All action stops. Unless something is happening. {?}
 

Yeah, I know that's a pretty bad thread title, but that's the only way I can think of to describe my current problem succinctly.

In full, I recently (Yesterday) installed Slackware 12.0 on my new Acer Aspire 5100 Laptop. the machine has an AMD Turion64x2 processor, 1GiB of RAM and an ATi chipset though I can't find many details in my documents (Other than the Radeon Xpress 1100 Graphics) lsmod and lspci will follow.

Almost everything works pretty much as expected (I know I have some un- or poorly-supported hardware like the built in microphone and webcam) unfortunately at boot time (Using the "vmlinuz-huge-smp-2.6.21.5-smp" kernel) almost immediately after, and sometimes just before: ... well, here's a snippet of the log:
The problem begins apparently right at the Clocksource line.

The problem is that, unless I am actively providing input (Anything from typing or holding a key to moving my finger around on the laptops touchpad mouse) the entire machine seems to stop. not freeze. not crash. just stop. Initial responses on IRC and from searching the internets led me to believe that I was having an ACPI issue, so I tried to append acpi=off to my boot paramaters... for some reason that was good for providing me with a pleasant It was then suggested that I disable ACPI in my BIOS. unfortunately, I have no such option. I also tried issuing but as I expected that didn't work (the problem starts before rc.M starts rc.acpid).

I can't really think of anything else I can add without first knowing where I should look further :)
I wish I knew more, unfortunately (ha ha) I rarely have problems with Slackware, so I don't get many chances to fix it!

So, for excessive informations sake, here's my lsmod and lspci:

Hi,

You should read the txt that 'PV' provides for you!

Did you read the Slackware 12.0 CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT, UPGRADE.TXT and RELEASE_NOTES?

Man, I would have felt like such an idiot if that worked!

Sorry onebuck, It's definitely good advice, and I've built my initrd and am using the generic kernel now. unfortunately my problem persists :(

Hi,

Did you try the smp kernel?

The initrd should have solved the panic if you create it properly. Post the
'/etc/lilo.conf' file and boot error messages after the modifications.

Okay, with the generic smp kernel and the initrd I can now boot with acpi=off. but my problem remains.
Istill get the clocksource tsc unstable error, the machine still stops when not getting direct manual stimulation (Poor phrasing... I should say, direct outside input, or something to that effect.)

My lilo.conf (Most comments removed for brevity)
All three of those configurations will boot, they all behave exactly the same.

var/log/syslog from last reboot.
Is there any more information that could be provided?

huge/generic kernel aside...
 

my approach on this would be to go for a kernel compiled for your machine. you have an advanced processor and architecture, your right on the bleeding edge. at the very least you should have the latest kernel updates from slackware.com (typically ending in '-2').

check out my thread on installing slackware, getting the latest kernel updates and more importantly on how to compile a kernel for your system... (click on my signature)

and let us know how it turns out.

chances are there are particularities related to your processors related to the kernel and only a properly compiled kernel for your machine will be a best match. which says nothing to the fact that you need cpu cooling, not on by default with the generic/huge kernels...

it's the approach i'd take

- perry

I suppose my dmesg output wouldn't hurt either (Sorry for the double post, too many characters.
All of these messages are posted after booting with the TEST kernel in the above post (acpi=off)

I wonder if someone will reply while I'm typing again :)

Thanks perry, I'll be reading your thread later on. I do know how to compile a custom kernel, and I'll definitely try that once any other options have been attempted... It's a big job, especially since I can't just leave the computer while it's compiling (otherwise It will stop). I'd much rather explore different options in configuration first.

Thanks for the advice though, because this is certainly a good time for me to begin collecting information about which kernel modules I'm going to need. :)

Try passing "notsc" as a kernel option when booting.
Thanks goes to mrgoblin and PiterPunk for this one (assuming it works).

Hi,

You don't have too build your new kernel on the resident machine. If you have another machine to use for the build then all you need to do is make certain the'.config' file is correct for the compile session. Then move the kernel image and the '`/lib/modules' together. If you have LAN then the move is just a matter of using the 'scp'. Otherwise you will need another medium since the kernel plus modules will be rather big, a flash will work fine.

As for the configuration, I tend to lean towards what perry suggested. You should create a new custom kernel with modules for your machine.

You should look at the kernel section of the 'Slackware-Links' formerly 'Slackware LQ Suggestions Links!' for some good online reference.

There is a chance that X is the one doing the locking up. init 3 will put you back into terminal mode. go init 4 to start x again


- perry

There is no "Lock up" perry :) just a stop. X isn't a problem.

In fact, since doing a few re-boots, the problem seems more sporadic. I'm not experiencing it right now, so I have no reason not to build myself a kernel -- as well as do some package updating, and standard configuring :)

@ rworkman, I've tried the notsc option. Unfortunately, I get no significant improvement.

It's frustrating. I'm pretty sure it's a kernel thing at this point. We'll see once I get my new kernel up and tweaked.

Okay, I talked again with PiterPunk - it seems that one of the power-saving options in the kernel (for Intel chipsets) caused some breakage on some AMD chipsets. Try passing "idle=poll" to the kernel and see if that makes a difference.

I wish I could say that worked.
I've also tried a new kernel with these differences:

where "old.configfile" belongs to the standard generic-smp kernel
I wasn't sure what differences there would be, but they didn't make the difference I wanted.
I'm starting to feel at a loss but I sincerely thank you all for the help so far!

Betcha any money!
 

*Sporatic*

I know what that is like... it has nothing to do with Linux. It wouldn't matter if you had Windows installed either.

It's your Bios! You got your system setup for high performance or something similar. Go back and change your Bios to either default settings or something much more reserved.

Ran into the same problem two weeks ago when a failed Lilo re-write took out my Cmos settings. Spent a week trying to get it figured out only to find out that just the default/basic settings in the Bios stopped the *eratic* behaviour that my formerly working Linux install was exhibiting.

Bet you any money you've got your Bios setup for high performance! Check out the web for other owners of your machine possibily having similiar problems!

- Perry