Instability of OpenSuSE version 12.1 (STABLE)

English Hardware
#1

2 weeks ago I’ve installed the latest stable OpenSuSE version 12.1 on my ACER 8572T laptop, updating an older 11.4 (or 11.6) kernel. Downloaded the DVD version and installed from DVD. With the older version, none of the issues described below ever happened!

Since then the system became rather unstable.
For work reasons I use regularly external USB disks, also for copying large data volumes from one disk to another disk. However, during long copy processes (e.g. over night, when I’m away from the laptop, but also while I’m still working on the laptop) the receiving harddisk will be switched into read-only mode. Same happened when I was building a large tarball of datafiles on one of these external harddisks. No error messages or similar information is displayed.

Test example:
linux-j3fq:/mnt/tmp/Stochasticity/Stochastics_NEW/download # echo “test” > dummy
-bash: dummy: Read-only file system

Infrequently the system also hangs completely, especially when intense calculations are done, including the keyboard … so only hard reset via the power plug is possible.
Some akonadi journalling system isn’t working either, no idea if journalling is therefore completely disabled (other akonadi processes are running).
Last message during shutdown concerns that the plasma desktop crashed …

Thanks for comments and suggestions!
Peter

#2

So is your openSUSE 12.1 install using a KDE or GNOME desktop, 32 or 64 bit and did you perform a real upgrade or did you perform a clean installation? I wonder if your Laptop might be going into a power save mode and this is causing a problem with your Laptop? What kind of video does this Laptop use, if you know?

Thank You,

#3

On 2012-07-14 06:36, jdmcdaniel3 wrote:
>
> So is your openSUSE 12.1 install using a KDE or GNOME desktop, 32 or 64
> bit and did you perform a real upgrade or did you perform a clean
> installation? I wonder if your Laptop might be going into a power save
> mode and this is causing a problem with your Laptop? What kind of video
> does this Laptop use, if you know?

It also be of interest to know if the system has been fully patched.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

#4

Hi Daniel & Carlos,

ok, some more information :wink:

It’s KDE, 64bit, 4core i5 CPU, graphics = Intel HD graphics and it was an upgrade, not a “wipe everything off first and make a clean installation”. It even kicked my USB mouse off sometimes, so maybe it is/was a USB issue!?

Power-safe mode might be, but then the power-saving must be significantly different to how it was implemented in my earlier 11.4/11.6 version … as with the old version it never gave problems such as the one described.
No, it can’t be power-safe, because it re-declared my disks to “read only” while I was working on the laptop (though less often). I think it happened the moment I started some calculations, requiring a lot of RAM and disk access (but internal disk, not the USB disks), but only 1 of the 4 CPU cores were used.

Yesterday evening I made an online update (and it had a huge list of stuff which needed to be updated, including kernel-firmware updates, so the available latest stable OpenSUSE version is not uptodate and you have to update it immediately after installation!?). Over night it didn’t crash, so maybe the problem was solved earlier and was available only via the online update.

If it happens again, I will let you know :slight_smile: Hopefully it won’t happen again, as it seriously affects my work (it’s a work laptop).

All the best,
Peter

#5

After the upgrade from the DVD, you need to visit …

1) YaST / Software / Software Repositories and make sure only openSUSE 12.1 repositories remain and to add in the …
2) All of Packman (“Index of /suse/openSUSE_12.1/”) repository. I normally go into …
3) YaST / Software / Software Management and under** Options**, check Allow Vendor Change. Anytime you install from offline media like a DVD make sure to do this in …
4) Software Management select** Package** / All Packages / Update if Newer Version is Available.

Do these for me and come back and confirm each suggested item has been performed.

Thank You,

#6

On 2012-07-15 03:46, PeterAnders1976 wrote:
>
> Hi Daniel & Carlos,
>
> ok, some more information :wink:
>
> It’s KDE, 64bit, 4core i5 CPU, graphics = Intel HD graphics and it was
> an upgrade, not a “wipe everything off first and make a clean
> installation”. It even kicked my USB mouse off sometimes, so maybe it
> is/was a USB issue!?

I’m assuming you did an offline upgrade, so here are the instructions:

Online upgrade method
Offline upgrade method

Not everything you have to do is automatic.

> No, it can’t be power-safe, because it re-declared my disks to “read
> only” while I was working on the laptop (though less often). I think it
> happened the moment I started some calculations, requiring a lot of RAM
> and disk access (but internal disk, not the USB disks), but only 1 of
> the 4 CPU cores were used.

That happens when there are several read errors. The log would say.

> Yesterday evening I made an online update (and it had a huge list of
> stuff which needed to be updated, including kernel-firmware updates, so
> the available latest stable OpenSUSE version is not uptodate and you
> have to update it immediately after installation!?).

Of course. :slight_smile:
That’s why I asked if your system was fully patched.

> Over night it
> didn’t crash, so maybe the problem was solved earlier and was available
> only via the online update.

