Freezing up sometimes when clicking links in web browser
 

Hi there. I'm having a problem with my system freezing up completely (as far as I can tell - I've tried things like alt+ctrl+backspace to no avail) every now and again. It seems to always (or at least almost always) happen the instant I click a link in a web browser. This was happening when I used Mozilla, but I'm now using Firefox and it's still happening.

I can't be 100% sure that EVERY time it has happened, has been when I've clicked a link... But as far as I can remember... I don't think it's anything specifically to do with Mozilla or Firefox, but it could be to do with network activity in general, could it not?

Unfortunately, I have no idea where to start here, being inexperienced with all this. I realise this is quite a vague question, but I really can't seem to find any way of reproducing these crashes. They just *sometimes* happen. I'd say it probably happens 2-3 times in every day's worth of computer use. Anybody got any suggestions what to try?

Using kernel 2.6.8.1 if that helps.

what hardware are you using?

if you are using nvidia's properity drivers, try switching back to "nv".

Asus K8V SE Deluxe motherboard
Athlon 64 3000+
1024mb RAM
ATi 9600XT

So I'm not using those nvidia drivers :/ I'm using the fglrx ati drivers, but this was happening before I installed those, I think...

do you know how to recompile your kernel?

if you do, please recompile with CONFIG_MAGIC_SYSRQ. It's found under kernel hacking. Enable kernel debugging and the option for magic sysrq key will appear.

once your using your magic sys rq key enabled kernel, see if you can reboot with your system by hitting (in this order):
alt+ctrl+prt scrn s
alt+ctrl+prt scrn u
alt+ctrl+prt scrn b

your computer should reboot.

now, next time your computer freezes, see if this key combo will reboot your computer.

I do know how to recompile it (have done it in the past a couple of times)... However, I know very little more than how to do the config and compile. I.e., I don't know how to check whether my current kernel was compiled with this CONFIG_MAGIC_SYSRQ. How can I check, before I start recompiling stuff?

what say:
#uname -r

cat /boot/config-(what uname -r says) | grep CONFIG_MAGIC_SYSRQ

for example on my computer:
james@a4-1800:~$ uname -r
2.6.7final
james@a4-1800:~$ cat /boot/config-2.6.7final | grep CONFIG_MAGIC_SYSRQ
CONFIG_MAGIC_SYSRQ=y

I don't have it it seems. Looks like a recompile is going to be neccessary. I'll probably get round to that some time tomorrow. Thanks for the tip :)

Well I did all that. Compiled myself a nice new kernel, and this time made sure there was a lot less unwanted junk compiled into it. And of course I made sure to say Y to CONFIG_MAGIC_SYSRQ.

A moment ago, my system froze again. Tried the keys like you said... and it didn't reboot. Didn't do a thing. Completely frozen. Not sure what this tells you though... That the kernel has completely frozen, not just X, or something?

Also, I'm now certain it's not purely to do with clicking links. However, it DOES always seem to happen while I'm in a web browser... Of course, that might be coincidence since I'm in a web browser quite a lot of the time... But it has happened quite a lot, and every single time that I can remember, I've had either Mozilla or Firefox not just running, but in focus.

Any suggestions?

Have you tried booting with "noapic acpi=off"? I believe those are correct, please correct me if I am wrong.

I booted with those options earlier this morning, and I'm still going now at 4am the following morning without any crashes. Could be coincidence, but I'm hoping not :). Assuming those commands are fixing it, what I'll do next is figure out which particular one of the two is fixing it... Then I'm stuck.

What should I do after that? Should I just continue booting with those options, or might it be better to try and address the problem that is causing those boot options to be neccessary in order to avoid crashes?

see if you can ssh into the computer if it crashes again. this sounds like a nvidia problem i've been having. I still haven't figured out way though. i have an athlon based system too.

Bad news. It's crashed a couple of times again, and I have been booting with noapic and acpi=off.

I also tried to ssh into it while it was crashed... Couldn't connect.

What should I try next? :/

I can say for sure now, it's nothing to do with my web browser.

Although it's still happening when I'm using noapic and acpi=off, it does seem to be happening less frequently.

Are there any other common causes of freezes like these, that I should investigate?

I also experience these mysterious freezes when running Debian unstable, and wanted to see if noapic and/or acpi=off would help me out. I added noapic and acpi=off as a bootparameters to lilo.conf, but I still get the following in dmesg:
Does anyone know why APIC is still (re)enabled?

Cheers, Leon.

This thread is a bit old now, but I thought I might as well add that I'm not having these crashes any more. I actually can't remember when they stopped, but I think it was probably when I stopped using Gnome and started using XFCE instead. So I guess the problem was somewhere in Gnome.

Glad it's sorted out now anyway. And I'm finding XFCE a dream to use. Very happy I made the decision to try it out. So now all is good :cool:.