Strange issue with 11.3 and new AMD system

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1

This is my first post here so I’d like to say hello and thank you to anyone that is kind enough to respond. I’ll try not to bore you but want to give as much information as possible to hopefully obtain a solution to my problem. I recently built a new rig. I’ve been with Intel Since the Pentium 3 but my first box was a k6-2-500. Remember those days? Anyway, I recently got a deal on a MB/CPU/MEM Combo so I find myself back to AMD and while everything runs perfectly under Windows, I’m having some annoying issues under Linux and am hoping that perhaps an adjustment will correct the issue.

Windows is used primarily as my Gaming rig as well as various programs I use when composing music. Linux however, is my primary OS and I have been running OpenSuse -well it was just Suse back then- since V9. My previous system that I handed down to my son is a Core 2 e6750 with 4gb crucial ddr2 and an msi board with a 9800gtx+ and a SB card for audio. Both Windows and OpenSuse Linux performed wonderfully over the last 4 years on this machine. It still played every game I threw at it but my son was in serious need of an upgrade so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and build a new system. I will return this combo and most likely go i7 if I can’t figure this out.

Since I kept my Antec Case with 1000 Watt PS, I installed my old guts into my sons brand new Alien looking case that he selected. I performed fresh installations of both Windows and OpenSuse 11.3 on both machines the same day and currently have them running side by side. My new system is a Phenom II X4 955 with a biostar A780L3G board, 4gb Samsung ddr3, GTX-260 and a SB card for audio. The problem, I am having is when I run an application that may be somewhat taxing on the system, it hangs for a little bit but eventually recovers. For example, just running nvsettings for the graphics card I may be waiting up to 10 seconds for the application while the mouse cursor is frozen and I cannot do anything. I also noticed the same type of issue with vmware. If I minimize my virtual machine but then come back to it, the system will hang for up to 10 seconds and then be just fine. This gets really annoying especially when I have to wait 10 seconds for the system to come back. On the Windows side everything works great. No blue screens and the games are noticeably better compared to my old system.

Any Ideas?

2

Since I kept my Antec Case with 1000 Watt PS, I installed my old guts into my sons brand new Alien looking case that he selected. I performed fresh installations of both Windows and OpenSuse 11.3 on both machines the same day and currently have them running side by side. My new system is a Phenom II X4 955 with a biostar A780L3G board, 4gb Samsung ddr3, GTX-260 and a SB card for audio. The problem, I am having is when I run an application that may be somewhat taxing on the system, it hangs for a little bit but eventually recovers. For example, just running nvsettings for the graphics card I may be waiting up to 10 seconds for the application while the mouse cursor is frozen and I cannot do anything. I also noticed the same type of issue with vmware. If I minimize my virtual machine but then come back to it, the system will hang for up to 10 seconds and then be just fine. This gets really annoying especially when I have to wait 10 seconds for the system to come back. On the Windows side everything works great. No blue screens and the games are noticeably better compared to my old system.

Any Ideas?
So cobaltss are you installing the nVIDIA proprietary video driver for your GTX-260? The driver settings program is called /usr/bin/nvidia-settings and not nvsdettings is why I ask. Here is the link about loadfing the driver the hard way:

SDB:NVIDIA the hard way - openSUSE

Further, I have a script file that can be helpful in installing the latest driver the hardware here:

LNVHW - Load NVIDIA (driver the) Hard Way from runlevel 3

Message #12 has the most recent version of lnvhw. I always use this method myself.

Thank You,

3

Its Nvidia settings found in System/configuration along with the nvidia-dock option. I should have been more specific since “nv” and “nvidia” make a difference, or used to. sysinfo:/ reports 3D driver: NVIDIA 260.19.36 but oddly enough I do not see the nvidia logo during boot. Could this be video related? I don’t have this issue on my older core 2 system with 9800gtx+ so am curious about this system. The 260GTX is still pretty old compared to what else is out there so I question the video driver. I should note that even running sysinfo:/ will cause the system to “pause” or “hang” for about 5 seconds. My old system never did that.

4

Its Nvidia settings found in System/configuration along with the nvidia-dock option. I should have been more specific since “nv” and “nvidia” make a difference, or used to. sysinfo:/ reports 3D driver: NVIDIA 260.19.36 but oddly enough I do not see the nvidia logo during boot. Could this be video related? I don’t have this issue on my older core 2 system with 9800gtx+ so am curious about this system. The 260GTX is still pretty old compared to what else is out there so I question the video driver. I should note that even running sysinfo:/ will cause the system to “pause” or “hang” for about 5 seconds. My old system never did that.
Speaking of the sysinfo page, having a memory problem, disk read problem or a temp folder problem is more likely a culprit to slow down that page display and not video. Why not list all of the information given on that page for memory, free, swap, disks, free total, video driver, really all text on the screen for use to read. You might also include a listing of your /etc/fstab file.

