Frustration with GCC

unprompted · n00b Joined: 20 Jul 2002 Posts: 5

One of my computers is giving me excessively frustrating problems, and I've run out of ideas on how to deal with it.

When I first installed gentoo 1.2 on it a couple of months ago, everything went fine, except for one strange problem. KDE failed to compile with an internal compiler error (signal 11, if I recall correctly). I found that when I tried to emerge kde again, it got further, and with more repetition, it eventually installed all of the kde packages. Once or twice while updating mozilla, I had similar problems. This was a tad irritating, but I've been able to live with it.

I've tried all different kinds of CFLAGS trying to achieve some consistent success...everything from the default ones which seem rather conservative to -O1 -mcpu=i386 to -O3 -march=i686 for fun. Nothing seems to change.

Through all of this, everything that's installed has essentially been very stable.

Recently, I figured I'd upgrade to 1.4-RC1. GCC has new -mcpu type for my Athlon XP processor, so I figured it might be more appropriate. The upgrade failed. GCC 3.2 wouldn't compile in step 2, with an error referring to undefined symbols named ".L" followed by various three or four digit numbers. I started from scratch, wiped out hard drive space, and started a fresh install of gentoo 1.4-RC1. I tried from all three stages. I got more undefined .L* symbols, I got GCC dying with weird signals, and on occasion, it would seem to be compiling a single file for hours with no progress.

I threw the hard drive in another computer, finished the install, and put it back. I've been able to install most of what I need now on my computer in question. It's doing everything I want with my mail, X works, mplayer works... Some things that refuse to install include mozilla and kde, which give me errors similar to those above.

The troublesome computer has an Athlon XP 1700+ processor with 265MB of RAM. I stripped its hardware down to a bare minimum at one point, and never saw a difference. memtest hasn't found any errors, and I tried different memory at one point. I've installed Gentoo on different hard drives with the same results.

I've installed Gentoo on two other computers without any problems even remotely like this. I make mistakes, but I'm not aware of any that I've made with this computer that could possibly cause this.

I just installed FreeBSD 4.7 on the computer to see if it would have any problems installing the programs that give it trouble with Gentoo. It went without flaw (kde and mozilla installed without hesitation), but it used GCC 2.95.4, which I used with neither Gentoo 1.2 or 1.4-RC1. Unfortunately, FreeBSD is out of the question, because I need nvidia drivers.

Google searches have turned up nothing. I've asked a lot of people with out any success. Please help me.

brain · Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2002 7:17 pm Post subject:

If it wasn't for FreeBSD installing without a hitch, i'd lead you to a couple of different paths to explore..

I have an older Athlon T-Bird 1.3 that just would complain and moan while I'd be installing Gentoo on it. I finally figured it was nothing I was doing, and bought a monster heatsink (one of those monster 1lb. Swiftech copper reserves) and the problems went away like magic.

A few months later, I was having problems again. This time it was happening all the time, not just in Gentoo either (in Slack as well). I replaced the motherboard, memory, and even the processor. Finally out of desperation, I replaced the case fearing more heat problems.

That did it. Confused over the heat problems (the BIOS was reporting approximately the same temps as before), I realized the only factor that was different was the power supply. Out of curiosity, I replaced the new high-quality 400W that came with the new case with the 400W unit out of my old one. Blammmo...problems returned.

So, I'd suggest you take a look at those two things after you've exhausted other more obvious ones. It sure burned me out of unnecessary $$$.
_________________
--brain

klieber · Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2002 7:21 pm Post subject:

Your plight sounds similar to mine. Any chance you're using a KT333 chipset and/or a 120GB hard drive? I've never been able to get 1.4 to install on that computer, though it's installed flawlessly on 3 others.

I've concluded that it's an incompatibility of some sort with GCC and the KT333 chipset or some other component I have in my system. I haven't had the time or inclination to do much other troubleshooting of late, so I haven't made much progress.

--kurt
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The problem with political jokes is that they get elected

brain · Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2002 7:25 pm Post subject:

unprompted · n00b Joined: 20 Jul 2002 Posts: 5

My motherboard is an MSI K7T 266Pro2, and yes, it uses a VIA chipset - KT266A/VT8233.

The BIOS is up-to-date.

The hard drive is an 80GB drive. I got the same thing from a 27GB drive.

It has a 350W Enermax power supply.

