etc. 3.Successful load of sis900.0 and network initialization 4.Successful reboot of system Additional info: Red Hat Linux v7.3 kernels (kernel-2.4.18-{3,5}) work fine and provide the expected results, but these systems must run AS2.1 and the associated kernels. I can provide additional information and access to one of the systems on which the problem occurs.
(Additional info excerpted from an email.) I mentioned the bug that I've referenced in this email's subject to you. Hardware is proving to be an ongoing headache in trying to put together the course that includes cluster manager and friends. The first set of 1U rackmounts had a Cyrix-derived CPU. RHL v7.2 and RHL v7.3 run fine, but AS 2.1 would not even install because of a missing instruction (cmov). I sent them back to the manufacturer, who replaced the motherboard and CPU. Now we have a new problem: networking does not and cannot work. The sis900 module will not load. Under v7.3, it loads and works fine. Under RHL v7.2 and AS 2.1, it does not. The bugzilla report is a bit inaccurate, in that it reports the behavior of the AS kernel on an RHL system. This is necessary, as without network support I do not have a way to install AS on the system. This is a big problem for us. I do not want to have to replace all the motherboards again. If we could get a kernel RPM that replaces the sis900.o with the one we ship with v7.3, this problem would be solved. I started building one before going to LinuxWorld, but this is turning into a bigger task than I can undertake. Do you think there is any possibility of someone giving us a hand? Randy
I've managed to rebuild the 2.4.9-e.8 kernel RPMs with the sis900 support from 2.4.18, so our situation in GLS is not as urgent as was described in Tim's email. Still, a fix that is blessed by engineering is probably better than what I have cobbled together.
Assigned to jbaron, who can do the merge of stock kernel sis900 into Advanced Server.
need to merge newer than stock; stock is lacking support for newer sis900 chipsets (notably the one on the newer asus boards); if we're going to uprev this driver we should go all the way
Created attachment 83824 [details] latest sis900.c with new hw support
Created attachment 83825 [details] corresponding .h file
An errata has been issued which should help the problem described in this bug report. This report is therefore being closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For more information on the solution and/or where to find the updated files, please follow the link below. You may reopen this bug report if the solution does not work for you. http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2002-319.html