How to diagnose system freeze
Hi all -
I've been enjoying Slackware 14.0 on my new ZaReason laptop ... but am experiencing random system freezes: no cursor movement, keyboard unresponsive, the works. At first I thought it might be Firefox, since I'd read in a couple of places that people were having such an issue. But the machine froze when I had a combination of seamonkey and openoffice running -- and no Firefox. I ran memtest and there were no failures. I've been looking at syslog to see whether there's anything strange there, and there are a number of entries re: NetworkManager -- Code:
Dec 9 20:16:44 catbutt dhcpcd[1884]: timed out What or where else might I check? Thanks, Glenn |
Can you post the output of 'lspci -k' and 'lsmod'. This is mostly for what hardware and drivers you have.
I wrote a hardware diagnostics wiki, it may help: http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:har...re_diagnostics I'm not sure NetworkManager can cause such a hang. Maybe the errors were caused by the hang. |
Here is lspci -k:
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00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Panther Point USB xHCI Host Controller (rev 04) And here is lspci -k: Code:
Module Size Used by /Glenn |
Does it always freeze the same way ?
It could be hardware or it could be some driver. I remember there were some intel video driver issues on 13.37, but I don't think they apply to 14.0 and they look different: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ng-4175425214/ |
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I resolved upgrading the kernel. you can see here |
Member Response
Hi,
What about switching to another console or 'ssh' into the box to see if system is actually frozen? |
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The machine locks hard: CTRL-ALT-DEL does nothing, for what that's worth. /G |
Try Alt-SysRq REISUB:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reisub |
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Just noted before I left for work: there are some troubling lines re: ACPI in /var/log/messages (wish I'd had time to copy/paste them, but I was running late). Also, when I unplugged the AC power cord, the battery monitor said my battery was at 89%. This thing's been plugged in a loooong time ... could this be a bad battery issue? /Glenn |
I have a machine that would act similar to what you describe -- keyboard and mouse freeze at random, pressing numlock/capslock don't change the keyboard LEDs, Alt+SysRq doesn't seem to be recognized. But I could SSH in after it happens. I think adding 'nolapic' to the kernel parameters fixed it.
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Did a little Googling on 'nolapic' ... doesn't this slow down performance? In one place I could swear I read that it essentially turned a multicore machine into single core. |
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Hi,
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HTH! |
So then nolapic would have no effect on 64-bit systems ?
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Would I use nolapic or noapic for a dual core machine? Update: just had a freeze. Machine did not respond to the magic SysRq sequences. So I'm ready to try the no[l]apic thing. Where in lilo.conf do I add it (I can Google this, but I thought I'd ask while I was here)? EDIT: I assume it goes under "# Append any additional kernel parameters:", and look lie this: append = "noapic" (or nolapic) Thanks, Glenn |
Member Response
Hi,
I would use 'addappend=' in the stanza unless you wish global changes then use 'append=' within global section; Quote:
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HTH! |
Well, knock on wood. I've got the following in my lilo.conf:
# Start LILO global section # Append any additional kernel parameters: append=" vt.default_utf8=0 noapic" .... the 'vt.default_utf8=0 was there already. No freezes on this session so far. Not ready to mark this solved yet -- I'm still cautiously optimistic and have some more reading to do. Thx to all for the help!! /Glenn |
Well, everything seems good now. I still haven't had the time to research any performance issues, but I haven't noticed anything untoward, either. Marking this 'solved' since I no longer seem to be having freezes! Thanks so much to all!
/Glenn |
I'm just jealous that I never thought to name any of my machines "catbutt".
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Sigh. Back to (seemingly) random freezes, so I brought this thread back from the dead. Obviously I don't know what I'm doing here.
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Well, I'm no good at this kind of thing, but way back you said something about networkmanager. Try uninstalling that and using wicd for a while, then if that still allows the system to freeze, you know it isn't networking...pretty much.
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If it is your X server that freezes, you can check that with "Alt + SysRq + r" and to go into raw mode. Then you can do "Ctrl + Alt + F2" to go to a console. Try to login and run "top" to see what is slowing the system. You can also run "Alt + SysRq + k" to kill all programs in the virtual console including the X server.
Also check the "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for any hints there. Might be a module that freeze the X server. Another thread that might give some input: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...it-4175434378/ |
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If so, I believe that that particular version (3.2.29) had some issues with certain Intel chipsets which caused the exact symptoms you describe. I had the same problem on my laptop. Upgrading to a newer kernel fixed it. |
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