Hi All,

I have the following problem; in runlevels 1 and 3, after 15 minutes, the screen blanks (due to the setterm command in rc.M). But at the same time, the whole computer freezes, for example it stops responding to pings. No way to get it running again, and I have to press the power-off button for 4 secs in order to "shut down" the machine.

In runlevel 4, this does not happen.

If I shut down the machine in any runlevel before the freeze, the machines properly powers off, i.e. acpi seems to be operational and supported by the kernel and the bios.

Technical details: Slack10, bareacpi.i kernel, SiS651 chipset, sis display driver (the one coming with xorg).

Where should I start looking?

After a crash, boot a rescue CD or some sort, mount the crashed system's root partiton, and have a read at any relevant logs in /var/log

do the ends of any of these logs show any seriouse errors.

try de-activating ACPI with the "noacpi" kernel option.

always after 15 minutes... Do you have any cron jobs set to run 15 minutes after boot ?



and if all else fails, maybe try using the latest kernel.

unless the blocked pings are due to the firewall, then this surgests a seriouse kernel level fault.

what kernel version are you running ?
i remember when i was running slackware 10 (when it had just been released) i had to patch the 2.6 kernel againsed an exploit called "evil.c" that allows un-privilaged users to lock the kernel, could your system have been compromised ?

The system restarts normally, and my logs are not rotated. I did look into all the logs, but I found nothing at all.

I will try without ACPI.

The 15 min is the setterm command in rc.M, that is normal. I mean the delay, not the effect ;-)

There is a firewall on the machine, but it allows pings. They do work until the machine locks up.

Kernel is 2.4.26 from Slack-10-stable.

I don't think the system has been compromised. What I forgot to mention is that I use the vga=normal option in lilo. I'll try with a VESA framebuffer.

has this problem always existed, or has it just started with no explanation ?

if it has always happened since you installed slackware, try the 2.6 kernel.

As it is a workstation, I have always started up in runlevel 4, so I cannot really tell if it has always been this way. However, I am not keen on going for kernel 2.6.

But I have a few more test results:

- if in rc.M, I change "setterm -blank 15" to "setterm -blank 10", the computer freezes after 10 minutes instead of 15 minutes -> this is really what triggers the freeze

- the freeze happens if I have "vga=normal" in lilo.conf, but NOT if I put "vga=773"

- if at boot time I enter "linux noacpi" at the prompt, the computer also freezes.

I am going to investigate the BIOS settings now...
Any clues?

from the man pages...
1) The crash depends on how the Framebuffer is ebing used.. the framebuffer is entirely within the kernel.

2) setterm uses APM, again, screaming Kernel.

3) when it crashes, the system doesnt even reply to pings... in other words, the Kernel has frozen

All these signs are SCREAMING Kernel Bug to me.

you don like the 2.6 kernel ?
recently the 2.6 Tree's status was changed to "stable"
and the 2.4 tree to Obsolite.

there's no harm in trying the kernel, you dont have to delete your current kernel.

anyways, i would definatly, atleast try the 2.4.28 kernel.

I played with the BIOS settings but to no avail. I willl try to go for kernel 2.4.28. As I have never compiled a kernel, I'll have to go through some serious reading first.... OR is there an easy way to upgrade to the 2.4.28 kernel from Slackware-current?

for a new kernel, your options are....
1) use the 2.6 kernel from the slackware-10 install disks.
2) find a slackware package with a newer 2.4 kernel (i dont know where from)
3) compile yourself..

here's a a little guide on how to use your current kernel as a template for the new one, eliminating hours of configureing / reading.


in your /boot folder, is there a file with a name like "Config-version" ?

if yes, then this was the configureation file used to configure the kernel you are running, you can use it as a template to configure the new kenrel, and you might not have to do any reading.

download a kernel from kernel.org (click the "F" link to get Full source code instead of just a patch)

unpack the kernel somwhere... most people use /usr/src/
cd into the kernel kernel directory
copy the Config file from your /boot/ directory into the kernel directory.
rename the Config file to ".config" (dont miss the dot)
run "make oldconfig"

if any new features have been added to the 2.4.28 kernel since your current kernel, you will be asked if you want it, with the option (Yes/No/Module/H)
select H, read the help on it, and if needed, look it up on the internet.

however its quite likely that there are no new changes, maybe a few extra drivers, but they are easy (slect NO unless you have the hardware the driver is for)

after it has finished run "make menuconfig"
go into the Drivers/Filesystems menu, and make sure support for the file-system your root root partiton and boot partiton are compiled in (with the * symbol)
this eliminates the need to compile an initrd image.

you may also want to change some other things,,, for example in Processor type an features, you may want to choose your Own processor rather than the default 486.
but this is optional.

after, escape from the menu, selecting yes when it asks if you want to save.

now run
make deps
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install

now copy ls /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage to your /boot directory

and edit /boot/grub/menu.conf

add he lines a line

title Slackware (2.4.28)
kernel /boot/bzImage root=/dev/hda1

replace the root= with whatever your root partion is.

Rather than compiling from source, I put my faith once more into Pat's hands and took kernel 2.4.28 from Slackware-current. I just copied the precompiled bareacpi.i into /boot, modified lilo.conf and installed kernel-modules-2.4.28.tgz.

Still boots ;-)

However, it still freezes after 10 minutes.

maybe update setterm.

also,,, try 2.6 kernel. what do you have to loose, its not like a hashing out of a single line in lilo wont return it to normal.