Troubleshooting apcupsd with USB

mmarkin · n00b Joined: 13 Dec 2003 Posts: 43

Thanks for the reply, whiskeypriest. I haven't put much time into this yet (busy) but it seems like there is a problem with the slave client - the slave sees the master just fine, but the master doesn't see the slave. Probably something silly like mismatching versions of software. I'll let you know what the problem is once I get around to a full investigation.

Thanks

Mikhail

don quixada · l33t Joined: 15 May 2003 Posts: 790

I just installed apcups (v3.10.15-r1) and I noticed an error in the /etc/apcupsd/apcupsd.conf file. Where it says:

Kai Hvatum · Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2005 7:59 am Post subject:

Sorry for threadjacking but I've one question of you power supply sages - Does Apcups work correctly with a headless server?

I have namely an ES 650VA which I'd like to setup with my server here in Missouri. The summer has given nothing but a never ending series of brownouts and I'd rather not worry about the B-Tree on my one terrabyte array being wiped out. I see there are a number of asthetic annoyances listed in this thread but I'm only concerend that the computer will succesfully shutdown and complete all outstanding hard drive commits.
_________________
Still using Gentoo, just too busy for forums these days.

mmarkin · n00b Joined: 13 Dec 2003 Posts: 43

I am running Apcupsd on a headless P3 666 Dell Optiplex. It is conveniently placed in one cart-like mini-table with the UPS (APC BackUPS RX1000), router, modem, printer, etc.

_________________
MIKHAIL MARKIN
http://www.mikhailmarkin.com

Austin Wang · n00b Joined: 28 Jul 2005 Posts: 3

I recently installed a UPS XS battery backup on a dual pentium 3 server. I reconfigured my kernel with the USB configuration stated in the guide. After I emerged apcupsd, everything worked fine. I pulled the plug and the system shutdown correctly. I didn't bother with any acpi or apm stuff, since all that really mattered to me was the drives unmount before the battery runs out, which they do.

However, my kernel has become unstable now and will crash after a variable period of time, generally a few hours. It will show a screen with a whole bunch of 8 digit hex codes and then a message saying:

unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address e0000000
printing eip:
c0151797

I dont have modules enabled in this kernel and I didn't set up hotplug into the kernel. The kernel version is 2.4.28r9. Everything is updated. Here is some hardware information:
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
0000:00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
0000:00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

ectospasm

Austin Wang · n00b Joined: 28 Jul 2005 Posts: 3

I'm helping to maintain a cluster right now and it would be a hassle to update all the nodes and software to be compatible with kernel 2.6, not to mention a lot of money, so I'd like to avoid that if possible. I noticed in the guide by whiskypriest that USB should be loaded as a module so I think I'll try that first. If anyone still knows how to fix the kernel panic problem please post anyway.

Thanks,
Austin

mrsastro · Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 8:32 am Post subject: thanks

Thanks much for the excellent HOWTO. I emerged apcupsd-3.10.18-r1 on my AMD64 system (quad Opteron on a Tyan S4882-D, 2.6.15-gentoo-r5 kernel) and in almost no time at all had my APC Smart-UPS 1500VA under the control of apcupsd. And much to my pleasant surprise (based on the posts herein), after pulling the UPS plug from the wall my UPS powered down automatically (after my system halted). I plugged the UPS back into the mains, my UPS powered back up again, and then my system powered back up as well. My thanks to you for writing this guide, and to everyone who pushed the upgrades of apcupsd along so that I could experience such a trouble-free installation.

skwang · Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 3:21 am Post subject:

I am having the problem that apcupsd does not actually power off the computer, nor does it turn off the UPS.