Thank You,

5

Will do! It seems that whenever something is launched that may be a “tax” on the system, it does this. Same thing when trying to wine UT2004. Never on my core 2 did everything just pause for 10 seconds and then return… Even when I insert a disc in the dvd drive, everything “stops” or “pauses” while it reads it and then returns to normal. During this time I cannot do anything as the mouse won’t move and there is no response from the keyboard as well. Keep in mind everything works great on Win XP Pro SP3 fully updated.

sysinfo

CPU Information
Processor (CPU): AMD Phenom™ II X4 955 Processor
Speed: 800.00 MHz
Cores: 4
Temperature: 24 °C

Memory Information
Total memory (RAM): 3.9 GiB
Free memory: 1.3 GiB (+ 2.1 GiB Caches)
Free swap: 2.0 GiB

Disk Information
Device
Filesystem
Total space
Available space
My Book ntfs-3g 465.8 GiB
/dev/sdb1 vfat 3.8 GiB
GTA IV Disc 1 udf 7.0 GiB
/ ext4 346.1 GiB 241.4 GiB
104.7 GiB
/dev/sda1 ntfs-3g 345.0 GiB

OS Information
OS: Linux 2.6.34.7-0.7-desktop x86_64
Current user: admin@linux-m4jh
System: openSUSE 11.3 (x86_64)
KDE: 4.4.4 (KDE 4.4.4) “release 3”

Display Info
Vendor: nVidia Corporation
Model: GeForce GTX 260
2D driver: nvidia
3D driver: NVIDIA 260.19.36

fstab

/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Hitachi_HCS721075KLA330_GTE200P8G1P4EE-part2 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Hitachi_HCS721075KLA330_GTE200P8G1P4EE-part3 / ext4 acl,user_xattr 1 1
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0

Thanks for your time dude, I really appreciate it!

6

Another thing I’d like to point out. I was just on youtube and when I try to maximize the display to fit my screen the system “pauses” BUT when it goes into full screen there is no picture, only sound. Are we back to video? Should I try my old 9800gtx+?

7

So I see a couple of things. One is the free memory:

Free memory: 1.3 GiB (+ 2.1 GiB Caches)

My Caches are less than half that. Now there have been a lot of discussions on the issues of memory usage and I do not see your swap file being used, based on what you posted, but one user discovered he was running a program Digikam, that actually had a known memory leak which was part of their problem. The System Monitor might give a clue there.

Next, your 3.4 ghz CPU is running at 800 mhz. If this is a Laptop, that would be fine on Batteries or if heat is some kind of big issue, other wise you need to let the air out of this puppy and crank it up. The normal way to do that with KDE 4 these days is to actually go into YaST / Software / Software Management and search on Power and load the YaST-Power program. Once done, restart YaST. After loaded, go into YaST / System / System Service (Run Level) and enable the pm-profiler for levels 2, 3 & 5 and the give it a start. Next run YaST / System / Power Management and select **Low Latency Computing **and pick Finish. Now open up the sysinfo again and see if you are running at 3.4 GHZ and if that is making any difference for you.

Thank You,

8

Well, all that got me is my fan running full speed but everything else is the same so problem not solved. sysinfo shows Speed: 3,200.00 MHz all the time now and not the 800 but isn’t the cool and quiet feature supposed to be supported and ratchet up to necessary clock speeds on demand? it does on winblows. Is it possible my motherboard sucks? I don’t blame AMD for this, I installed XP in 5 minutes and OpenSuse 11.3 in 13 minutes. My mainboard is cheap, perhaps it’s ok for Windows but maybe Linux doesn’t like it?

9

you gave a lot of info, but you missed (or i missed finding it) if you
installed 32 or 64…

i ask because i’ve seen folks around here mention a bug in the nvidia
driver on 54 bit machines–BUT, i do not remember the symptoms of the
bug (10 second pause, i don’t know!) but i guess a search of these
fora (using the advanced search page or the google site specifier
site:forums.opensuse.org) on something like

site:forums.opensuse.org nvidia 64 bug “11.3” +“10 seconds” OR “ten
seconds” +pause OR freeze

might turn up some useful hits, maybe…have a look…

also i missed finding if you have run YaST to update the system since
initial install…i wonder about that because i think i remember when
11.3 was new on the street there were some pause/hang issues that got
fixed in one of the early updates…

and, finally i missed seeing if you have checked the board maker’s
site to see if there has been a BIOS update which you might need to
apply…

oh, and why not open an instance of top in an xterminal and leave it
were you can see it…then, when you have a freeze see what is listed
as using the most cycles…AND, does it change as the system thaws…

finally (again), have you looked at the logs to see if there are any
bread crumbs/clues there?

