I have installed Mandrake 8.2 on an AMD computer. It kept crashing and freezing every 10 minutes or so. I added the "nopentium" fix, things have got better, but I still get the odd crash or reboot, especially if I have a lot of things going on.

I have read other posts and people say that Linux is really solid and they have had no problems, even people that have used the nopentium fix.

I was finding the same sort of thing when I first tried MD 8.0 a couple of months ago.

The big question is ........ is it just me? What can I do now?

Do you think I would do better to try another distro?
If I do will that be more stable?

I really throb to Linux but I'm becoming a bit down hearted, I can feel the darkside calling me back.

Hi,

What i think is that unlike windows, linux require more information from you during initial install. And if you don't give the right informaiton in some areas the system may get confused (this the right word?), and therefore become unstable i guess. You can check back some of the options (not sure which sorry) and see if they are correct.

The linux is indeed pretty solid, in your case it can be hardware related, I strongly suggest check your RAM first with memtest86 http://www.memtest86.com/ post the last reasonable portion of /var/log/messages before a crash occures it might help as well.
P.S. Squeeze as much important aspects as you can from this article http://www-106.ibm.com/developerwork.../?dwzone=linux

That's an excellent link.

Looks like I've got some reading to do, thanks.

I'll also see if I can up with anything from the logs.

Thanks for the help.

you are welcome

ehm these crashes could also be an X related thing
are you in X and maybe using the Nvidia drivers when
the crash happens?
Or does your system freeze when using a console
(boot up in runlevel 3)
If in X there are other options to alter in XF86Config-4
and maybe appending noapic in lilo does the trick.

It's not just you.

Mandrake 8.2 is a little buggy.

I have an AMD K6-2 400MHz and needed to run the patch to get it installed.

I have problems sometimes getting data off of the CDs. OpenOffice has problems sometimes, and I need to attempt pulling it off several times on re-installs sometimes. Other times it comes off without a hitch.

There is also a problem with graphics with some motherboard and video card combos. But that is not isolated to Mandrake. Nvidia cards and the ALi 1541 chipset have problems with AGP. A BIOS upgrade should solve the AGP problem when using AGPgart, but the nVidia drivers turn off AGP support when they detect the ALi Chipset. The solution is to use rebuilds of the older 1512 or 1541 nVidia drivers.

Sometimes my Video goes out completely. Paging out to the process screen (when possible) shows that the failure often has to do with bad AGP paging. I'm seriously thinking of downgrading to the 1512 drivers for that reason (I'm currently using a 1541 rebuild). They were more stable.

Newer nVidia cards should utilize the latest drivers. Most of the time the video kernel driver is fine, but the OpenGL glx driver is buggy, crashing the system. It's something I have to live with until I can build my dream machine running an Athlon XP processor, compatible motherboard and nVidia GeForce 3 or 4 card, with 512 MB of RAM, all running the new 2.5 Linux kernel with the pre-emptable kernel stuff integrated in (faster GUI and multimedia support), in a Mandrake 8.3 or 9.0 or whatever is the latest at that time.

My mandrake runs great in my 1. Ghz Via a.k.a Cyrix processor. This processor has been lable even crapier than AMD or Intels. Things go screw-up when I install KDE 3....ok ..enuff of my personal problem. In your case, have you tried to switch desktop like KDE, GNOME or ......try to boot into init 3 or non GUI mode and see what happen. I suspect it is your GUI mode that gives you problem.......

Here is the last section of my /var/log/messages just before a crash

localhost kernel:<7>ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
localhost kernel:Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference
at virtual address 00000115
localhost kernel: print eip:
localhost kernel: c016bc3d
localhost kernel: pde=00000000
localhost kernel: Oops:0000
localhost kernel: CPU:0
localhost kernel: EIP:0010:[n_tty_set_Termios+13/592] Not tainted

Then there is loads of Hex stuff

localhost kernel:Call Trace:[read_chan+272/1840][tty_read+188/224][system_call+51/64]

And that, as they say, is that.

Does this mean anything I can't make head nor tail out of it.

I am only a newbie, at the moment , so I always go into KDE and use the konsole from there. Sometimes this problem happens even when I only have this open, but not as often.

I am using a motherboard (Pcchips M810LMR) with on board AGP graphics sharing the RAM. From the other posts here I'm beginning to think this may be BAD! What do you think?

Thank you everyone for your help.

Scat,

It's most likely a bad KDE implementation or a bad hardware set-up.

A lot of these types of problems will be passe when the pre-emptable kernel stuff makes its official debut in kernel 2.5

Until then just try the regular troubleshooting techniques, including adjusting your RAM settings in the BIOS to update more and to lower the tendency towards burst mode.

Have you tried specifying the amount of RAM you have with the ram parameter??? Some BIOSes have trouble reporting the correct amount of RAM to Linux.

Some people have had success switching to RedHat 7.2-7.3 or to SuSE 8.0-8.1. Others have had the same or worse problems. Before jumping the Mandrake ship, make sure that it isn't something in your set-up. Take the time to learn, and be patient. You'll be better off in the long run for the extra knowledge, and your understanding of how Windoze works will be better too.

The bottom line is that Linux is less tolerant of bad hardware settings than Windoze is. Just learn. It will get easier to troubleshoot.

What is your hardware configuration?

It is

AMD Duron 900mhz

Pcchips M810LMR motherboard

On board AGP graphics sharing 64 Mb of RAM

On board sound

256Mb PC133 SDRAM

20 Gig Fujitsu IDE with Windows 95 (primary)

6.2 Gig Quantum Fireball IDE with Mandrake 8.2 (slave)

And that's it.

Thanks for looking into this for me everyone, this forum is awesome.

For now run diagnostics tests for your hardrive , which I guess would be /dev/hdb if it is a primary slave (on the same channel as your Fujitsu but in slave configuration)
as root in console
/sbin/hdparm -v /dev/hdb
to see the HD settings, it is a good idea to peruse
man hdparm
anyway
then run the memtest86 - I'd tell it is going to take awhile - I have almost the same setup as you do (AMD Athlon 850MHz, 512 SDRAM PC133) it took awhile for me to run all the tests, don't be afraid it is very straight forward progy runs off the floppy, the instructions are on the website, and included with memtest86 tarball in README and INSTALL files I believe.

Ok great thks

I'll give it ago over the weekend and come back on moanday.

Thanks agian.

When you pass your ram amount on to the kernel, do you subtract the ram that is shared by your onboard video, or are you passing on the ram amount that is the full amount of system ram on your machine???

With shared video set-ups, you need to pass the ram parameter on showing an amount of ram that is left over after the video ram has been siphoned off by the BIOS...

Just a thought...