Lenovo X220 Tablet freezes under openSUSE 11.4

I installed openSUSE 11.4 a couple of days ago on a new X220t. Twice now I have had the experience of the machine freezing when I was typing in Kile, necessitating a shutdown and restart. Any suggestions? Thanks, John.

11.4
KDE or Gnome?

Post the result of this, it will list your hardware:

/sbin/lspci -nnk

Are you using desktop effects?

I am using gnome. And yes, I have not turned off any desktop effects. Thanks, John

~>/sbin/lspci -nnk
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller [8086:0104] (rev 09)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:21db]
Kernel driver in use: agpgart-intel
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0126] (rev 09)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:21db]
Kernel driver in use: i915
00:16.0 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation 6 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 [8086:1c3a] (rev 04)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:21db]
00:16.3 Serial controller [0700]: Intel Corporation 6 Series Chipset Family KT Controller [8086:1c3d] (rev 04)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:21db]
Kernel driver in use: serial
00:19.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection [8086:1502] (rev 04)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:21ce]
Kernel driver in use: e1000e
00:1a.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 6 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 [8086:1c2d] (rev 04)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:21db]
Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 6 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller [8086:1c20] (rev 04)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:21db]
Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 6 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 [8086:1c10] (rev b4)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 6 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2 [8086:1c12] (rev b4)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 6 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4 [8086:1c16] (rev b4)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 6 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 5 [8086:1c18] (rev b4)
00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 6 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 [8086:1c26] (rev 04)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:21db]
Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 6 Series Chipset Family LPC Controller [8086:1c4f] (rev 04)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:21db]
00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation 6 Series Chipset Family 6 port SATA AHCI Controller [8086:1c03] (rev 04)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:21db]
Kernel driver in use: ahci
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 6 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller [8086:1c22] (rev 04)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:21db]
Kernel driver in use: i801_smbus
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Centrino Advanced-N 6205 [8086:0085] (rev 34)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Centrino Advanced-N 6205 AGN [8086:1311]
Kernel driver in use: iwlagn
0d:00.0 System peripheral [0880]: Ricoh Co Ltd Device [1180:e823] (rev 04)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:21db]
~>

I would try turning desktop effects off, see how it runs for a few days.
I used Gnome in 11.4 and it was the most stable system I used in a long time. But I never bother with effects.

Your hardware should be mostly OK as I see it from that list.

Thanks, I’ll do that. John.

My wife’s Lenovo X220 (not an X220t) has openSUSE-12.1 KDE on it, and has not experienced any freezes, although she rarely boots to openSUSE on it, so the ‘up time’ is limited.

I note her hardware is slightly different:


00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:01[b]16] (rev 09)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:21d[b]a]
	Kernel driver in use: i915
....
00:19.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection [8086:1502] (rev 04)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:21ce]
	Kernel driver in use: e1000e
...
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller [8086:1c20] (rev 04)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:21d[b]a]
	Kernel driver in use: **snd_hda_intel**
...
00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 6 port SATA AHCI Controller [8086:1c03] (rev 04)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:21d[b]a]
	Kernel driver in use: ahci
...
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Centrino Advanced-N 6205 [8086:0085] (rev 34)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Centrino Advanced-N 6205 AGN [8086:1311]
	Kernel driver in use: iwlagn
0d:00.0 System peripheral [0880]: Ricoh Co Ltd Device [1180:e823] (rev 04)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:21d[b]a]
	Kernel driver in use: sdhci-pci

In my experience, freezes typically come from either:

  • kernel bug or
  • ethernet or wireless device/driver problem or
  • graphic card device/driver problem or
  • bad memory

if the freeze only occurs with Kile (is that not a Latex program ? ) , it would make me wonder if this is graphics related ?

openSUSE-12.1’s newer 3.1 kernel/Mesa/X is supposed to have more fixes/updates for the Sandybridge graphic device that is the Lenovo X220 than the older openSUSE-11.4 2.6.37 kernel/Mesa/X has. Whether that older kernel and older mesa/X can explain any crashes, I can not say.

There is a thinkwiki X220t link here: Category : X220 Tablet - ThinkWiki with a link to an openSUSE-11.4 user Installing OpenSUSE 11.4 on a ThinkPad X220 Tablet - ThinkWiki but neither mentions a problem with freezing.

In the past, I have read that some sandybridge users found using the boot code " i915.semaphores=1 " offered better performance. However it purportedly also caused kernel problems (freezes) for other users. And I have read of Fedora users applying the boot code " acpi_osi=Linux ".

My wife have has not had to apply either with her Lenovo X220. And as noted she does not boot to openSUSE-12.1 often, and when she does, she does not use Kile.