archpaladin

Ok...this will take a little while to describe, so bear with me.

The computer in question is a P4 running Slackware 10.0. When running graphically, it runs KDE 3.2. Running audio & video editing software, or games of any graphical complexity do not cause problems. However, when running either Mozilla 1.7.3 or Gaim (I forget which version, but it's recent) the computer will randomly hard freeze (ie. keyboard and mouse lockup) and I can only reboot by flipping the main power switch off and on again in the back of the machine. I've been doing anything from sending an IM message, to downloading software, to loading a webpage. The freezing only seems to happen when I'm using somebody's bandwidth.

The motherboard and graphics card have worked reliably with little problems. My father has had to switch the cable modem once (it's his network) because the one we had before would hang up randomly. (Ironically, the one we have now is no better, or at least it seems that way when I'm online.) Given the problematic history of the cable modem, I'm inclined to think the problem lies somewhere in the networking, but I'm not quite sure.

I have another, older machine running Slack 10 as well, but it doesn't run any kind of graphical interface, and I've had no problems with that one when doing any sort of network communication.

Anyone got any suggestions as to where I should look?

ratbastid

Sounds like networking to me, too. It's a sad commentary on the state of graphics hardware that we expect lockups with graphically intense applications, though, isn't it?

I'd do "service network stop" (as root) and then leave mozilla or gaim up and running for a while and see if you have any problems. You could even try working on them--have mozilla give you a whole bunch of DNS errors--and see if you lock up. That would provide anecodotal evidence that the problem is in the network support.

You might also upgrade your kernel, hopefully there will be fixed or improved support for your network chipset. Do you know what sort of NIC you've got?

archpaladin

I've never had any problems with Mozilla or Gaim unless I was actively communicating with the outside network - letting them sit static has never caused problems. I can't recall if trying to communicate out with no network support (ie. "the cable modem has hung AGAIN...") has caused lockups or not. Definitely worth a shot...

I don't know what type of NIC I have.....how would I find out?

itlain

if you run "lspci | grep net" it will give you an output similar to this below :

02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82547EI Gigabit Ethernet Controller (LOM)

That is going to be the chipset that your ethernet card runs on. For the above example google would quickly tell you that the proper driver for linux for that chipset would be the e1000 driver.

The most common drivers for lower end network cards that I've seen tend to be either 8139too , 8139cp, via-rhine, eepro, or eepro100. Sis900 is also a popular chipset found on intergrated network controllers on modern motherboards.

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jonjon42

yeah sounds like a kernel panic.
I know that in 2.8.1 they had problems with the new via-velocity drivers if built directly into the kernel

To help you more we need your kernel version..

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skaven

It could also be simply a dead NIC. If you've had trouble with your cable modem, it might have been some kind of power surge coming thru the cable (or even a surge on the network <i>from</i> the cable modem). Your NIC may not have survived unscathed. I suggest disabling (or removing) the NIC you're using and trying another one. Fry's, Wal-Mart, and Radio Shack all have excellent return policies, so if it turns out it's not a dead NIC, just return the new one and keep troubleshooting.