My computer (openSUSE 11.3 64 KDE, Intel Quad 2.33, ATI 4350 with propriety drivers installed, 4 Gigs of RAM) frequently freezes, especially after I turn it on or reboot it. Sometimes it freezes completely and at other times just slows down to a crawl. At times I can write my name on the screen because the icon of the program I’m trying to open leaves a trail of copies of itself behind it as I move the cursor. Windows will become unresponsive or close unexpectedly. Dolphin is especially prone to crashing unexpectedly. I can’t send in the crash reports for that because I can’t seem to find the necessary repositories or install the right software. I try to follow the instructions given after Dolphin crashes, but do not achieve a satisfactory result.
As a long time MS Windows user none of this behavior is new to me. I was hoping to avoid it on my Linux install, and mostly and until recently I have. At least with native Linux programs. Gaming under wine is another issue. And most of the time these symptoms disappear after about 5 or so minutes. Whatever was causing the problem goes away. I usually don’t have to wait that long for a window to become responsive again or the graphics system to fix itself. I bothers me but doesn’t completely frustrate me.
I realize too that there multiple, multiple reasons why these various symptoms could be happening. It could be the graphics drivers, flash, Firefox extensions or a maybe a hardware or corrupt installation problem. Some of these issues, such as graphics drivers being substandard for gaming when compared to Windows, are just part of the price of using OSS and free software. I dual boot openSUSE and Windows 7 and try to do as much as possible in openSUSE. Windows 7 has its share of freezing on me, in some ways worse than openSUSE, which is why I wonder if I have a hardware problem.
This is perhaps a lengthy way to ask a question: How do I see what’s running on my comp under Linux? In Windows 7 I can start the task manager and get a sense of what’s running, what’s using the cpu, and how much memory it has. It will even give me a graph for each of my 4 cpu’s. I have found a widget in openSUSE that gives me a graph of how much RAM and the CPU are being used. But nothing I know of tells me, for example, how much of the cpu Firefox is using. It’s the main culprit for freezing, followed closely by digiKam. Is there something I can run that might tell me what is clogging up my system when these symptoms occur? Any particular insights into any of them?. I keep my system up to date with system updates etc. Thank you for your attention.
‘top’ in a terminal is pretty useful. I also strongly recommend to run a memtest on your RAM (package ‘memtest86+’, after the install you should find an entry in your bootloader, let it run for about six hours).
>
> Open a console window and type top
>
> This will show what processes are consuming resources.
>
> This sounds like graphics problems for the most part. The current
> kernels have been having problems with this across most distributions
>
>
I prefer also top in a console, but there is of course a fancy gui. In KDE
simply press simultanously [CTRL][ESC] and a gui with the processes comes
up. You can also choose in the upper left corner to have a tree view.
There is a similar gui in gnome but I forgot where it is.
–
openSUSE 11.3 64 bit | Intel Core2 Quad Q8300@2.50GHz | KDE 4.5 | GeForce
9600 GT | 4GB Ram
openSUSE 11.3 64 bit | Intel Core2 Duo T9300@2.50GHz | KDE 4.5 | Quadro FX
3600M | 4GB Ram
Thanks for all the help. I’ve learned a few more things. It does indeed seem to be xorg that’s frequently at the top of the list when problems start, but the numbers it’s showing don’t seem to be overwhelming, at least not what I would expect to see in MS Windows when a program is clogging things up. I’m not sure what is happening. I’ve run a memory tester recently through Windows 7 and it didn’t indicate any problems. But I will run it again with Linux. Thanks again.
Thanks for the info. I have changed it to 512. I’ll see if that makes a difference. Last night for some reason the computer was really acting up. But this evening it’s been smooth. No problems whatsoever. Not sure why but I’ll take it as it comes. The system activity window was at times telling me my disk was sleeping during times I was making serious demands on it and it was freezing a lot. That didn’t make sense and I’m going to research it a bit. Thanks again.
Thanks for the info. I have changed it to 512. I’ll see if that makes a difference. Last night for some reason the computer was really acting up. But this evening it’s been smooth. No problems whatsoever. Not sure why but I’ll take it as it comes. The system activity window was at times telling me my disk was sleeping during times I was making serious demands on it and it was freezing a lot. That didn’t make sense and I’m going to research it a bit. Thanks again.
You are welcome !
Be careful with this setting !!! If it works for you now, leave it as it is. Let us know how your are going with your computer. eg is it stable now, no more freezes etc ?
Ok, it’s started acting up again. I’m not sure what’s doing it but I have a few suspicions. I think the “Search Service” is slowing things down. I get lots of “disk sleep” entries in the System Activity window when it is running. I think the search service running is associated with regular “grinding” noises from my hard disk. It’s noticeable because it’s so repetitive and regular. I’m also transferring 13 gigs of pictures to a flash drive at the same time. I think that would slow things down too.
I’ve researched the disk sleep problem and it may be something that can be stopped by changing the power management settings. This seems the wrong way to solve the problem. I don’t understand how that would work unless it’s just buggy. I will try to see what changes I can make there. But I don’t want to waste electricity.
I’m also going to check out my Firefox plugins to see if there are too many there. My system definitely doesn’t like flash such as Youtube. I may remove or disable a few following a suggestion I found on the forums. Thanks again.
I think the “Search Service” is slowing things down.
Which one - Akonadi, Tracker…? Anyway, these services can be heavy on resources (especially when building up a database for the first time), but grinding noises are rather a sign of a failing harddisk. You should check that.
I’m also going to check out my Firefox plugins to see if there are too many there.
