I have Opensuse 11.3 with kernel 2.6.34.4-0.1-default i686 and use KDE4-4.5.1 from the new OpenSuse repo. My system sometimes freezes while using Firefox or Chrome and also sometimes playing with Kpatience or browsing images with Gwenview.
My video card is an old Sapphire Radeon working with radeon module and desktop effects are off.
The only way to bring up the system is hard resetting. I tried also the desktop kernel with no difference.
Hi,
Run a htop in terminal to see what could possibly cause this.
Is your graphic card an Intel integrated? If so, the problem should be fixed with kernel 2.6.35.
Maybe you would like trying the latest kernel from the repo Index of /repositories/Kernel:/HEAD/openSUSE_11.3 (but, given that this is not a stable repo, keep the kernel that you have already installed so that you can still boot with it if needed)
I have three laptops which suffer intermittent freezing.
Once the laptops are frozen everything has stopped responding and only a hard reboot will reset.
It is not possible to ssh onto the boxes to review processes and no entries in the logs provide any clue since it locks solid before the logs can be written to I guess.
One has an NVidia graphics card, one is an ATI and one has an older Radeon card but not the same one the OP said above.
None are Intel graphics card all are using the default opensource video drivers for the various cards.
Compiz has no effect on the freezes.
Desktop effects has no effect on the freezes.
Setting the locklimits has no effect on the freezes.
No version of the Kernel in the 2.6.34 series has had any effect on the freezes.
Neither 32bit nor 64bit has any effect on the freezes.
Neither -desktop or -default kernel has had any effect on the freezes.
The freezes occur frequently whilst using any browser, firefox, opera etc and sometimes OpenOffice 3.2 whilst doing simple plain operations with no pattern to the operations.
The freezes occured more frequently in KDE rather than gnome.
The freezes do not occur whilst using any other software except either browsers or OpenOffice that I have found yet.
The freezes do not occur whilst using a browser in a virtualbox vm. (no suprise really)
The freezes did not occur on OpenSuse 11.2 or earlier at any point on any of the machines.
The only update that had any effect on the freezes was an update released early after building these from a stock 11.3 to the library libmjpeg…
This update reduced the frequency of lockups by a factor of about 10 when using browsers such as firefox from around 5 a day to around 1 every 2 days.
I can only surmise that perhaps something like a common library call is being made by both browsers and openoffice that is locking the machines up solid.
rgds
Ok early days early days but I may have resolved the freezes on two of them.
I tried all the various failsafe kernel parameters to no effect.
Then I stopped by in the BIOS and on two of the laptops all the PCI IRQ assignments were set to 11.
I changed them all to Auto and I havn’t had a firefox/browser freeze since on either but too soon to tell and I have yet to try on the third.
Fingers crossed.
rgds
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One of them just froze solid using OpenOffice 3.2!
Ok back to the drawing board …
rgds
Wow that’s really something I’m having the same exact issue. Please have a look at thread:
Also see Comment #97
Bug 28402 - random radeon/kms/drm related freezes with kernel 2.6.34
Wonder when we will see this in the repositories?
rgds
Just confirming the same freezes occurs in kernel 2.6.36.1-1
Off to try 2.6.37xxxx
rgds
Exactly the same bug I’ve had since upgrading to 11.3, with a Radeon Mobility 9700 video card. I’ve updated a bug report I previously added to here:
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=627901
with a request for an official update with the patch. Let’s see what happens.
Like I mentioned before I had the same problem I determined that it was the drivers for the video card. check your /var/log/messages see if you have any kernel fglrx errors? if that is so you can go ahead and remove it and try to down load the latest driver from nVidia or ATI which for what I know are the ones with the problem. of course after you remove it you will lose your xwindow but as you prob already know you can get a temporary fix by running sax2.
The only down fall with that is if you have a dual screen, you will lose your dual head and have to find you way around it. That’s what Im doing right now.
Best Regards…
hi
I don’t think this is the same issue, all mine use stock video drivers, no fglrx in sight.
Also the freeze is so quick nothing arrives in any logs.
See earlier post re possible patch and its write up.
rgds
I’ve noticed something very curious and possibly entirely unrelated.
On the machines that freeze the opensuse forum login boxes don’t work properly.
weird.
rgds
hey man did you fix the issue?
Hi hgallo
No, no specific fix yet, I have taken to browsing in a VM 
Just upgraded to 3.6.13 firefox, just testing that to see if it changes the nature of the problem. No news yet though.
rgds
Well I guess that answers that question, firefox 3.6.13 didn’t fix the crashes, back to the drawing board.
rgds
If you want to minimize the freezes (and assuming you really have the exact same issue as myself) I’ve found that using Konqueror results in far fewer of these crashes than either Firefox, SeaMonkey or Opera. But the problem isn’t browser-specific and can occur even with a blank desktop and no programs running.
I havn’t had the freezes when using nothing, in fact i can use virtualbox and a vm all day without issue, it is rock solid.
If I use anything like openoffice or a browser I can guarentee a freeze within an hour.
All other tools seem reasonably fine however so I can use stuff like gedit and gimp without issue.
I am waiting for a kernel to be released with the patch mentioned earlier to do with the graphics memory window size included.
rgds
Well hope lucked out!
I was hoping Kernel 2.6.34.7-0.7 would include the fix mentioned earlier.
Unfortunately not and OpenSuse hung as usual a few minutes into using a browser such as firefox.
Still hope springs eternal … I guess wait for the next one …
rgds