[asterisk-users] Multiple cards using same IRQ - getting IRQ errors and hissing

[Dean Hoover]

Sorry for the delay, but I wanted to give everybody an update on this.

Upgrading the BIOS on the HP ML110 G6, and also dahdi-linux to the
latest and greatest, seemed to have solved the problem.  Not a single
IRQ issue over the last three weeks.

The hissing problem we were having was more related to customer error;
half not getting the whole story from the beginning, and half me not
asking the right questions.

I set up Asterisk and phones here in Wisconsin, but had someone in our
hardware department in Florida handle setup and changing to Polycom IP
phones.  We gave them suggestions for what type of headsets to use,
but they decided to go on the cheap and use the old headsets that they
were using from the old switch, and simply replace the plugin so that
it would work on the Polycom phones.

Long story short, the old headsets didn't have any echo-cancellation
technology, and the hissing problem only seemed to occur when they
were on the headsets.  Upgrading to the new headsets solved the
hissing problem.

Thanks to everyone for the assistance.

Dean
Milwaukee, WI


On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 2:32 PM, Dean Hoover <kb7qdi at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm going to upgrade the BIOS and update dahdi to the latest and greatest first.
>
> I did look at the link you sent when I first started this mission.  It
> was the basis of me looking at using ACPI to get the IRQs to change.
>
> My maintenance window is tomorrow, so I'll let anyone who's interested
> know what happened.
>
> Dean
>
> On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 2:31 AM, Johan Wilfer <lists at jttech.se> wrote:
>> On 2011-05-03 16:32, Dean Hoover wrote:
>>>
>>> I am running Asterisk 1.16.2.13, dahdi 2.4.0 and libpri 1.4.11.4 on an
>>> HP ML110 G6 using Ubuntu Linux 10.04 LTS.
>>>
>>> I have two Digium TE121 single T1 port cards and a Digium AEX800
>>> 8-port FXS card.  All PCI Express cards.
>>>
>>> Co-workers are hearing hissing sounds on some calls, and I am getting
>>> IRQ errors when running "dahdi show status".
>>>
>>> I see that sharing IRQs for Digium cards isn't recommended, so I'm
>>> trying to set it so each card gets its own.  From the few web sites
>>> I've read so far, including Digium's FAQ site, I've added ACPI and
>>> verified that the BIOS does not give me the ability to manually set
>>> the IRQ.  I've even taken one of the TE121's out of the server (it
>>> isn't being used anyways).  Everything I've done so far has not fixed
>>> it.  All the cards (as well as USB1) all use IRQ 16.
>>>
>>> The other option given was to use setpci, but I am unfamiliar with
>>> that command.  I did what I could to try and find the setting (based
>>> on what the man page on Ubuntu's web site) where I could see the value
>>> 16, but not getting anywhere.
>>>
>>> I know that this is more of an Asterisk forum than Digium.  If I need
>>> to put in a case at Digium I will, but wanted to see if there were any
>>> suggestions here before I pursued that.
>>>
>>> Any help would be appreciated.
>>>
>>> Dean Hoover
>>>
>>
>> A month ago I had similar problems with a HP DL360g6 and a HP DL380g7
>> running Debian 5 "Lenny".
>> In the HP DL360g6 I had one TE121. I noticed IRQ misses and the problem was
>> easily reproduced
>> by running dahdi_maint to enable loopback and patlooptest while compiling
>> asterisk to create some i/o.
>>
>> When I installed Debian 6 "Squeeze" instead the problem went away. Tested
>> with both servers above.
>> On this page I found some information about APIC (Advanced Programmable
>> Interupt Controller)
>> http://www.asteriskguru.com/tutorials/pci_irq_apic_tdm_ticks_te410p_te405p_noise.html
>> (quite old but informative)
>>
>> I haven't got the time to verify the root cause of the problem yet (I've
>> planned to do this at the end of this month)
>> but my theory is that it has something to do with the kernels APIC handling
>> that was fixed between Debian 5 and 6.
>>
>> Maybe you experience something similar?
>>
>> /Johan
>>
>> --
>> Johan Wilfer                 email: johan at jttech.se
>> JT Tech | Utvecklare         webb: http://jttech.se
>> direkt: +46 31 380 91 01  support: +46 31 380 91 00
>>
>>
>> --
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>