Problem with PowerLogix G3/400 upgrade

[Andreas Tobler]

Chris Plummer wrote:
> I'm having problems with YLD 2.2 crashing after installing a PowerLogix
> G3400 on my 8500. It seems to crash quite easily when doing stuff that
> is both cpu intensive and disk intensive, like compilations or using
> rpm. Running things that are just cpu intensive doesn't seem to crash.
> Also, I can run KDE with no problem. Here's the the situation:

This doesn't sound like a cpu issue. Checked the scsi cabling?
I had on very cpu/ram expensive task some non predictable crashes, well 
crashes is a bit heavy. I ended up with segfaults.

> -8500/120 (now a G3 of course)
8600/200 G3 500
> -stock 2x CD-ROM drive
12x stock
> -stock 2GB scsi drive
lots of..

> -PowerLogix G3/400, running with factory settings (400Mhz cpu,
>  50Mhz bus)
ZIF carrier G3 500Mhz 1MB L2
> -L2 motherboard cache removed (it was causing failure to boot).
true
> -Two new 128MB DIMMs, certified for use with G3 upgrade. All old
>  DIMMs were reomved.
hmm,
> -G3 upgrade and DIMMs bought at same time from OWC.
> -No PCI cards.
3 PCI card, eth 100MBps, UW2scsi, FW
> -Speculative Addressing, backside cache, and write through are
off
>  all disabled using the Cache Profiler. Cache ratio is set to 3:1.
2:1, L2 is half of CPU.
> 
> At first I had problems with very frequent freezes on MacOS 8.1 (much
> worse then I currently have with linux). Then I realized the problem was
> that I had enabled speculative addressing, so I disabled it using the
> Cache Profiler app and everything has been fine for MacOS 8.1 since then
> (even when the backside cache and write through are enabled).
> 
Keep this off, they are enabled on linux if necessary.

> I've tried disabling the backside cache using bootx. I'm not sure if
> it's actually disabling it or not. In any case, it didn't help any. Is
> there anything else I need to do with bootx. Is there a way to explicity
> disable speculative addressing in bootx, or is it disabled by default?
Did u use the grabcache settings? A SIOUX app from benh (included with 
BootX i guess). This should write the L2 string into the bootx prefs.

 From my experiences, try to place the DIMM's in non-interleave mode. 
Means put them in different Slots A1, A2 e.g. for further details see:
http://www.cpu.lu/~mlan/linux/dev/interleave.html

As long as my DIMMS were interleaved I had random failures. Since I 
de-interleaved my 8600 with G3/500 works like a robot:-)

Regards,
Andreas