Ubuntu Feisty and above will not allow use of ECC

wpshooter

Golden Member
Mar 9, 2004
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I have 2 computers which are utilizing ASUS motherboards (P4C800 Deluxe & P4C800-E Deluxe) both of which will give a constant system speaker BEEPING sound when I try to either run the Live CD or install any version of Ubuntu at and above Feisty. This also occurs if I try to use the ALTERNATE CD version of either Feisty or Gutsy. I can install either Dapper or Edgy on both of these machines with no such problem.

What I had to wind up doing was to go into BIOS and disable the ECC memory setting. As soon as I did that, I can run or install either version just fine, i.e. no BEEPING.

I also have 2 other computers one of which has an ASUS P4G8X Deluxe motherboard and the other one having an MSI MS-6341 motherboard. Both of these machines are capable of running ECC memory, which I AM doing. But on both of these machines I do NOT have to disable the ECC memory setting in order to run Ubuntu Feisty or Gutsy.

The only possible reason that I can think of that may explain this difference is that the machines with the P4C800 motherboards are dual channel whereas the other 2 older motherboard machines are not.

Does anyone have a feeling as to whether the DUAL CHANNEL is the root cause of this problem or does it lay elsewhere and if so, any ideas as to what it might be.

Is it possible that there is something that needs to be corrected in the kernel that is being used in the Feisty and Gutsy versions ?

I have posed this question on the Ubuntu forums but so far I have had a lot of views but no takers.

Thanks.
 

Nothinman

Elite Member
Sep 14, 2001
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I wouldn't think that the kernel would know anything about whether ECC is enabled or not, except maybe for the MCE and EDAC reporting stuff. How far does the CD get into the boot process?
 

wpshooter

Golden Member
Mar 9, 2004
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Originally posted by: Nothinman
I wouldn't think that the kernel would know anything about whether ECC is enabled or not, except maybe for the MCE and EDAC reporting stuff. How far does the CD get into the boot process?

If I am doing the Live CD the BEEPING is CONSTANT. I can get all the way to the desktop and can do whatever I want, but I just get the beeping continually.

I also get the beeping and constantly repetitive system log error message if and when I open the terminal.

I can actually go thru the entire installation process of the O/S to the hard drive but I am getting the beeping thoughout the entirety of the installation process. Sort of hard on the nerves and blood pressure !!!

The initial beeping starts when the progress bar for loading either the live CD or the installed O/S gets to about the 3/4 mark.

Someone already suggested to me blacklisting edac. I tried this and it made no difference.

HELP.

Thanks.

 

Nothinman

Elite Member
Sep 14, 2001
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In the GRUB menu remove the 'quiet splash' entries and see if you can tell what happens when the beeping starts.
 

wpshooter

Golden Member
Mar 9, 2004
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Originally posted by: Nothinman
In the GRUB menu remove the 'quiet splash' entries and see if you can tell what happens when the beeping starts.

Will try that tonight and will let you know tomorrow what I find out.

Thanks.
 

wpshooter

Golden Member
Mar 9, 2004
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Originally posted by: sciencewhiz
what errors do you get on the terminal?


something about system log and it mentions something about offset but it just keeps repeating over and over again until I close the terminal.

See Ubuntu bug report 113793.

Thanks.
 

sciencewhiz

Diamond Member
Jun 30, 2000
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After looking at the Ubuntu bug report, the problem appears to be occuring in the EDAC module. The website for that project is here: http://bluesmoke.sourceforge.net/

Your gigabyte board appears to have a Intel e7205 chipset while the MSI has an AMD 761 chipset. Neither appear to be officially supported in EDAC.

You are right that this is a kernel issue. EDAC was added in kernel 2.6.16 (fiesty uses 2.6.20 and edgy uses 2.6.17). It is probable that EDAC wasn't enabled in edgy but was for fiesty.

An easy way to get rid of the errors would be to remove the EDAC module "sudo rmmod edac".

