I'm running Mandrake 10.0 (not community edition) and every hour or so my system will just completely freeze. Its a shame too because I love the operating system. It worked great on its first try! I'm posting this here because I think it might have something to do with my hardware. I ran memtest86 forever and my memory is fine. I have an ASUS NForce2 with an AGP Geforce 4 and an Athlon XP.

Infact, it ALWAYS crashes when I check my hard disk for integrity during bootup, often around the 80% mark. Besides that it crashes when its in X most often but I think its happened in the console before. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Run fsck as root and see if it finds anything it doesn't like. Look in your kernel logs (maybe /var/log/messages or /var/log/sytem... not sure what Mandrake does for logging) and see if you see any panics or anything in your logs. Usually you'll see some strange stuff dumb to the logs by the kernel if you have a hardware problem that causes a crash. Especially if it is a problem that isn't a result of the memory or processor.

I've checked a lot of logs and I didn't see anything irregular, including the XFree86 logs. I'll run that program and see.

Ok I ran fsck and it spat out a BUNCH of journaling errors, my disk was completely corrupted. So I reinstalled using ext2. It crashed a second after X had started up. I think its my NForce2 because NVidia's NForce 2 drivers don't support the 2.6.x series of kernel. Is this a possibility?

I seem to having the same issue, I found this in /var/log/kernel/:

May 30 21:30:44 24-113-26-138 kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
May 30 21:30:44 24-113-26-138 kernel: atkbd.c: This is an XFree86 bug. It shouldn't access hardware directly.
May 30 21:42:26 24-113-26-138 kernel: mtrr: 0xd8000000,0x8000000 overlaps existing 0xd8000000,0x1000000
May 30 21:42:26 24-113-26-138 kernel: atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0x7a on isa0060/serio0).
May 30 21:42:26 24-113-26-138 kernel: atkbd.c: This is an XFree86 bug. It shouldn't access hardware directly.

I believe this was made at the time of a crash.

OK Man:

You are not alone in this. It seems there is a hardware compatibility problem with the nForce2 based motherboards and Mandrake, Fedora and other Kernel 2.6.x related distributions, but is combined with another problem related to Hard Disk Partitioning from Linux what makes your Window$ XP unusable (You cannot boot any more from your Window$ system) if you have a dual boot system and blah, blah, blah...

OK after this extensive explanation (:-P) here is the possible solutions:

* For nForce2 based motherboards related problem (This is your case)

Alternative 1.- UPGRADE YOUR BIOS. Recently many MOBO's vendors have deployed some BIOS upgrades to correct this problem. If you can obtain a recent BIOS upgrade from your vendor you have a great possibility to solve your problem without any "tricky moves" in your installation.

Alternative 2.- In case you can't obtain a BIOS upgrade or the upgrade does not solve your problem, then you can reinstall your Mandrake 10.0 using the command line "linux noapic nolapic". You can do this simply pressing F1 when you are in the initial screen installation, a command line will appear, there you can write the command mentioned above (without quotes OK?)...

Then, to ensure the system remains stable, you must add the lines "noapic nolapic" to your boot.

To do this, when you boot into Mandrake, simply enter to the configuration tool and follow this steps:

1.-choose "boot" option.
2.-After this, select "boot loader"(the option in the middle)
3.- Ensure the option "Force no local APIC" is selected, (if not appear dont worry, follow next step)
4.- Press next, select the boot option you use (usually "linux-i686-up-4GB") and press "modify"
5.- in the last textbox, add the options "noapic nolapic", so the line will see like this:
"noapic nolapic devfs=mount acpi=ht splash=silent" or something like that.
6.- Press OK and OK again...
7.- Reboot and enjoy...


* For Hard Disk Kernel problem (Yes, Mandrake 10.0 have this problem too, so correct it)

Alternative 1(PREVENTION).- BEFORE you install Mandrake 10.0 first enter to the BIOS Setup in your PC and change the Hard Disk mode to LBA. This will prevent the corruption problem in your hard Disk, after this, install Mandrake as always.

Alternative 2(CORRECTION).- If actually you(sadly) cannot boot from window$, you have a GREAT chance of recover your partition without lose any data. Check this link, it's about Fedora, but applies to Mandrake too:

http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla...g.cgi?id=115980


After correct both problems you can rest a while and see the results... there you have... a fresh, clean and flawless Mandrake System.

Easy, Easy, Easy... No?

Please tell me if this solve your problem...

MagikFingerz.

There is a driver dated from the 27th may for the nforce on the nvidia website, for mdk 8.2 9.0 9.1 9.2.

Don't know if it is relevant but that might be another option.

Oh... yes! the drivers... I try it too...

Since I Cannot found the RPM for Mandrake 10.0 Distribution, and in the documentation is specified that this driver is for Kernel 2.4.x (and Mdk-10.0 is 2.6.x) I try using the Source RPM to rebuild it in my system.

I download it and when I try to rebuild the RPM the build fails... well I'm a noob I must confess it, maybe I miss to do something important, of course I try to build it using the root user to ensure nothing fails but I had the same result.

But I don't gave Up, and after reading a lot of forums here an there finally I found some combination that was useful for me, the menthioned above.

At this time... after following alll the previous steps, I'm writing to you from my VERY STABLE (yeah!) Linux Mandrake 10.0 running in a system with a Biostar M7NCG-400 Motherboard based on nForce2 nVidia Chipset.

The last issue I have yet is the integrated network card still is not functional. but I'm sure that I will not have any problem to found a good non-binary, non-propietary driver to use.

I hope you can enjoy as me this cool distribution.

Regards!

MagikFingerz.

P.D... Sorry about my english... I speak spanish... ¡Viva México!

