I recently bought a new computer, brand new parts, assembled by a friend that I trust. I brought it home, installed OpenSUSE 11.2, and tweaked it over the course of last week, then I experienced a problem, with one of the programs causing a segmentation fault, and crashing.
Another symptom that began at that time was that attempts to move large amounts of data between computers (ftp via router), with no other activity, the computer would simply freeze up – the image on the screen would literally freeze-frame at the time that it occurred. The keyboard froze as well, making any attmempts to restart using ctrl-alt-delete, or to switch to the other computer (via a shared input/output and monitor switch) impossible.
I felt that the best remedy would be to use “Repair Installed System”. However, when I attempted this, I hit another glitch. After it loaded the kernel, it entered VGA mode with details of progress – which wasn’t much. It ends suddenly, with a Call Trace (final entry being “child_rip+0xa/0x20”), and the machine and keyboard lock up again, much like above.
Within these details, these lines seem to be the important indicators of what’s going on:
ata1: softreset failed (device not ready)
VFS: Cannot open root device “<NULL>” or unknown-block(3,1)
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3,1)
My root partition is located at sda1, so I attempted again using the Boot Option “root=0802” and experienced the same lockup, with a little more information:
EXT3-fs: sda2: couldn’t mount because of unsupported optional features (240).
EXT2-fs: sda2: couldn’t mount because of unsupported optional features (240).
No filesystem could mount root, tried: ext3 ext2 iso9660
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(8,2)
I have two identical hard drives: ATA WDC WD6400AACS-0 – both are formatted with the ext4 filesystem, which the installer is NOT attempting. Using the Boot Options of “rootfstype=ext4” and “root=0802” result in the same error.
I AM ABLE to “Boot from Hard Disk”, so the kernel I currently have installed and configured appears to be uncorrupted. But if I attempt any other selection from the OpenSUSE Installer provided by the DVD – Installation, Repair, Rescue, Check Installation Media, Firmware or Memory Test – it loads the kernel from the DVD, and locks up as above. I attempted to reinstall the OS entirely, for example, but couldn’t get past the Kernel Panic.
I have experienced this problem twice. The first time came at the end of last week. At one point, I unplugged the sdb drive, attempted a few things but went nowhere, then replugged sdb. I’m not sure what it did, but it fixed something. I was able to successfully open Repair Installed System as I wanted, but those attempts failed. After another hour, I chose to attempt a complete reinstallation, which was finally possible, and it was successful. (My apologies for not being more detailed about these processes – I didn’t think to log what I was doing at the time, and I’d rather describe them vaguely than remember incorrect details…)
I ran with this new installation for a few days, I am again encountering segmentation faults, and the machine locking up soon thereafter.
If it matters my motherboard is an ASUS M4A79T Deluxe.
Thanks for hearing me out. I looked for my problem in the forums, but found nothing quite like this. If it’s there and I missed it, please point me in the right direction! Also, if more information is needed about my hardware, please let me know…
Wildcat