Verizon DSL + RedHat 7.2 + RP PPPoE 3.2-3 = system hangs

I am using Verizon DSL on a RedHat 7.2 installation.
The PPPoE is Roaring Penguin 3.2-3.

Most of the time, it works without problems.
Every now and then, though, the whole system freezes
up solid, and I have to reboot via the on/off switch
(the box it's on doesn't have a reset button that I can find.)

It used to be a frequent problem. I then set up a weekly job
that bounces the system, and the problem mostly went away, but
it still crops up every now and then. This past Sunday
(right after a weekly reboot), it froze up twice in a row.
(adsl-start, freeze, reboot, adsl-start, freeze, reboot.)

I have 2 NIC's, one of which is directly connected to the
DSL modem, the other is connected to a Switch to connect to
2 other boxes, but they've been shut down (turned off) lately.

For what it's worth, I only bring up the DSL connection (i.e.,
PPPoE) when I want to connect to the network, and I shut down
PPPoE when I'm done.

Also, when the system freezes up, it won't respond to:
-- ctrl-alt-delete
-- connections via the NIC
-- the serial port.
-- unplugging the network cables.


I am not running X when it freezes up -- I log in without
X running, then start PPPoE using "adsl-start", then run "xinit"
to start up X. If it's going to freeze up, it's before the
"adsl-start" script finishes.

(I used to run the command from X, but decided to eliminate the
possibly confounding influence of the X server.)


Any ideas what's going on? A known problem?


BTW, I've had this problem on two Linux boxes. My other
Linux box has a mix of SuSE 6.2 and 7.1; when I posted
my problem here, everyone blamed the non-standard installation.
But the installation on this box is, AFAIK, pretty much plain
vanilla RH 7.2 (my company did the install, they just handed
me the box with everything loaded.)



Alan McKenney
(alan_mckenney1@yahoo.com)

On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 19:21:58 -0800, Alan McKenney wrote:

> I am using Verizon DSL on a RedHat 7.2 installation.
> The PPPoE is Roaring Penguin 3.2-3.
>
> Most of the time, it works without problems.
> Every now and then, though, the whole system freezes
> up solid, and I have to reboot via the on/off switch
> (the box it's on doesn't have a reset button that I can find.)
>
> It used to be a frequent problem. I then set up a weekly job
> that bounces the system, and the problem mostly went away, but
> it still crops up every now and then. This past Sunday
> (right after a weekly reboot), it froze up twice in a row.
> (adsl-start, freeze, reboot, adsl-start, freeze, reboot.)
>
> I have 2 NIC's, one of which is directly connected to the
> DSL modem, the other is connected to a Switch to connect to
> 2 other boxes, but they've been shut down (turned off) lately.
>
> For what it's worth, I only bring up the DSL connection (i.e.,
> PPPoE) when I want to connect to the network, and I shut down
> PPPoE when I'm done.
>
> Also, when the system freezes up, it won't respond to:
> -- ctrl-alt-delete
> -- connections via the NIC
> -- the serial port.
> -- unplugging the network cables.
>
>
> I am not running X when it freezes up -- I log in without
> X running, then start PPPoE using "adsl-start", then run "xinit"
> to start up X. If it's going to freeze up, it's before the
> "adsl-start" script finishes.
>
> (I used to run the command from X, but decided to eliminate the
> possibly confounding influence of the X server.)
>
>
> Any ideas what's going on? A known problem?
>
>
> BTW, I've had this problem on two Linux boxes. My other
> Linux box has a mix of SuSE 6.2 and 7.1; when I posted
> my problem here, everyone blamed the non-standard installation.
> But the installation on this box is, AFAIK, pretty much plain
> vanilla RH 7.2 (my company did the install, they just handed
> me the box with everything loaded.)
>
>
>
> Alan McKenney
> (alan_mckenney1@yahoo.com)


Shot in the dark: Are you using the pppoe kernel drivers? If so, disable
them

"joseph philip" <joseph@nntp.will.suffice> wrote in message news:<pan.2003.11.13.05.23.32.107016@nntp.will.suf fice>...
> On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 19:21:58 -0800, Alan McKenney wrote:
>
> > I am using Verizon DSL on a RedHat 7.2 installation.
> > The PPPoE is Roaring Penguin 3.2-3.
> >
> > Most of the time, it works without problems.
> > Every now and then, though, the whole system freezes
> > up solid, and I have to reboot via the on/off switch
> > (the box it's on doesn't have a reset button that I can find.)
> >
<snip>
>
>
> Shot in the dark: Are you using the pppoe kernel drivers? If so, disable
> them

According to the configuration in /usr/src/linux (kernel 2.4.7),
the kernel PPPOE support is experimental, and not enabled.


Alan McKenney (alan_mckenney@yahoo.com)