I'm skeptical, of course, of calling it a hardware or heat problem, because it's so isolated to compilations. If it were such a hardware problem, I'd expect fatal problems that take the whole computer down. I just stumbled upon cpuburn. I'll play with that for a while.

I'm so confused. If I have to, I will just run Gentoo on a different computer, but this is so bizarre...what can be done about it in general?

klieber · Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2002 9:46 pm Post subject:

At least on my computer, it's not a heat problem -- I was able to install WinXP and run a cpu burn type of program for 12 hours without any problems.

I can, however, believe that it's a power problem, because my system does have quite a few components -- 4 PCI cards, 2x120GBx7200RPM drives, DVD, CD-RW, Athlon XP (power hog), 1GB RAM and a bunch of fans. All those things add up and compiling is one of the few things that would use all/most of them at the same time, meaning it places a higher draw on the PSU.

--kurt
_________________
The problem with political jokes is that they get elected

brain · Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2002 10:04 pm Post subject:

brain · Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2002 10:07 pm Post subject:

klieber · Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2002 10:09 pm Post subject:

Did you guys have an above number of components sucking power off of your systems? If not, then I'm more likely to suspect the chipset.

--kurt
_________________
The problem with political jokes is that they get elected

brain · Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2002 10:12 pm Post subject:

Curious · Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2002 11:39 pm Post subject: Re: Frustration with GCC

klieber · Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2002 11:46 pm Post subject: Re: Frustration with GCC

unprompted · n00b Joined: 20 Jul 2002 Posts: 5

I disabled cache WriteBack (It's mentioned briefly on that SIG11 page), and emerge mozilla has been chugging along longer than I ever remember it. I'll post new of my success and an enthusiastic exclamation of joy or continued frustration when it comes to a conclusion.

unprompted · n00b Joined: 20 Jul 2002 Posts: 5

Wahoo! It looks like that did the trick! THANKS A TON!

Holger · n00b Joined: 30 Oct 2002 Posts: 1

hi,

i had similar problems (compiling kdebase, qt and mozilla didn't work due to internal gcc error). it might be a overheating cpu. i've tested the cpu with repeated kernel-compiling and bingo -> compiler error. BUT the kernel-compiling did work for more than 40 hours, the former compiler errrors occured on first try. i'm using a pentium III 800 mhz with via chipset.

any ideas how to reduce the cpu usage by software ? i don't want to buy new hardware and my only idea is to reduce the frequenzy.

greetings holger

klieber · Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2002 7:23 pm Post subject: Re: sig11 with gcc

phong · Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2002 8:57 pm Post subject:

I had a lot of trouble with gcc crashing when I first tried installing Gentoo on my Athlon-tbird 1.2Ghz. I also had a couple other problems I had been having for a really long time and never had tracked down. Some of them were very strange - the system wouldn't boot reliably if it was warm (on for more than, say 15 minutes) AND there was a SCSI card in it (this was true with 4 different SCSI cards I'd tried - two different PCI Adaptec cards, a Tekram PCI card, and a off-brand ISA card) - though it wasn't particularly unstable once it booted.

I was fairly sure it was either a PS or mobo issue because I had previously tried swapping out just about everything else to solve that SCSI problem with no luck. Eventually I tried setting the CPU to 12x100 instead of its rated 9x133, and all the problems (including the SCSI problem and the gcc problem) vanished without a trace. I haven't bothered to nail down the culprit because my system isn't actually running so much slower that it would be worth the time/money/effort. Even Windoze is more stable since the change.

It seems to me, that the three best stress tests for computer stability are:
1) Compiling mozilla
2) Compiling KDE
3) Bootstrapping gcc

I don't know why those particular activites should be any more strenuous on hardware than anything else CPU and memory intensive, but it seems that they are.
_________________
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klieber · Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2002 12:58 pm Post subject: Re: sig11 with gcc

sgaap · Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2002 3:49 pm Post subject:

Same problems here, I was just preparing to run memtest

I've got a via kt133a with a tbird 1ghz and gcc gives a lot of internal compiler errors (besides X, the rest of my system runs smooth and stable), I just went down from 133/133 (mem/cpuclk) to 100/100 and while this improves my stability it doesnt fix the "internal compiler" error completly (still not able to compile kdelibs) my first guess was overheated cache on the cpu but I still think it maybe one of my RAM strips

I do have added an extra 80gb disk (total: 3) just before (a month or so) the problems started, so it could be my powersupply (350watt antec)