Hi all, (and thanks to magikfingerz for pointing me to this thread)

I have the same kind of problem, it is driving me mad:
Previously I had an Athlon 1800 installed on an MSI K7N2-L mobo (Nforce2 based),
with Redhat 8.0 installed (dual-booting to Win2k). Everything worked sweet as pie.

Last week I got myself a new Athlon XP 2400+, and things started going really bad,
really fast.
Random fsck errors, Win2k stopped booting, and weird things like that.
Sometimes the system would just hang, in X, in the console, during boot, totally random like.
Enough to drive me crazy, since I ran Seatools, memtest, everything checked out fine.
I even ran a Gentoo-based UT2003 demo disk, and I can play this game for hours with
no crashes, but as soon as I try my HD based install, things go wrong again.

From your discussion, I take it I have to perform the following:
1) first of all, upgrade my BIOS, if possible
2) set HD mode to LBA in the (new) BIOS
3) boot Mandrake 10.0 install, using the kernel params "noapic nolapic"
4) repartition my disk entirely, since the existing partitions are all screwed (not jus the FATs?)
5) install Mandrake
6) pray

Did I miss anything?

Thanks people!

Hi gorb:

Thats the matter exactly... well except for one thing. If you have a fault Windows now, you have a great chance of recover the Win2000 partition without lose any data!!

...well at least I understand that...

Check this out, it's about Fedora, but applies to Mandrake too:

http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/....cgi?id=115980

MagikFingerz.
"Power to the people! join Open Source" - Me :-p

Hi magikfingerz,

Over the weekend, I had time to play with my box, and finally realised that it was crappy RAM that was giving me problems.
This should have been obvious to me, since the last time I bought RAM and it turned out faulty, Windows was the first to complain, usually by throwing fits and demanding CHKDSK's after every boot.
(The thing that fooled me was that I had run memtest86 for about 9 hours, and it didn't report any errors. 9 hours was obviously not long enough...)
*flame on* so maybe that is what Windows is good for: finding RAM with holes *flame off*

Anyways, I did everything else that you spoke about, flashing the BIOS, setting the HD access mode to LBA, and so forth, and voila! I have a stable running system, using Mandrake 10, and I didn't need to format my drive, so I still have all my data intact.

Thank you all!
gorb

I know some have stated the original problem with the nforce2 is a kernel 2.6.x problem on various distros and that it can be sometimes resolved by passing the switches to the installer and boot loader at the install (and later during the bootup). I have 3 nforce2 based shuttle mn31n boards. I have installed various distro's on many of my machines and have observed the problem only on Mandrake 10 and no other distros).

I have a slew of distro's at my place that I have installed on various machines (8 in all). Mandrake 10 is the only distro to have this problem as far as I can tell. From my research on the web sites it also is almost exclusively mandrake 10 that receives all the attention. So, I'd have to conclude this is a Mandrake problem related to the way they put together their packages in this distro.

I have fedora core 2 which I can easily install on various computers and I do not experience this problem whatsoever. I've had FC2 running on an nforce 2 board for quite some time without problems.

I have sought out and updated the most current bios for my shuttle boards and have had some luck. Unfortunately though the problems seem to keep persisting with intermittent results. When I pass the two parameters for the install the problems disappear. So, even if you can get an updated bios it does not mean it will take care of the problem.

The real problem is with mandrake and the people that programmed it. They missed something and they need to make a huge effort for the community and resolve this type of problem, immediately! They are obligated. Since mandrake costs more than Windows (with 2 years of subscription fees) then Windows XP Home costs, it behooves them to come up with a solution ASAP. Had they developed the OS from scratch maybe I would have some compassion for them but they didn't develope it at all and they are charging more than it costs to have windows for 2 years (with all the bugs, lack of software, lack of central control, and now what seems to be a lack of ownership of the problems). This needs a resolution.

You can download 2.6.x vanilla kernel from kernel.org and configure it the same settings that Mandrake has picked. Then compile it. You do not have to use the kernel version that your distribution came with.

What Mandrake and several hundreds of LINUX distributions do is download the kernel from kernel.org. Then they tweak the souce code.

What I do before I install LINUX on my systems:
1) Activate fail-safe settings
2) Set hard drive in LBA mode
3) Turn off PnP OS
3) Make sure memory is not at its agressive settings
4) Make sure CPU is not being overclocked
5) Use AGP 1X

If LINUX boots up and it can last for several hours. I then tweak the BIOS settings one at a time.

Mandrake is costing you more than Windows. All it costs me is time to download it. I use BitTorrent for that, so it did not cost Mandrake anything for the bandwidth. Why pay a subscription fee while this forum will give you the answers for free. You may not get the answers very fast but they eventually come up.

I would not say Mandrake has lack of software because what I seen compared to Redhat. Mandrake has a lot more than Redhat.

Mandrake has the same amount of control as other distributions.

Shuttle motherboards are the worst to get. No wonder you have problems. I never had any problems with top of the line motherboard manufactures such as ABIT, ASUS, and GIGA-BYTE.

BTW, what is so hard typing those kernel options.

Your English is better than my Spanish, so I'm not about to criticize. Your posts seem very helpful, too. Thanks.

I'm waiting for Mandrake 10.1 as my experience with release 10.0 was not pleasant--though not the nightmare others have experienced. I was lucky--my hardware didn't cause grave conflicts. But my CD/DVD-RW ceased to be recognized, while under 9.2 it's automatic; my mouse wheel stopped working; fonts were all screwed up. I don't have the patience to tinker for days getting those things right--when they WERE right under the previous release.

So I'm hoping 10.1 will be better and fix some of those problems.