HELP ! asus p4c800 (i875) + ATI 9700 pro AIW + mdk10.0 = freeze
 

I have tried everything to solve this problem : Google, forums, knowledge base... Nothing.
My computer freezes very often after some time. Sometimes the screen just freezes on an image and there's nothing i can do. Even magic keys (ctl-alt gr-print scr-R, S, ...) don't work. Sometimes the mouse pointer can still move but clicking has no effect. When a mp3 is playing, it continues to play until the end (or until the end of the buffer). When i just read the logs after a reset, i can see that the kernel goes whithout realizing the freeze because logging goes on beyond the "freezing time". I can that magic keys have an effect because it is on /var/log/kernel/info :
Jul 17 09:01:28 descartes kernel: SysRq : Keyboard mode set to XLATE
Jul 17 09:01:28 descartes kernel: SysRq : Emergency Sync
So i have decided to monitor cpu temperature. But lm_sensors doesn't support asus p4c800. (http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...+p4c800+sensor) I also tried to install acpi to monitor the temperature but nothing comes. I have been advised to boot with noapic, nolapic in the append of lilo. I did. But it still freezes in the same way. And still no significant report in the logs (/var/log/syslog , /var/log/kernel/info , /var/log/kernel/messages , /var/log/kernel/warnings).
Then i updated the initial 2.6.3-7mdk kernel to 2.6.3-15mdk... With no results.
So i decided to update the fglrx driver for ATI radeon cards. I downloaded the new XFree4.3-3.9 driver from ATI. I ran the installtion following step by step the advise from the site. Except that i had to force the installation for rpm :
rpm -Uhv --force fglrx-4.3.0-3.9.0.i386.rpm
And i had to build a symlink in /lib/modules/2.6.3-15mdksmp :
ln -s /usr/src/linux/build build
before running the "sh make.sh" in /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod.
I ran the fglrxconfig, restarted X. But X took the wrong resolution (640*480)
And then after restarting the computer, no dipslay. So, i ran XFdrake which must have re-edited the /etc/X11/XF86config. Then display works all-right.
But after a while the same freezing occurs !!
Is it agpgart/intel-agp (2 dependant modules) the origin of this problem ?
Should i install 2.6.7 kernel ? Will it make my mdk10.0 more stable ? Or more unstable ?

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Hello, I'm sorry to tell you this, but you have only 3 choices:

1. Wait for ATI to release a working, non-freezing driver for 2.6.x-kernels.
2. Install a 2.4.x-kernel instead and reinstall the driver.
3. Most working solution: uninstall the crappy ATI-drivers, switch your video card to nVidia and install nVidia's drivers (and then edit /etc/X11/XF86Config-4, change "fglrx" to "nvidia").

I just successfully switched 5 Radeon-cards away, because I got tired of the damn lockups!! Those lockups you specified, sound EXACTLY the same kind of lockups I had. Like the kernel was going on, but X was frozen, and actually the kernel was also "almost" frozen (basically SSH still worked, but nothing actually was working on the computer anymore and could not kill X). Every detail you gave, fits my previous trouble with the Radeon-cards on EVERY single one of these computers.

After switching to GeForce-cards, ALL lockups are gone - supposedly forever. 6106-driver has been reported having some minor OpenGL-lockups, but it only locks the application, not the computer. 6111-driver does not yet compile on Mandrake 10. I'm using 6106-driver without any lockups, but some people say 5336-version runs more stable. Anyways, ATI's drivers SUCK.

make i agree with you, see this thread :
http://www.mandrakeclub.com/modules....26534&forum=10

I doubt the ATI-drivers offered for MandrakeClub-members would be any better or different from the ones at http://www.ati.com It's shame that such good cards have such horrible Linux-drivers, at least with 2.6.x-kernels, that is. I think you should install the 2.4-kernel (or download some other 2.4.x-kernel), that came with Mandrake and boot to that instead. Just make sure you are booting to runlevel 3 (not to X), since you need to first install the ATI's drivers for that kernel (and make sure that the corresponding kernel sources are installed).

But in case the drivers won't compile with 2.4, or you're fed up with Radeon (like I am), you should be able to get used GeForce-cards for quite cheap now, since people are switching to faster (Radeon 9800, X800...).

Well actually i like kernel 2.6 and i want to keep it in spite of its problems.
Regarding ATI drivers by mandrake, it is only a rpm built with the ATI driver found on www.ati.com and compiled according to their official supported kernel, which is 2.6.3
Th dilemna is here : with mandrake, you have a good gui and consistent set of softwares which is useful on a computer that i share with my family, but on the other hand kernel 2.6.3 is really not mature enough for many recent hardwares such as mine ( radeon 9700 all-in-wonder + asus p4c800). That's sad.