[Bug 34958] IRQ 11 disabled, no network, desktop / kernel freeze

[Fabián Rodríguez]

Public bug reported:
https://launchpad.net/malone/bugs/34958

Affects: linux-source-2.6.15 linux-image-2.6.15-18-386 (Ubuntu)
       Severity: Normal
       Priority: (none set)
         Status: Unconfirmed

Description:
I am using Dapper FL5, latest upgrades applied, kernel 2.6.15-18 (-k7 or
-386) on an Averatec 3250-HX1 laptop with mobile AMD Athlon(tm) XP-M
(LV) 2200+ processor.

Problem: Ubuntu desktop does not have network functionality, system
hangs completely when attempting dhclient from command line (becomes
unresponsive, can't access a console via Ctrl-Alt-F1, can't restart GDM
via Ctrl-Alt-Backspace) or trying to reactivate the eth0 interface via
System > Amdministration > Networking.

This worked fine in previous Ubuntu version (5.10). Ethernet controller
is VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 74) as reported by
lspci.

When booting in recovery mode, networking works fine, that's how I was
able to apt-get update / upgrade.

I tested using -k7 -386 kernels with the same results.

When checking the dmesg output of a normal boot (not recovery), I see this:
[4294703.809000] irq 11: nobody cared (try booting with the "irqpoll" option)

I tried the irqpoll option in the boot options but the system hangs
before getting to gdm, with continuous HD activity.

I also found this in dmesg:
[4294703.809000] Disabling IRQ #11

Searching with different terms in Google ("Disabling IRQ #11", "irq 11:
nobody cared") this seems to be reported in other distributions and may
be related to ACPI. A closer example from the Averatec forums lists a
possible workaround which I haven't tried, as I haven't had time to do
it:

http://averatecforums.com/showthread.php?t=2166&page=3

I am attaching different commands output for -k7 kernel normal and
recovery boot.