Messages in this thread | | | Date | Sat, 25 Jul 1998 18:27:17 -0400 (EDT) | From | "Mike A. Harris" <> | Subject | Kernel lockups with 2.0.3x |
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I am having aggravation extrodinaire from a lockup problem right now, and have no idea where to even begin tracking the problem down.
I am using Kernel 2.0.35 right now, but the same trouble happens whatever kernel I'm using, at least 2.0.3x anyways. I am using a stock 2.0.35 kernel, and have SCSI emulation enabled so I can use my CD writer. I also have IP masq compiled in, and all the necessary stuff for that, and PLIP to work, etc... I've been using this setup for quite some time now with no trouble.
I can leave my system up for days, even weeks on end with no trouble, however, once I start up X, that is when the trouble starts - well... maybe.. maybe not... I have used X for 3 days straight and not had a lockup or screwup. But now and then, I get a number of freezups. At first, they were fixable by shutting down X and restarting, now my system goes totally dead.
My screen screws up the display by shifting everything to the left or right and/or blacks out part of the screen, and freezes solid. No response from the keyboard, or anything else. A background file copy from mc on a console, also stopped making noise. I must assume that the machine totally locked. There is nothing written about the incident in any of the files under /var/log.
Also, just prior to that, I was using "mc" on a console, and it wasn't functioning properly. I was in one FTP site (site.a.com) and then disconnected from there and connected to site 2 (site.b.com), then I went in a few directories deep, and then when I hit ".." to go back a dir, it said at the bottom of the screen, "connecting to site.a.com", "reading dir", then it displayed site *2*'s directory? I don't know if this is an mc bug or a kernel bug, but it was very strange. Then a few seconds later, mc failed to work properly, and I had to kill it from another VC. After I killed it, I could not fire it up again. When I typed mc, I would get a black clear screen, with a spinner in the upper right, then nothing. I had to kill it again from another vc. I killed it, went in /tmp, deleted all mc temp files, and tried again - nothing. I figured that I'd try rebooting and restarting "mc" (ala windows95) as that has worked before for some strange reason. I figured I'd check my telnet session in X first and log out. When I switched to X, that is when the screen twisted, displayed a screwed up KDE desktop, and then locked hard.
I tried to telnet in from my 486 over PLIP, and couldn't connect. No ping either.
I was very upset, as I lost a great deal of work that I was working on. No drive corruption luckily (at least not ext2, I haven't tested my fat32 or FAT drives yet).
I realize that this is a problem with either X, the kernel, both, perhaps even a hardware problem. I'd like to do whatever I can to try and help someone (Alan?) pinpoint what is causeing this problem. If someone could give me a troubleshooting checklist, or list of programs to run in sequence or parallel, or whatever, I'd be more than happy to try and lock my machine in a replicable way to pinpoint the trouble. It would be time well spent, thats for sure.
I'm becoming *scared* of doing serious work in X now, or even if X is just running, because it might lock up Linux. That was unheard of to me a year ago.
Any suggestions, comments, flames? Feel free.
Take care everyone, and keep up the great work! Long live linux!
-- Mike A. Harris - Computer Consultant - Linux advocate
Escape from the confines of Microsoft's operating systems and push your PC to it's limits with LINUX - a real OS. http://www.redhat.com
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