First the hardware and software:

After reading the Wiki HOWTO and seting up apcupsd on my computer I managed to get the daemon to run and communicating with the UPS. What doesn't work is when I do the full power down test. I set the TIMEOUT in /etc/apcupsd/apcupsd.conf to 120 seconds and then pull the power plug of the UPS from the socket. I tail -f /var/log/apcupsd.events to watch what happens. After two minutes the UPS begins the shutdown sequence. I get to "system halted" but the power doesn't turn off, and the UPS does not turn off either. I also get someerror messages.
[These don't appear in any logs so I scribbed down the pertinent parts and and writing this from memory.]

dashnu · l33t Joined: 21 Jul 2004 Posts: 703 Location: Casco Maine

I posted in the original topic going to try here in hopes to get some more traction.

platojones wrote:

fbarton · n00b Joined: 08 Aug 2006 Posts: 1

I've gotten apcupsd working nicely with my APC Back-UPS CS 350 using USB, however I'm having one little problem:

When I power on my machine, the UPS is not detected until I unplug, and then re-plug it in via UPS (it's not listed in /proc/bus/usb/devices, and apcupsd doesn't start) (I am using the APC provided cable, plugged directly into the computer)

I use coldplug on boot, and have usbhid listed in my modules.autoload file

lsmod before and after unplugging and replugging shows no difference

The obvious workaround is to unplug it, replug it, zap and then start apcupsd every time the server comes up.

Does anybody have any ideas what I could do to fix this?

skwang · Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 9:44 pm Post subject:

@fbarton

Stupid question for you. You are starting apcupsd on startup right? That is you've set:

tp11235 · n00b Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Posts: 35 Location: England

I have been getting some help on another thread but now I'm stuck so I thought I'd come to the experts.

I installed the apcupsd software, no problem. When I start it with "/etc/init.d/apcupsd start" I get an [ok] report.
However, the log (apcupsd.events) shows this:

Sun Oct 08 16:11:27 GMT 2006 apcupsd error shutdown completed
Sun Oct 08 16:12:54 GMT 2006 apcupsd FATAL ERROR in linux-usb.c at line 597
Cannot find UPS device --
For a link to detailed USB trouble shooting information,
please see <http://www.apcupsd.com/support.html>.
Sun Oct 08 16:12:55 GMT 2006 apcupsd error shutdown completed

The USB system seems to recognise the UPS, this is what I get from

cat /proc/bus/usb/devices

T: Bus=02 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=01 Cnt=01 Dev#= 4 Spd=1.5 MxCh= 0
D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=051d ProdID=0002 Rev= 0.06
S: Manufacturer=American Power Conversion
S: Product=Back-UPS CS 500 FW:808.q5.I USB FW:q5
S: SerialNumber=BB0529020096
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr= 0mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=03(HID ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=(none)
E: Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 6 Ivl=100ms

I tried the suggested link for advice, but the webpage was no longer available.

I followed the advice in WhiskeyPriest's HOW-To and unplugged and replugged the cable and my main system log showed this:

Oct 8 16:28:47 [kernel] usb 2-2: USB disconnect, address 4
Oct 8 16:29:44 [kernel] ohci_hcd 0000:00:10.0: wakeup
Oct 8 16:29:44 [kernel] usb 2-2: new low speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 5
Oct 8 16:29:45 [kernel] usb 2-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice

There is a DEVICE setting in the apcupsd.conf file and I have tried many variations on /dev/bus/usb etc but to no avail. Whiskeypriest said his was commented out for autodetection, but this does not work either.

Any ideas?

Cheers

Tim.

tp11235 · n00b Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Posts: 35 Location: England

The system is working perfectly now.

I checked out the documentation at:
http://www.apcupsd.org/

I cannot find the precise place again, but I got a hint that the UPS daemon treats the UPS as a USB HID (Human Interface Device). I have no USB mouse or keyboard on my server so I had excluded the support for HID from the kernel.

As soon as put it back in the daemon worked perfectly.

In summary: make sure that USB support is compiled into the daemon when you build it then make sure you have USB HID support in the kernel. After that just follow WhiskeyPriest's HOW-TO.

Cheers

Tim.