Linux freezes for short periods on an Acer Aspire 5100

English Hardware
1

I’ve installed OpenSUSE 11 on an Acer Aspire 5100. But now I’ve run into a problem.

The laptop locks up at random. When it locks, the hard disk light stays on even though there’s no IO taking place.

After some time, when I’m lucky, everything is back to normal. If not, OpenSUSE crashes completely and I have to shut it down by holding the power button.

in /var/log/messages I found the following after each freeze.

Jul  1 06:52:03 linux-pnr kernel: ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen
Jul  1 06:52:03 linux-pnr kernel: ata1.00: cmd ca/00:08:12:3f:dd/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 4096 out
Jul  1 06:52:03 linux-pnr kernel:          res 40/00:02:08:08:00/00:00:00:00:00/b0 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
Jul  1 06:52:03 linux-pnr kernel: ata1.00: status: { DRDY }
Jul  1 06:52:03 linux-pnr kernel: ata1: soft resetting link
Jul  1 06:52:03 linux-pnr kernel: ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
Jul  1 06:52:03 linux-pnr kernel: ata1.01: configured for UDMA/33
Jul  1 06:52:03 linux-pnr kernel: ata1: EH complete
Jul  1 06:52:03 linux-pnr kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 156301488 512-byte hardware sectors (80026 MB)
Jul  1 06:52:03 linux-pnr kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
Jul  1 06:52:03 linux-pnr kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
Jul  1 06:52:04 linux-pnr kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Jul  1 06:52:04 linux-pnr kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 156301488 512-byte hardware sectors (80026 MB)
Jul  1 06:52:04 linux-pnr kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
Jul  1 06:52:04 linux-pnr kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
Jul  1 06:52:04 linux-pnr kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA

To me it looks like a kernel problem.

Some research on google led me to believe smartd might be the problem. But this morning it froze again. :frowning: On reboot the bios POST claimed I had no hard disk or dvd station at all. But after a second reboot everything showed up just fine.

Information about the IDE controller

00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 IDE Controller (rev 80) (prog-if 82 [Master PriP])
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 009f
	Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 16
	I/O ports at 01f0 [size=8]
	I/O ports at 03f4 [size=1]
	I/O ports at 0170 [size=8]
	I/O ports at 0374 [size=1]
	I/O ports at 8410 [size=16]
	Capabilities: [70] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit- Queue=0/0 Enable-
	Kernel driver in use: pata_atiixp
	Kernel modules: pata_atiixp, atiixp

Information about ata from boot.msg

<6>ata1.00: ATA-6: HTS541080G9AT00, MB4OA60A, max UDMA/100
<6>ata1.00: 156301488 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 
<6>ata1.01: ATAPI: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K16RS, 1.35, max UDMA/33
<6>ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
<6>ata1.01: configured for UDMA/33

I’m using kernel version “2.6.25.5-1.1-default”

Some help would be greatly appreciated. :confused:[/size][/size][/size][/size][/size]

2

It could be indicating your hdd is having problems or a driver timing problem… hard to say.
You could try to see if the piix driver works (blacklisting the pata_atiixp) - if it does it might resolve this.

Two questions seeing you are also running openSUSE 11;
-do you have reiserfs as filesystem?
-is beagle installed and running?

Both these two unfortunately have issues with the 11 final install which they are addressing.

Cheers,
Wj

3

Another thing you may want to try is to run diagnostics on your hard drive. Ultimate Boot CD (along with its various flavors) is a valuable tool I keep in my toolbox (yes, you heard me right - I keep a toolbox with me whenever working on computers). Plenty of on-disc tools to check hard drive integrity, etc.

I’d also check the two settings Magic31 asked you about.[/size][/size][/size][/size][/size]

4

Okay… Blacklisting… :o How do I blacklist the pata_atiixp driver?

Two questions seeing you are also running openSUSE 11;
-do you have reiserfs as filesystem?
-is beagle installed and running?
I knew reiserfs was problematic, so I used ext3. beagle is running, but when I disabled it the laptop still froze up. I’ll disable it, just to bee sure.

5

have a look in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

You will see entries for other, already blacklisted drivers. You can do the same for the pata_atiixp.

