Desktop keeps freezing and requires hard-reset

English Hardware
#1

Since installing openSUSE 1.4 a few days ago, I’ve encountered various problems, and overcome some of them.

During this time I’ve noticed a couple of times the desktop just inexplicably freezing. The mouse still moves but everything else is frozen. It requires me to switch the computer on and off manually.

It only happens once or twice a day, but still, I can’t use this is my work machine if that continues.

I know I’m not providing much information, but I don’t know what else to give. I’m a complete Linux newb, so go easy on the tech talk.

Any help appreciated.

#2

Ok,

Let’s go easy :

  1. Wich desktop environment ?
  2. Wath is your graphical card ?
  3. 3D activated or not ?
#3

Similar threads:
here
here
and here

With the only suggestion being to disable desktop effects and screen savers.

#4
  1. KDE
  2. NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M
  3. I have no idea. It’s just a fresh install.

My computer’s specs are available here:- PQF65A-00Y002 - Toshiba Qosmio F60 Notebook - Australia

I’ve tried to install the proprietary NVIDIA drivers, but the repository manager thing doesn’t seem to like the FTP address:

ftp://download.nvidia.com/opensuse/11.4/

This is the error:


Download (curl) error for 'ftp://download.nvidia.com/opensuse/11.4/repodata/repomd.xml':
Error code: HTTP response: 500
Error message: The requested URL returned error: 500
#5

P.S. I’m beginning to suspect that it might be something to do with Firefox. It seems to always happen while I’m browsing. But then again, maybe that’s because I’m always browsing. Anyway, I just downloaded Opera as a test.

#6

Well, whatever is causing it, it’s none of those things.

I’m using Chromium with the desktop effects and screensaver disabled and it just happened again.

Whatever it is, it makes the OS useless, for me at-least. This is occurring every 20 minutes or so. I appreciate it’s open source and free and it’s “not windows” and all that, so I’m not complaining. Also I would like OpenSUSE to be my main OS, but I have to be honest and say this never-ending list of problems is starting to wear me down. Hopefully a solution will be discovered soon so I don’t have to revert back to Windows (well, I’d probably go back to Ubuntu first). If there’s anything I need to post that might be of value, let me know what and how.

#7

Bug Report:

https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=680748

Downgrading to 11.3 (presumably through a fresh install) is an option, but not a good one.

#8

On 03/18/2011 09:06 AM, wombatvvv wrote:
>
> Well, whatever is causing it, it’s none of those things.

patience…give the folks here a chance to help you…you don’t have
to give up so easy…wait a minute…
what you are seeing is NOT typical of openSUSE…

well, it is pretty typical of 11.4 which is now (what?) one week
old…i’m running 11.3 which is pretty sweet, and i only had one
little crazy thing happen, about two days after i installed, about
three weeks ago or so…

i will NOT install 11.4 for another several months…because it is
not very stable yet–well, it depends on your hardware and software…

–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[NNTP posted w/openSUSE 11.3, KDE4.5.5, Thunderbird3.1.8, 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

#9

Was 11.4 rushed? 11.2 and 11.3 were not like this at all.

#10

On 03/18/2011 11:06 PM, bsilvereagle wrote:
>
> Was 11.4 rushed? 11.2 and 11.3 were not like this at all.

i can’t answer questions that only the folks who developed the release
can answer…

and, there are no devs here to answer for themselves…here we are
all ‘just’ users helping users…

the devs hang out on IRC and mail lists…

–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[NNTP posted w/openSUSE 11.3, KDE4.5.5, Thunderbird3.1.8, 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

#11

Thats funny, I was thinking the samething. As buggy as opensuse KDE and Gnome is, It seams that they put it together in the last mouth of a 8 mouth cycle.
The stars did not a line with all the software for 11.4 as well as the past releases. But that is the way it goes sometimes.
They will get it worked out a little better on the next release.

#12

I have experienced this as well. I have 11.4, KDE, Nvidia, Proprietary drivers. I updated to KDE 4.6.1, thinking that perhaps it was KDE. I do not, however, lose everything. I restart x, (ctrl-alt-bkspc) and it is fine. I have full desktop effects running, with the cube switcher. If I have a remote session running (rdesktop) and have my regular programs running on another desktop (console, weather widget, solar widget) I can get it to freeze. If I wait for 3 minutes, KDE will turn off the effects. I’m thinking it is the driver. I duplicated this with 11.3 and the newer Nvidia driver.

#13

After experimenting, I found that I had to uninstall the open source driver. There must ahve been some sort of conflict with the Nvidia driver.

#14

I spoke too soon. Despite anything I have done, my desktop is still crashing. In fact, I have not seen this type of instability since KDE embarked upon plasma and 4.0.

#15

Ok, I think that I found the fix to my instability/locking up problem I was having. I loaded Gnome and used it , But it still locked up , But not as bad as KDE, It was still to much.
I notice on the forum That only a few people was having the trouble I was having.

So it was time to drop back and punt. The ISO looked fine.
So I decided to burn a new disk as slow as I could. (I always slow it down when burning, I guess not slow enough the last time) After making a few coaster and using my usb drive/burner, I was able to burn a new Disk.

I have been using KDE after a install off the new disk for a few hours and have to say that I have had no problems with lockup on this install. This is with FF.B4 and effects on with default display driver.

I would say , If you having the terrible lockup problem , Burn a new disk at a slow speed, 4x was good for me.
Let us know if it works for you.

#16

Thanks for your input and experimentation in solving the problem.

However, I can’t see any rational reason that burning a new disc at a slow speed could possibly help with the desktop crashing.

Although I’m all-ears if anyone wants to educate me…!

Thanks.

#17

On 03/21/2011 12:06 AM, wombatvvv wrote:
>
> Although I’m all-ears if anyone wants to educate me…!

the OP didn’t have to burn a new disk to learn if that would help,
all he had to do was: http://tinyurl.com/2ebcf27 on the old one…

which both of you should do before beginning the install process
(and do now if you didn’t before)–if the media check shows an error
(any error), do NOT install with it…

if there are no errors, then burning a new disk is just wasted effort
(unless you want to give it to a friend)…

–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[NNTP posted w/openSUSE 11.3, KDE4.5.5, Thunderbird3.1.8, 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

Mr DenverD

Thank you for tiring to educate me on media check. But as the case maybe , It is not flawless and not the best advice for me because the disk that is in the trash was found with no errors.

Now if you want to put your fill faith in media check, By all means have at it.
But I will not.

Thank you.

wombatvvv

I am no expert and could be wrong. But I think if one bit of a core files does not get burned quite right it will create problem like this and check fine in media check.

Now I have had less problems like this and more with installing the system in the past., And it not installing quite right and the hard drives over work and make noise, But the system still works, so I have to re-install to get things to settle down. Maybe blame it on the CD drive , I don’t no. The right BIT in a core file that gets hosed and it will work, But not right.

#19

Interesting information guys, thanks.

However, it seems the crashing problems have been fixed (unless I was just incredibly lucky all day).

I think it may have been the nVidia drivers getting updated in the software update thing.

#20

Running 11.4 with the NVIDIA driver installed, no issues at all. DId you try to install the NVIDIA driver the ‘hard way’?

If you open Konqueror, the go to “sysinfo:/” does it report the NVIDIA driver being in use?

Does adding “nomodeset” to the boot-options, right after “vga=…” change things?

To be honest, 11.4 to me is a very stable release, supporting more hardware than ever before. I know there was no rush, on the contrary.

Edit: another question: is this on a reused .kde4 folder? What happens if you create a new user, then log in as that user. The cause of the crash may very well be in some older plasmoid config.