LEAP 42.1 Hangs randomly with Dell Latitude E5470

English Hardware
1

Got this laptop from work and installed OpenSuSE leap 42.1. The two installs to confirm the existing problem were 1) DVD install with repository; 2) DVD install with out network repositories; 3) Tested with hardwired connection only; 4) Tested with Wireless enabled/configured (after install).

Same thing happens each time. After some random time, OpenSuSE hangs hard: no caps-lock; no mouse moving; no alt-f1/f2/etc. The only thing that will work is a hard power down. Even so, I start to boot, and it might even hang upon logging into KDE.

I have checked various log files, but there’s no time for it to dump-core or write out to a file what may have happened (so I am flying blind.)

Lastly, and more interestingly, I installed KaOS 20160720 and updated it to the latest version and it works fine… so it may be some way that the kernel is configured or something. IDK.

I am trying Leap 42.2 Network Install right now. Otherwise, I might just have to stay on KaOS for now. All my data is on a separate partition, so swapping out and swapping back in to SuSE, really only puts me out about 20 minutes for debugging/trying out fixes, etc. Anyone else can report something about this?

2

Video card???

3

Like gogalthorp already suggested, the graphics card details might be relevant here. Does the machine lock up at a particular stage after booting, or after a few minutes of operation? Overheating perhaps? FWIW, searches using “E5470 freezes” and similar seems to return a lot of hits for this hardware across different distros…

4

Quick test - try booting with ‘nomodeset’ parameter and check if the machine still freezes. That might help determine if the graphics driver is an issue. I’m assuming that KaOS is using a newer kernel.