Do you actually mean plugins or addons? Firefox addons shouldn’t be that much of a problem, I myself have more than 30 (no, that’s not a typo) of them enabled. If you were referring to plugins, I wonder how there can be “too many”.
A ticking is a repetitive read attempt. This is normally a hard disk problem. Get scan software from the drive makers site. Linux will attempt to read a sector until it gets it right or the end of the universe which ever comes first.
This is a quick followup to a rather old post, but I wanted to say the problem recently went away. I don’t know why, but I did some stuff that may have made a difference. I shut down desktop searching. That didn’t have an immediate effect. Firefox was still freezing and digiKam could still bring the system to a standstill. For some reason it would clear itself up after about 10 minutes, unless digikam was involved. I checked the disk from my windows partition. I didn’t check it from Linux because I couldn’t find anything on Western Digital’s site except windows stuff. There may be more Linux tools there, but I didn’t look very much. Anyway there were no errors. I also changed my video card to a faster (much faster I think) model (Radeaon 5770 vrs the old 4550 (?)) and upgraded my drivers to the latest. I get a preview of a minimized window when I mouse over it on the task bar, like I do in Windows 7. That’s new for me. Firefox isn’t freezing now. I’m not out of the woods entirely though because digiKam can still kick my usually speedy computer into the ditch and leave it having fits and seizures. Perhaps that’s because it’s photo editing software. I don’t know. Thanks again for the help.
On 2010-11-19 06:06, Subsidiarity wrote:
>
> This is a quick followup to a rather old post, but I wanted to say the
> problem recently went away. I don’t know why, but I did some stuff that
> may have made a difference. I shut down desktop searching. That didn’t
> have an immediate effect. Firefox was still freezing and digiKam could
I just had a quick look.
Another possible cause is disk errors, which would show in the log
(/var/log/messages).
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)
Thanks for the reply. I’ve open that log. What am I looking for? It’s enormous to say the least. There’s stuff highlighted in red. Here’s one of the last of these entries:
:58:14 linux-zn6y kernel: 30.195595] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Nov 20 18:58:27 linux-zn6y kernel: 42.398792] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Nov 20 18:58:39 linux-zn6y python: hp-systray[2725]: error: option -s not recognized
This doesn’t look good but I don’t know what it means. What should look for? Searching for “error” gives me lots of results. Many or all are highlighted in red. Searching for “disk” gives me fewer results. Searching for “disk error” gives me none that I can find, but it seems only to highlight them not move me to their place in the text. That’s not very functional for searching if that’s what it’s doing. Thanks again for the assistance.
You know Subsidiarity, I don’t know how old this PC is, but if it is over a year old, have you considered doing a dust cleaning of the PC? I would turn it off, unplug everything and take it outside in the light, open the side panel and blow out all of the dust within. You can but can’s of compressed air to help blow out the case (buy at least two) which can be very helpful. I normally suggest re-seating all memory and options cards. That means pull them out and put them back in. Do the same for all power and data connectors. Depending on the amount of dust in your household, doing this every 6 to 12 months is highly recommended. You will need to know what all of those wires do behind that computer to connect it back together. I sometimes mark them all to get them back in the same place when there is more than one option.
On 2010-11-21 01:36, Subsidiarity wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> Thanks for the reply. I’ve open that log. What am I looking for? It’s
> enormous to say the least. There’s stuff highlighted in red. Here’s one
> of the last of these entries:
I don’t see any colors from here.
>> :58:14 linux-zn6y kernel: 30.195595] end_request: I/O error, dev
>> fd0, sector 0
>> Nov 20 18:58:27 linux-zn6y kernel: 42.398792] end_request: I/O
>> error, dev fd0, sector 0
That’s the floppy, thus irrelevant.
>> Nov 20 18:58:39 linux-zn6y python: hp-systray[2725]: error: option -s
>> not recognized
Irrelevant. It is a bug, yes, but not something of interest now.
> This doesn’t look good but I don’t know what it means. What should look
> for? Searching for “error” gives me lots of results. Many or all are
> highlighted in red. Searching for “disk” gives me fewer results.
> Searching for “disk error” gives me none that I can find, but it seems
> only to highlight them not move me to their place in the text. That’s
> not very functional for searching if that’s what it’s doing. Thanks
> again for the assistance.
I can’t give you a exact string to search for, because I know them when I
see them - but you can look around for reports just after the machine gets
stuck. I can have a look if you post it on pastebin, but, if your hard disk
is named /dev/sda the errors I’m thinking about should have that string.
You can also have a look at the /var/log/warn file, it is much smaller and
should have the important stuff.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)
> You can but
> can’s of compressed air to help blow out the case (buy at least two)
> which can be very helpful.
An experienced maintenance chap told me not to do that, at least not on the
fans: ot blows dust in every direction, including inside the motor bearing,
which clogs and turns slower. Maybe not immediately, but it is a danger,
that has happened to him.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)
An experienced maintenance chap told me not to do that, at least not on the
fans: ot blows dust in every direction, including inside the motor bearing,
which clogs and turns slower. Maybe not immediately, but it is a danger,
that has happened to him.
You know robin_listas, I think that fans go bad and the older they are , the more likely they will go bad. Fans seem to work just great, until they decide to go bad, at the time of their own choosing. You have got to get rid of the dust buildup someway and I am not going to take the power supply apart to get the dust out. Anytime you work on a PC, you could be taking a chance, but the dust and dirt will finally do your PC in, trust me on that. So I say Bolderdash to not using cans of Duster, it works just fine and I use it all of the time.