Possible.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

#7

OK, OK … adding into the quoted thread makes the answer appear too short … now it should be long enough rotfl!

#8

Hi Carlos :slight_smile:

#9

On 2012-07-16 17:06, PeterAnders1976 wrote:
>
> Hi Carlos :slight_smile:
>
> robin_listas;2474520 Wrote:

> PETER: Looks like I did it offline … and true, as I now found out,
> bringing the system to the up-to-date stage requires doing quite a few
> things yourself.

Please, do not edit inside the quoted material, it makes things very difficult to read.

>> That happens when there are several read errors. The log would say.
>>
> PETER: “read errors” where even stated on the console. Question is: how
> to “get rid of them”? Looks like I would need a tool which checks every
> file/block for read errors and if it finds one, erases this
> file/disables this block … unless the cause can be guessed and the
> error can be corrected. Not sure if openSUSE offers such routines which
> could help … didn’t stumble across it yet :frowning:

It works via SMART. You have to run first the SMART long test with smartctl first.

>>> Over night it
>>> didn’t crash, so maybe the problem was solved earlier and was available
>>> only via the online update.
>>
>> Possible.
>>
> PETER: Didn’t happen again yet … but if I have some heavy
> calculations running (lots of RAM and internal disk access, using only
> 1 of the 4 available cores) makes other tasks very very slow. Even an
> “ls” in a directory (containing maybe 2-3 dozen files, on the internal
> disk) can take minutes. Without being stoppable with Ctrl-C :frowning: Or
> better: it IS stoppable, but stopping the “ls” command also takes
> minutes. Maybe the installation of the newest versions (just done)
> helps or somewhere a parameter is set wrongly … wherever and
> whichever parameter …

If the disk is busy doing something, other threads starve.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

#10

You can find the many Packman repositories here: Additional package repositories - openSUSE

And here is the Packman Repository again called** All of Packman **for openSUSE 12.1…

"http://packman.inode.at/suse/openSUSE_12.1/"

Thank You,

#11

Thanks, I will also try the general PACKMAN repository :slight_smile:

I’ll try to find “SMART” (it’s not available in the software management) and scan my external disks :slight_smile:

Let’s say: the problems with “ls” in a folder of a disk which was busy with writing upon never happened with any other distribution and also never with the older openSuSE version I had and used for the same processes (11.4. or 11.6, forgot which one it was). The “ls” problem also happens when listing a folder on the external USB disk, when only the internal disk is busy with writing/reading processes. It looks like problems with multitasking (which should be impossible to switch off, though). And that even control tasks (like ctrl+C or ctrl+Z) don’t work for minutes is either because of some weird setting somewhere (didn’t find anything that weird yet) or a serious flaw of the current release, which makes it unfit for a system required for work (likely also for private machines).

#12

On 07/18/2012 07:56 AM, PeterAnders1976 wrote:
> I’ll try to find “SMART” (it’s not available in the software
> management) and scan my external disks

maybe that is a hint as to what your actual problem is, which leads to
the symptom (instability) you see…i guess you have incorrectly set up
repos, possibly compounded by an incorrectly performed ‘upgrade’ to …

i say that because SMART is available in the openSUSE repos…so, to
analyze that possibility please show us the terminal input/output from


zypper lr -d
uname -a
cat /etc/SuSE-release
kde4-config --version

please copy/paste the in/output back to this thread using the
instructions here: http://goo.gl/i3wnr

and, to answer some questions you raised:

  1. Q: “Yesterday evening I made an online update (and it had a huge list
    of stuff which needed to be updated, including kernel-firmware updates,
    so the available latest stable OpenSUSE version is not uptodate and you
    have to update it immediately after installation!?).”

A: “latest stable” in openSUSE terms is the most recent released version
with all updates (from the update repo) applied…

so yes, the downloadable iso for 12.1 was frozen and then
released…it will never be updated and re-released as “12.1 (STABLE)”
or anything else…12.1 iso images are static… instead it just keeps
getting better and better as it must be routinely updated to remain
security patched …

if the net is available during installation you were offered the option
to update or not… you should take it, because even just one week after
release there are usually a patch or two available…maybe more!

  1. Q: “or a serious flaw of the current release, which makes it unfit
    for a system required for work (likely also for private machines).”

A: this possible “serious flaw” is most likely in the installation,
maintenance and administration of it…

that is not to say there are no flaws in the software–of course there
are–lots of them…but, i have no instability here.

–
dd

#13

On 2012-07-18 07:56, PeterAnders1976 wrote:
>
> Thanks, I will also try the general PACKMAN repository :slight_smile:
>
> I’ll try to find “SMART” (it’s not available in the software
> management) and scan my external disks :slight_smile:

SMART stands for Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology, search for it in the
wikipedia. The program in Linux is smartctl and you probably have it already installed.

and yes, 12.1 has problems with job control, I think there were improvements in the kernel later.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)