To test you can first add the line ’ blacklist=pata_atiixp ’ to the boot option line at the boot screen and check if your system boots and double check the driver has not loaded.
If the freeze does not occur it looks like a driver issue.

Have a LiveCD or install media handy in case you have to revert a change you’ve made to configuration files.

6

Hmm, it just failed to detect all drives on a first boot. I’m starting to believe OpenSUSE is not the problem. It could also be a case faulty hardware. :mad:

7

Well, don’t jump there too quick. It could also be there is no other driver fit other than the one you just blacklisted.

Or where you not trying the blacklist option?

8

Thanks I’ll look into it. That boot option seems like a good place to start, because I can turn that on and off without using live or recovery disks. :slight_smile:

9

Man You’re quick! :wink:

No, I was not trying to blacklist anything. It crashed on bios POST. I think that’s a clear sign that Suse had nothing to do with it.

10

Yep… afraid you will have to look in that direction. Backup important data will be the 1st step. :slight_smile:

11

> I’ve installed OpenSUSE 11 … The laptop locks up at random.

i do not know how to read all those log entried you included…BUT,
wanna ask:

  • have you tried disabling beagle? right click on the hound,
    configure…find and kill the deamon, find and turn off the start on
    boot, then hit apply and close the configure…then right click again on
    beagle and close it…it will sit up and beg you to click to let it
    start again on next boot…but, don’t send that dog to the pound…

see if your problems magically go away…

oh, are you running KDE4?
do you know that it is EXPERIMENTAL software and not ready for even REAL
men??

get the alternate KDE3-something, or ‘upgrade’ to KDE4.1 yesterday.

and, good luck…

–
DenverD (Linux Counter 282315)
A Texan in Denmark

12

Got same problem with my desktop computer. But I’m using new Seagate Barracuda IDE harddrive (bought it less than two weeks ago). I’m using reiserfs on / and /boot partitions, and beagle is not running. Smartctl shows no errors.

Jul  7 14:50:08 server kernel: ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen
Jul  7 14:50:08 server kernel: ata1.00: cmd 25/00:08:e4:23:8d/00:00:1b:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 4096 in
Jul  7 14:50:08 server kernel:          res 40/00:00:01:4f:c2/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
Jul  7 14:50:08 server kernel: ata1.00: status: { DRDY }
Jul  7 14:50:08 server kernel: ata1: soft resetting link
Jul  7 14:50:08 server kernel: ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
Jul  7 14:50:08 server kernel: ata1: EH complete
Jul  7 14:50:08 server kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 625142448 512-byte hardware sectors (320073 MB)
Jul  7 14:50:08 server kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
Jul  7 14:50:08 server kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
Jul  7 14:50:08 server kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Jul  7 14:51:51 server kernel: ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen
Jul  7 14:51:51 server kernel: ata1.00: cmd ca/00:00:34:39:19/00:00:00:00:00/e9 tag 0 dma 131072 out
Jul  7 14:51:51 server kernel:          res 40/00:00:01:4f:c2/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
Jul  7 14:51:51 server kernel: ata1.00: status: { DRDY }
Jul  7 14:51:51 server kernel: ata1: soft resetting link
Jul  7 14:51:51 server kernel: ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
Jul  7 14:51:51 server kernel: ata1: EH complete
Jul  7 14:51:51 server kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 625142448 512-byte hardware sectors (320073 MB)
Jul  7 14:51:51 server kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
Jul  7 14:51:51 server kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
Jul  7 14:51:51 server kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA

# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8366/A/7 [Apollo KT266/A/333]
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8366/A/7 [Apollo KT266/A/333 AGP]
<skipped>
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
<skipped>
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV15 [GeForce2 GTS/Pro] (rev a4)
13

My laptop is in for repairs. Seems like I’ve got some fried memory. My hardwaredealer claimed, it could be connected to the strange freezes.

I hope he is right, because new memory is a lot cheaper than a new laptop. :slight_smile:

Maybe you also should check your memory. I know it sounds like a long shot, but who knows. I hope I’ll get my laptop back tomorrow in full working order.

14

First, thanks for your reply.

I’m using KDE3 and Beagle is disabled. I tried KDE4 but it was as you say, a bit unstable. Good looks are all very nice, but some work has to be done. :wink: