Freeze (Black Screen) on startup/shutdown

mcarle1 · 02-18-2007, 12:47 AM

I have recently upgraded a computer from FC3 to FC6. Under FC3 I would occasionally get a lock up on shutdown where the screen would go black with green spots on it (mainly black). This only happened once every couple of months however.

After upgrading to FC6, I am having the same thing happening, but it is much more frequent and happens on both startup and shutdown. I would say this occurs about 1 in 2 startup/shutdown cycles.

The computer is a P4 3GHz with a GeForce FX 5600. At this point I was using the Nvidia 8776 driver (prior to the reinstall, I was using 7667).

I have tried updating to the latest nvidia driver version (9746), but now the same thing happens except the screen in completely back - no more green spots.

I also disabled graphical boot, which stopped the freezes on startup, but the shutdown ones continue.

It seems to me to be related to the video card, but I don't really know. The system is rock solid once it is up and running.

I would be very grateful if anyone has any ideas. Here are the relevant bits of /var/log/messages showing where it dies:

On startup:

Code:

...
Jan 14 10:31:07 mythtv avahi-daemon[2706]: Registering HINFO record with values 'I686'/'LINUX'.
Jan 14 10:31:08 mythtv avahi-daemon[2706]: Server startup complete. Host name is mythtv.local. Local service cookie is 2604709120.
Jan 14 10:31:09 mythtv avahi-daemon[2706]: Service "SFTP File Transfer on mythtv" (/services/sftp-ssh.service) successfully established.
Jan 14 10:31:13 mythtv lircd-0.8.1-CVS[2807]: lircd(userspace) ready
Jan 14 10:31:14 mythtv smartd[2825]: smartd version 5.36 [i386-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-6 Bruce Allen
Jan 14 10:31:14 mythtv smartd[2825]: Home page is http ://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
Jan 14 10:31:14 mythtv smartd[2825]: Opened configuration file /etc/smartd.conf
Jan 14 10:31:14 mythtv smartd[2825]: Configuration file /etc/smartd.conf parsed.
Jan 14 10:31:14 mythtv smartd[2825]: Device: /dev/hda, opened
Jan 14 10:31:14 mythtv smartd[2825]: Device: /dev/hda, found in smartd database.
Jan 14 10:31:14 mythtv smartd[2825]: Device: /dev/hda, is SMART capable. Adding to "monitor" list.
Jan 14 10:31:14 mythtv smartd[2825]: Device: /dev/sda, opened
Jan 14 10:31:14 mythtv smartd[2825]: Device: /dev/sda, found in smartd database.
Jan 14 10:31:14 mythtv smartd[2825]: Device: /dev/sda, is SMART capable. Adding to "monitor" list.
Jan 14 10:31:14 mythtv smartd[2825]: Monitoring 2 ATA and 0 SCSI devices
Jan 14 10:31:15 mythtv smartd[2827]: smartd has fork()ed into background mode. New PID=2827.

------------- SYSTEM DIES HERE -------------

Jan 14 10:31:15 mythtv init: open(/dev/pts/0): No such file or directory
Jan 14 10:31:15 mythtv last message repeated 5 times
Jan 14 10:31:16 mythtv pcscd: winscard.c:219:SCardConnect() Reader E-Gate 0 0 Not Found
Jan 14 10:31:16 mythtv last message repeated 3 times
Jan 14 10:31:17 mythtv kernel: agpgart: Found an AGP 3.0 compliant device at 0000:00:00.0.
Jan 14 10:31:17 mythtv kernel: agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:00:00.0 into 8x mode
Jan 14 10:31:17 mythtv kernel: agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:01:00.0 into 8x mode
Jan 14 10:31:29 mythtv lircd-0.8.1-CVS[2807]: accepted new client on /dev/lircd
Jan 14 10:31:29 mythtv lircd-0.8.1-CVS[2807]: initializing '/dev/hiddev0'
Jan 14 10:31:31 mythtv lircd-0.8.1-CVS[2807]: accepted new client on /dev/lircd
...

On shutdown:

Code:

...
Jan 14 14:19:13 mythtv kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Jan 14 14:19:25 mythtv kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Jan 14 14:19:25 mythtv kernel: Buffer I/O error on device fd0, logical block 0
Jan 14 14:19:37 mythtv kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Jan 14 14:19:37 mythtv kernel: Buffer I/O error on device fd0, logical block 0
Jan 14 14:19:38 mythtv shutdown[4656]: shutting down for system reboot
Jan 14 14:19:38 mythtv lircd-0.8.1-CVS[2807]: removed client
Jan 14 14:19:38 mythtv lircd-0.8.1-CVS[2807]: closing '/dev/hiddev0'

------------- SYSTEM DIES HERE -------------

Jan 14 14:19:39 mythtv smartd[2827]: smartd received signal 15: Terminated
Jan 14 14:19:39 mythtv smartd[2827]: smartd is exiting (exit status 0)
Jan 14 14:19:40 mythtv avahi-daemon[2706]: Got SIGTERM, quitting.

