laptop locks up on any display manager

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

I now have a new problem on my kid’s laptop - I cannot get past the kdm screen. Whenever I try and log in to any desktop, immediately after entering the login data, the screen, keyboard, and mouse freeze there at the green kdm screen and will not let me in to any desktop. I tried changing the parameter above back to blank, and it still did the same thing. I also tried changing it to “all” and it did the same thing.

So I booted into runlevel 3 (or the equivalent when in systemd) and logged in as root to change the display manager to kdm3. Then as root I typed in “systemctl reboot”, and the terminal locked up, just the same way that the kdm screen locked up.

And now even with kdm3 as the display manager, the system locks up when I try and get into the desktop.

I can get into runlevel 3 and open some logs to post here, but I don’t know which would be the right log to post or how much of it. Please let me know and I will post whatever is necessary to troubleshoot this, as my kid cannot use the computer right now because it is impossible to get into any desktop.

–
G.O.
Box #1: 12.2 | KDE 4.9.2 | AMD Phenom IIX4 | 64 | 16GB
Box #2: 12.2 | KDE 4.9.1 | AMD Athlon X3 | 64 | 4GB
Laptop: 12.2 | KDE 4.9.2 | Core i7-2620M | 64 | 8GB
learning openSUSE and loving it

#2

Apart from what I suggested in another thread
As you hit enter to login
Next press: Alt+SHIFT+F12
(this combo toggles desktop effects on/off) If the login is defaulting to ON and your system is having trouble with that, this combo should toggle it off and may bring X to life

#3

On 01/22/2013 01:36 PM, caf4926 wrote:
> Apart from what I suggested in another thread
> As you hit enter to login
> Next press: Alt+SHIFT+F12
> (this combo toggles desktop effects on/off) If the login is defaulting
> to ON and your system is having trouble with that, this combo should
> toggle it off and may bring X to life
>
>
I tried all suggestions, and nothing worked. I wasabout at the end of my
rope, and the system had begun to lock up even when I booted into
runlevel 3, and using a live kde boot stick.

So I booted into Windows to see if it would boot, and it did boot up. I
had to boot it twice to get it to come up. Then I waited a bit, and then
tried to reboot again intoopenSUSE, and this time it logged inand KDE
came up, but no applications would start. I would click on the icons and
nothing would happen.

I rebooted again, and now KDE is up, and has been running for about an
hour without locking up.

In the various logs for the machine, I have found 2 errors - one is that
VirtualBox Linux Additions kernel modules fail to start (not sure why
that comes up in the boot log, as I do not have Virtualbox installed on
that pc. The other error, from /var/log/warn, was this:


Jan 22 13:35:22 linux-nkgv kernel:    17.434884] b43-phy0 ERROR: FOUND
UNSUPPORTED PHY (Analog 10, Type 8, Revision 1)
Jan 22 13:35:22 linux-nkgv kernel:  17.444725] b43: probe of bcma0:0
failed with error -95

Looking up a bit on the internet, apparently this is a common problem
with this card and driver. Could this be what has been locking up the pc
and preventing anything from loading? And then after booting up in
Windows with the correct driver, something must get reset in the
hardware that allows it to function again in linux.

I can’t see anyother problems with my system.

–
G.O.
Box #1: 12.2 | KDE 4.9.2 | AMD Phenom IIX4 | 64 | 16GB
Box #2: 12.2 | KDE 4.9.1 | AMD Athlon X3 | 64 | 4GB
Laptop: 12.2 | KDE 4.9.2 | Core i7-2620M | 64 | 8GB
learning openSUSE and loving it

#4

Ignore the Virtual box error
If you installed using a CD not the DVD this is a common error.

The b43 module is a wireless driver. If you have a broadcom wireless device, b43 is probably the driver you would use, but it requires additional firmware.

If you know you don’t have such a device, ignore it. Otherwise post the result of

/sbin/lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 net
#5

On 2013-01-22 08:16, caf4926 wrote:
>
> Ignore the Virtual box error
> If you installed using a CD not the DVD this is a common error.

guest tools? I suppose they can be removed.

I would also check for full disk or disk errors. The first can be done
with “df -h”, and the other by reading the log, then running the short
and long tests of smartctl.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4, with Evergreen, x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))

#6

Ok, I checked and I don’t know if that is the device I have. In any case, here is the result of the command:


$ lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 net
06:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR8152 v2.0 Fast Ethernet [1969:2062] (rev c1)
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0598]
        Kernel driver in use: atl1c
07:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4727] (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Foxconn International, Inc. Device [105b:e042]
        Kernel driver in use: bcma-pci-bridge

Since it is a broadcom card, but it is not using the b43 driver and defaulted to the other, I guess I need to install the correct firmware? how would I go about doing that? Or is there something else I need to do?

#7

Read this carefully
I never worked with it myself
brcm80211 - Linux Wireless

#8

On 01/23/2013 04:46 PM, caf4926 wrote:
> Read this carefully
> I never worked with it myself
> ‘brcm80211 - Linux Wireless’
> (http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/brcm80211)
>
>
Thanks! I will be travelling quite a bit for the next month, so it looks
like I won’t be able to try it until I get back. I will give it a go
around that time.

–
G.O.
Box #1: 12.2 | KDE 4.9.2 | AMD Phenom IIX4 | 64 | 16GB
Box #2: 12.2 | KDE 4.9.1 | AMD Athlon X3 | 64 | 4GB
Laptop: 12.2 | KDE 4.9.2 | Core i7-2620M | 64 | 8GB
learning openSUSE and loving it