For a longer term solution, you should contact the EDAC developers. It's unlikely that the any Ubuntu Developer would know anything about EDAC. Once the EDAC developers make a fix, then update the Ubuntu bug report with a patch, and it might have a chance of being applied.
 

wpshooter

Golden Member
Mar 9, 2004
1,662
5
81
Originally posted by: sciencewhiz
After looking at the Ubuntu bug report, the problem appears to be occuring in the EDAC module. The website for that project is here: http://bluesmoke.sourceforge.net/

Your gigabyte board appears to have a Intel e7205 chipset while the MSI has an AMD 761 chipset. Neither appear to be officially supported in EDAC.

You are right that this is a kernel issue. EDAC was added in kernel 2.6.16 (fiesty uses 2.6.20 and edgy uses 2.6.17). It is probable that EDAC wasn't enabled in edgy but was for fiesty.

An easy way to get rid of the errors would be to remove the EDAC module "sudo rmmod edac".

For a longer term solution, you should contact the EDAC developers. It's unlikely that the any Ubuntu Developer would know anything about EDAC. Once the EDAC developers make a fix, then update the Ubuntu bug report with a patch, and it might have a chance of being applied.

The motherboard was an ASUS not gigabyte but thanks for your reply.

I will look into your suggestions.

 

wpshooter

Golden Member
Mar 9, 2004
1,662
5
81
Originally posted by: sciencewhiz
After looking at the Ubuntu bug report, the problem appears to be occuring in the EDAC module. The website for that project is here: http://bluesmoke.sourceforge.net/

Your gigabyte board appears to have a Intel e7205 chipset while the MSI has an AMD 761 chipset. Neither appear to be officially supported in EDAC.

You are right that this is a kernel issue. EDAC was added in kernel 2.6.16 (fiesty uses 2.6.20 and edgy uses 2.6.17). It is probable that EDAC wasn't enabled in edgy but was for fiesty.

An easy way to get rid of the errors would be to remove the EDAC module "sudo rmmod edac".

For a longer term solution, you should contact the EDAC developers. It's unlikely that the any Ubuntu Developer would know anything about EDAC. Once the EDAC developers make a fix, then update the Ubuntu bug report with a patch, and it might have a chance of being applied.

sudo rmmod edac - returns

module edac does not exist in /proc/modules

Thanks.
 

wpshooter

Golden Member
Mar 9, 2004
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81
AND strangely enough, I just turned the ECC bios setting back on when rebooting the machine and now I do NOT get the BEEPING during boot as I did when initially running the live CD and during the hard drive install of the O/S BUT I do still get the BEEPING plus the error messages when I open the terminal.

Then I went back and turned it OFF again and now the terminal works fine.

Thanks.
 

norsk

Junior Member
Aug 14, 2007
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0
Hello, this is doug thompson. I received an email that you were having possible EDAC issues.

EDAC modules names for kernels 2.6.16 to 2.6.22 are 'edac_mc.ko' for the core module and 'XXX_edac.ko' where XXX is the low level driver name.

a quick alias I have is alias lsedac='lsmod | grep edac' which will display all EDAC modules loaded

then you can do a 'rmmod XXX_edac' following by a 'rmmod edac_mc'

I would like to see the output of the following commands:

uname -a
lspci -vvv

also 'grep EDAC /var/log/messages'

you can post here or email to me at dougthompson@xmission.com

the Intel e7205 board should be covered by one of the e7xxxx drivers,

I will be glad to help to fix this

doug thompson

 

skyking

Lifer
Nov 21, 2001
22,704
5,824
146
Originally posted by: norsk
Hello, this is doug thompson. I received an email that you were having possible EDAC issues.

EDAC modules names for kernels 2.6.16 to 2.6.22 are 'edac_mc.ko' for the core module and 'XXX_edac.ko' where XXX is the low level driver name.

a quick alias I have is alias lsedac='lsmod | grep edac' which will display all EDAC modules loaded

then you can do a 'rmmod XXX_edac' following by a 'rmmod edac_mc'

I would like to see the output of the following commands:

uname -a
lspci -vvv

also 'grep EDAC /var/log/messages'

you can post here or email to me at dougthompson@xmission.com

the Intel e7205 board should be covered by one of the e7xxxx drivers,

I will be glad to help to fix this

doug thompson

Welcome, Doug:)