last (again) you didn’t mention if this began from the very first
minute after install, or did it work ok a while and then go sour…

well, now i can’t find if you are even running the open or closed
nvidia driver…have you been here:

http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Configuring_graphics_cards

–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[NNTP posted w/openSUSE 11.3, KDE4.5.5, Thunderbird3.0.11, nVidia
173.14.28 3D, Athlon 64 3000+]
“It is far easier to read, understand and follow the instructions than
to undo the problems caused by not.” DD 23 Jan 11

10

So when I run top from a term i see the following line jump to 100% cpu usage.

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND

1564 root 20 0 143m 48m 15m S 100 1.2 2:00.73 Xorg

-I am running the 64 bit version of OpenSuse 11.3 fully updated after a fresh install.

I checked for a bios update with the windows utility and I am up to date.

I’m not sure I have the right video driver either since I don’t see the nvidia logo. I do have the repository added and the drivers I appear to be using or are checked are…

nvidia-gfxG02-kmp-desktop - NVIDIA graphics driver kernel module for GeForce 6xxx and newer GPUs

x11-video-nvidiaG02 - NVIDIA graphics driver for GeForce 6xxx and newer GPUs

xorg-x11-driver-video-nouveau - Accelerated Open Source driver for nVidia cards

I also noticed that the following is showing red in Yast and cannot be updated…

nvdock-1.02-0.pm.2.1.x86_64

I’ll have a look at that link about the driver… Thanks for your help.

11

On 03/06/2011 12:36 AM, cobaltss wrote:

> So when I run top from a term i see the following line jump to 100% cpu
> usage.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 1564 root 20 0 143m 48m 15m S 100 1.2 2:00.73 Xorg

ok, so what is happening is that X-windows is sucking up all your cpu
cycles for about ten seconds…during which time nothing else can
happen…

this is NOT normal…something is wrong…it can be fixed…with
patience (let me suggest you not “try everything you can think of” to
fix it…and, don’t try every thing you find on the net that tells
you how to fix it…and, be VERY careful and look for the date of
the postings, and the versions involved: lots of the info on openSUSE
11.0 Xorg, display problems etc will NOT help with 11.3
problems…been lots of display/X changes lately…

i guess if you look at the logs you will find some hints…i am not
sure the best places to look, maybe in one or more of these (i’m
guessing…and, hoping someone else will tell you the best places
to look):

/var/log/Xorg.0.log
/var/log/messages

finding the right log and the right error is gonna be key…let me
guess that you will see the same or similar error or warning
OFTEN…and, if you look at the computer clock when it freezes you
should then be able to go into the (correct) log and find THAT
date/time and learn what was happening…

> I’m not sure I have the right video driver either since I don’t see the
> nvidia logo. I do have the repository added and the drivers I appear to
> be using or are checked are…

easy: on your desktop is a “My Computer” click it and find the section
labeled (here) as “Disply Info”, there you will find the vendor, model
and driver(s) being used…

–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[NNTP posted w/openSUSE 11.3, KDE4.5.5, Thunderbird3.0.11, nVidia
173.14.28 3D, Athlon 64 3000+]
“It is far easier to read, understand and follow the instructions than
to undo the problems caused by not.” DD 23 Jan 11

12

i should have mentioned earlier…do not ignore James from
Austin…he is looking at the problem from a different
perspective–which may very well be the correct one!

we do not know what the problem is, yet…we just know the symptoms…

–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[NNTP posted w/openSUSE 11.3, KDE4.5.5, Thunderbird3.0.11, nVidia
173.14.28 3D, Athlon 64 3000+]
“It is far easier to read, understand and follow the instructions than
to undo the problems caused by not.” DD 23 Jan 11

13

I found the problem and it is video related.

During the installation of OpenSuse 11.3 it used the “xorg-x11-driver-video-nouveau” driver which by itself could be fine. BUT, “BEFORE” updating I added the available community repositories i.e. Nvidia, Packman and so on. OpenSuse 11.3 installed the “nvidia-gfxG02-kmp-desktop” along with the “x11-video-nvidiaG02” but left the “xorg-x11-driver-video-nouveau” as you can see where I mentioned in an earlier part of this thread where Yast reported all 3 installed. The nouveau is an opensource driver so it should have been removed after the Nvidia driver was installed but it wasn’t. Simply removing the nouveau driver solved the problem and 3D is working great and there is no more 10 second pause. So after all it really had nothing to do with AMD and the system is quite a nice upgrade from the core2 e6750.

Thanks to those that responded and were willing to take their time to help me out. I hope this thread will be useful for somebody else in the future.