I have tried disabling smartd and lircd without any effect.

Simon Bridge · 02-18-2007, 05:18 AM

Quote:

I have recently upgraded a computer from FC3 to FC6.

Is this an upgrade (i.e. anaconda upgrade option) or a fresh installation?

How is it with the open source nv driver?

So this is a mythTV system?
http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/fcmyth.php
... some stuff has changed.

mcarle1 · 02-19-2007, 04:41 AM

Thanks for your thoughts.

Sorry for the ambiguity. It was a fresh installation.

I have not tried the nv driver. I guess that is the next thing I should try, but the system is currently only connected to a TV which I believe makes it a little more difficult.

It is indeed a MythTV system, and I did install with close reference to Jarod's guide.

Simon Bridge · 02-19-2007, 06:11 AM

Hmmm... did you follow jared's guide very closely - like using apt-get and everything? I note the guide is expressly for FC3 - some intellegence is needed to modify the commands. A direct copy and paste won't work.

I don't know about the axel packages nvidia driver - most folk use the livna packaged driver for FC6 (yum install kmod-nvidia). Nobody uses the official nvidia installer because it breaks fedora's X configuration in many subtle ways.

Looking at the official howto
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php...on_Fedora_Core

check your installation against the official howto. Do this slowly.

... thing is, there is no apparent error message.
I take it this is a hang with black-screen?

Check your xorg.conf - usually the thing for black-screen-of-death. But you usually get an error.

mcarle1 · 02-20-2007, 05:57 AM

The latest version of Jarad's guide is based on FC6. I followed it reasonably closely, making any necessary changes for my different hardware etc. I have a reasonable linux knowledge and understand everything I was doing - certainly not a blind copy/paste.

I will have a good read through that howto later, but I doubt it will be of much assistance. The problem seems to be with the OS rather than the mythtv component. It is a hang with black screen, and it is intermittent, so it seems to be a bug in something rather than a configuration problem (to me anyway). Of course I may only be seeing the bug because of a configuration problem.

I can't see a problem with my xorg.conf, but here it is if you want to have a look:

Code:

[root@mythtv ~]# cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf

# Xorg configuration created by pyxf86config

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier     "Default Layout"
        Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
        InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
        ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia"
        ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions"
        ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
EndSection

Section "Module"
        Load  "glx"
        Load  "v4l"
        Load  "dbe"
        Load  "extmod"
        Load  "type1"
        Load  "freetype"
        Load  "fbdevhw"
        Load  "record"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Keyboard0"
        Driver      "kbd"
        Option      "XkbModel" "pc105"
        Option      "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"

        #ModelName    "Loewe Xelos"
        #HorizSync    30.0 - 50.0
        #VertRefresh  50.0 - 70.0
        #VertRefresh  50.0 - 75.0
# 720x576 @ 50.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 29.65 kHz; pclk: 26.57 MHz
        #Option     "dpms"
 ### Comment all HorizSync and VertSync values to use DDC:
        Identifier   "Monitor0"
        VendorName   "TV"
        DisplaySize  183        147
 ### Comment all HorizSync and VertSync values to use DDC:
        HorizSync    24.0 - 80.0
        VertRefresh  49.0 - 51.0
        ModeLine     "720x576_50.00" 26.6 720 736 808 896 576 577 580 593 -hsync +vsync
        ModeLine     "720x576_50i" 13.9 720 742 808 888 576 580 583 625 -hsync -vsync interlace
        ModeLine     "720x576@25i" 13.5 720 732 795 864 576 581 586 625 -hsync -vsync interlace
        ModeLine     "720x576i" 13.9 720 744 808 888 576 581 586 625 -hsync -vsync interlace
        ModeLine     "720x576_50p" 27.1 720 736 880 896 576 578 579 606
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "Videocard0"
        Driver      "nvidia"
        Option      "NoLogo" "1"
        Option      "TVStandard" "PAL-G"
        #Option      "TVStandard" "PAL-B"
        Option      "TVOutFormat" "SVIDEO"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen0"
        Device     "Videocard0"
        Monitor    "Monitor0"
        DefaultDepth     24
        SubSection "Display"

                #Modes    "720x576_50p"
                #Modes     "720x576i" "720x576_50p" "720x576@25i" "720x576_50.00" "720x576_50i" "720x576_1"
                #Viewport   0 0
                Depth     24
                Modes    "720x576"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Thank you for spending the time to make suggestions.

mcarle1 · 03-04-2007, 03:57 AM

I ended up replacing the video card with a 6200. It seems to be working properly now. Thanks for your help.

Simon Bridge · 03-04-2007, 03:41 PM

Which places doubt on the "OS specific" speculation and looks questioningly at the hardware...

mcarle1 · 03-05-2007, 02:25 AM

I think it is quite possible that there was a hardware issue, and the upgraded software aggravated it a little more.