[ILUG] weird linux problem - timer interrupt dies?

[Paul Kelly]

kevin lyda wrote:

> someone passed this problem along.  weird error, never seen anything
> like it.  anyone have a clue?  mail him if so, but cc it here i'd love
> to know what to do in this situation.


Probably some sort of dodgy APIC issue. I've got one SMP board here, an 
Intel PR440FX, which has very odd APIC problems with 2.4 kernels. 2.2 
kernels didn't try to use the IO APIC for the timer interrupt. 2.4 
kernels do, with odd results. They pick up interrupts from one of my PCI 
slots (with an ethernet card) as if they were from the timer, so 
depending network load, the system time can race ahead at incredible 
speed. More than NTP can cope with.

Best suggestion, try the 'noapic' kernel boot parameter.

Paul.