CHEERS!
Cheers! :slight_smile:

14

On 03/07/2011 10:06 AM, cobaltss wrote:
>
> I found the problem

good job!!

happy to hear you got rid of that nasty pause!!
good for you for sticking with it! (and, thanks for posting the
solution, for those that follow)

–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[NNTP posted w/openSUSE 11.3, KDE4.5.5, Thunderbird3.0.11, nVidia
173.14.28 3D, Athlon 64 3000+]
“It is far easier to read, understand and follow the instructions than
to undo the problems caused by not.” DD 23 Jan 11

15

Interesting approach.

What some of us also do is leave the ‘xorg-x11-driver-video-nouveau’ rpm in place and instead configure openSUSE such that the nouveau driver is not called. That can be done by running yast (you can run yast in text mode with root permissions if X window not available) and navigate to yast > System > /etc/sysconfig Editor > System > Kernel > NO_KMS_IN_INITRD and change it to “yes”. This takes a minute or two to save once changed is submitted. In such a case (if proprietary driver is not yet installed) boot with the boot code ‘nomodeset’. That will force loading of the older “nv” graphic driver for your hardware (which may or may not work).

One can also blacklist the “nouveau” driver in the /etc/modprobe.d/50-blacklist.conf file. This can be done with root permissions by typing:


     echo "blacklist nouveau" >> /etc/modprobe.d/50-blacklist.conf

Note when there is a kernel update, the proprietary driver which is now in use could be broken (until a proprietary driver for the new kernel version is released) and at a time like that you may wish to fall back to another graphic driver. With your having removed the nouveau driver rpm, your choice in such a case may be to instead use the “nv” or the “vesa” or the “fbdev” graphic drivers.

There is some rather basic openSUSE graphic card practical theory here: openSUSE Graphic Card Practical Theory Guide for Users

16

I feel compelled to post again because I didn’t find the problem. For one night the solution I described worked but the next day when I started my system fresh, it was back to the 10 second pause. Like I said I recently installed 11.3 on two machines coming from 11.2 on my laptop(which was always fine) and 11.1 on my desktop (which was always fine as well). I found nothing but problems with 11.3 on two separate platforms AMD&INTEL.

I decided I didn’t want to spend anymore time trying to figure out why my system was behaving like it did so instead of trying to figure out 11.3, I waited for 11.4 and downloaded it TODAY(the day of it’s official release) and must say that I am quite pleased. The issues I had in 11.3 are gone and everything seems so much faster and efficient. I do have a gripe about my sound card and will post it here since I started this thread in hopes that the moderators let it be, but aside from this one tiny detail, 11.4 is really stout compared to 11.3 on this system. I am an old has been for KDE 3.5 and still miss it but the newer 4.6 with OpenSuse 11.4 is really catching my eye.

My one gripe about 11.4 Sound…I have an old SB Live 5.1 Card that I keep using because I can adjust the BASS and TREBLE which is essential. The Sound Configuration is much different on 11.4 and even though I uninstalled “pulse audio” like in the past, adding TREBLE and BASS to my mixer only gives me sliders that dont actually change anything. Same result if I go to Yast and adjust it there. My sound car is old. I have kept it because of the ability to adjust the Treble and Bass compared to any onboard sound. If anyone has a suggestion for a better Sound Card that would enable me to adjust these settings under Linux, I’ll buy it tomorrow!

Thanks!

AND THANK YOU TO EVERYONE INVOLVED WITH OPENSUSE! 11.4 SEEMS AWESOME!!!

17

On 03/11/2011 06:36 AM, cobaltss wrote:
> My one gripe about 11.4 Sound…

i hope that NO one responds with any technical help to this new 11.4
sound question now buried in a 11.3 question thread without sound in
the subject!

and, please @cobaltss…work through the stickies at the top of the
multimedia forum before you post your new problem in a new thread in
the correct forum, with a descriptive subject line…

thanks!

–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[NNTP posted w/openSUSE 11.3, KDE4.5.5, Thunderbird3.0.11, nVidia
173.14.28 3D, Athlon 64 3000+]
“It is far easier to read, understand and follow the instructions than
to undo the problems caused by not.” DD 23 Jan 11

18

Sorry I forgot my forum etiquette in my last post. I shouldn’t have posted anything at all!

19

Sorry I forgot my forum etiquette in my last post. I shouldn’t have posted anything at all!
cobaltss, please just start yourself your own thread, with this new problem in the thread name so others will know what the issue is about. I normally look at the thread title and decide if I can help based on that information. If the title does not relate to your issue, someone with a possible solution to your unspecified problem might pass you by.

Don’t get mad, geta new thread instead.

Thank You,