Slackware KDE freeze

moschops · 01-12-2007, 06:13 PM

Hello,

I have a serious problem. At least once every two to three days, Slackware will freeze on me completely while I am using KDE. I cannot use the mouse, nor exit X. The whole computer freezes. I have a dual boot and this does not happen on XP.

When I look at my "System Log Viewer" I see a message saying:

Jan 12 20:49:46 kernel: Intel ISA PCIC probe: not found.
Jan 12 20:50:17 last message repeated 1722 times

This seems to be the last message before a crash, so I wondered if this was a log of the cause.

Does anyone have any ideas what this may be? I think it may have to do with my graphics card however, google has not yielded a result.

My spec:

Pentium Intel Core 2 Duo 6600 2.4GHz Processor
1 Gig of DDRII RAM
nVidia GForce 7600 GT PCIExpress graphics card
40 Gig ATA hard drive (HDA - Master with Windows)
60 Gig ATA hard drive (HDB - Slave to use for Linux)
ASRock 775Dual-VSTA motherboard

I have the latest BIOS from ASRock as well.

Thanks,

Moschops

acummings · 01-12-2007, 10:57 PM

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux...ug.devel/10738

http://www.google.com/linux?hl=en&lr...be&btnG=Search

At all of those urls it says PCMCIA and cardbus. One said something about falling asleep (power saving, acpi, apm, etc.) and then the device not anymore being found.

(oop, I just saw your Slackware url in your sig)--still, I don't want to assume that this post applies to your url in your sig.
(What R U running?) *What* version of Slackware? Which kernel? Which version of KDE? Which version of X Windows? Relevant drivers, say for GUI, etc.? (I hope that PCI-Express isn't too new for Linux). I run Pentium IV socket 478 with Northwood CPU, Intel 865 chip with AGP video -- Linux likes it very well.

When your prob. happens, does the kernel (run level 3 or whatever it's called) go down too?

That is, when it happens, can you, say, on keyboard do (the 3 keys): ctrl-alt F6

and get to (log on to) tty6 (a Linux terminal).

This (terminal) is minus the X Windows -- it's run level 3, *that's* what it's called.

al@AB60R:~$ ls

If so, issue the ls command like above. If you get this and if you get a directory listing then your prob likely is limited to KDE and X Windows.

I've had probs with the GUI. But I'm yet to have probs with run level 3 going down on me. And this is since about Slackware 9.0. Now running Slackware 11.0. A Dauntless, unsinkable ship!

--
Alan.

duryodhan · 01-13-2007, 12:02 AM

I dont knw abt the KDE freeze problem but I used to have the same problem of repeated "not found" in dmesg.

I just did

Quote:

chmod -x /etc/rc.d/rc.pcmcia

Do that and then see the dmesg. the repeated messages usually hide the actual error message. For me it hid the place where any usb device was mounted.

moschops · 01-13-2007, 08:01 AM

Thanks for both your suggestions, I have update my sig so that my spec and setup is on there.

acummings: The whole computer freezes, I cannot use the keyboard nor the mouse. And the System Monitor widget on my taskbar shoots to 100% CPU usage. I have left it for an hour or so to see if it resolves itself, but it doesn't, this means a reboot.

duryodhan: I have tried that suggestion which I must say was a good one. I found the same suggestion through googling and tried it before. This still does not solve the problem, however, I have noticed that I get the use of my keyboard and mouse back when this problem occurs, which at least lets me log out gracefully. I checked my "System Log Viewer" and now get the following error, which I am about to start googling:

Jan 13 13:08:24 kernel: hdb: dma_timer_expiry: dma status == 0x41
Jan 13 13:08:34 kernel: hdb: DMA timeout error
Jan 13 13:08:34 kernel: hdb: dma timeout error: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }
Jan 13 13:08:34 kernel: ide: failed opcode was: unknown

I am also getting:

Jan 13 13:34:55 kernel: ATA: abnormal status 0x7F on port 0xEC07

Every now and then, this is very worrying.... hdb is my slackware drive. If I find a solution I will post it, as it seems that this is not uncommon.

duryodhan · 01-13-2007, 11:31 AM

Hey,
Clearly its a problem with your DMA.Try disabling DMA. See what happens....
from http://www.exocore.com/technologies/linux/rhl71dma/

Quote:

Q. So how do I disable DMA permanently?
A. Depending on how the CDROM drive has been physically connected to your system, add one of these lines to /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit:

/sbin/hdparm -d0 /dev/hdb # Add this if your CDROM is on primary slave
/sbin/hdparm -d0 /dev/hdc # Add this is your CDROM is on secondary master
/sbin/hdparm -d0 /dev/hdd # Add this if your CDROM is on secondary slave

If you are unsure about the CDROM device id, the "dmesg" output will have it:

~# dmesg|grep CD
hdc: ATAPI 48X CDROM, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
hdc: ATAPI 48X CD-ROM drive, 128kB Cache,
UDMA(33) Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12

In this case, CDROM drive is /dev/hdc.

Although you might want to read the whole thing.
Also .. http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/Ultra-DMA.html#s8

This is from a basic google search.... you probably got this already.

The thing to note is the line :

Quote:

However, enabling DMA has its downside. It requires that all the components of your system are "healthy". If there is a hardware related problem in any one of the related system components, DMA will fail to function properly.

I am a noob .... so dont blame me later if it all goes bust

.

moschops · 02-17-2007, 04:45 PM

Well, what was the solution after all? My power supply! This is very embarrassing, but it is the truth. I was using 250w, I thought the supply was 400w! I checked, it wasn't so I upgraded and it fixed all the hanging issues. It never happened with my older motherboard/graphics card for obvious reasons. So the moral is, when upgrading your hardware, check you power supply!

Oh dear...