OpenSUSE 11.4 'freezes' every 10 seconds or so

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#1

I just installed OpenSUSE 11.4 - fresh install (no upgrade). I had prevoiously been running 11.2 on precisely the same hardware (another fresh install) for the past year and had no issues whatsoever - loved it.

However with 11.4 there is a very annoying bug (actually, two of them, but I’ll post the other one to a different thread): every few seconds (10 or 15) the system ‘freezes’ for a split second. I know this may not sound like a big deal - but it very noticeable and gets really annoying quickly!

By ‘freeze’ I mean this: anything that is going on (visible) freezes for half a second or so. If you’re in the process of moving the mouse, the pointer will stop dead in its tracks for that half second, and then when it resumes (a half-second later) it picks up from where “it would have been” had there not been a freeze (it will jump from one position on the screen to the next, as per the actual movement of the mouse.

Thjat’s just one example. If I have a window (a terminal window for example) that is scrolling output, the scrolling will stop for the same half-second. (If I happen to be moving the mouse at the same time, the pointer and console scrolling ‘freeze’ occur simultaneously.

I did a quick monitor with ‘top’ refreshing every tenth of a second, and when this freezing occurs is seems to coincide with spikes in the kernel thread ‘kworker’.

I have a hunch that this may be due to new built-in NVIDIA drivers that are in 11.4 that I wasn’t using in 11.2 (where I compiled the driver from scratch) as I have seen a few posts about issues with this and the ‘nouveau’ driver - this is just a hunch.

Not that dmesg also reports this log quite frequently:

9140.292127] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DDC responded, but no EDID for DVI-I-1
9171.038139] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DDC responded, but no EDID for DVI-I-1
9191.641121] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DDC responded, but no EDID for DVI-I-1
9212.129120] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DDC responded, but no EDID for DVI-I-1
9232.538139] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DDC responded, but no EDID for DVI-I-1
9242.614120] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DDC responded, but no EDID for DVI-I-1
9263.138154] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DDC responded, but no EDID for DVI-I-1

Seems to occur with relatively the same frequency.

This is a FAST system (3 GHz and four cores) that is otherwise running IDLE, other than logging into KDE. So it’s not a case of high CPU usage or I/O usage.

The video card is:

VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GT216 [GeForce GT 220] (rev a2).

I have installed a basic KDE 64-bit distribution, using NO proprietary repositories - it’s essentially and “out-of-the-box” install. Incidentally, I did the install TWICE (from scratch) to see if the problem would go away. Id did not. :o(

#2

Ok, so silly question … what happens if you install the NVidia proprietary drivers? Does the freeze go away?

#3

Not a silly question at all :o) The only reason I hadn’t tried it is that the latest proprietary nvidia drivers are (from my understanding) BETA and I was worried about making my system (more) unstable. I was hoping someone else may have had this same issue and known for sure what the cause/solution are.

#4

I’m running 11.4 KDE with the latest NVidia drivers from the repos (that is, enabled the NVidia repository within YaST and then installed them) and I’ve not had any issues with stability at all.

the nouveau driver has caused me fits before … for example, wireless throughput on one of my machines was like 100-150K. I couldn’t figure out why in the world this was … so for kicks I installed the NVidia driver and suddenly my network throughput went through the roof. That was the ONLY change I made to my machine.

I’d say try it … you can always back it out later if things get less stable and revert back to the nouveau driver.

#5

I can say nice things about my experience with the 270.x series - I’ve had no issues

Also, in a 64bit 11.3 install I had no issues with the 260.x series, my understanding was the glitches were related to the 32bit kernel only

And of coures the 256.x series is still around

ps - as I compile my own drivers I’m not sure what is available pre-packaged

#6

OK thanks for all the good information - I will try out the NVIDIA repository and will let you know what happens. Thanks

#7

WOW. What a difference. Added the NVIDIVA repository, and YaST automatically picked the right (four) packages to install, and I’m back up and running. No more error messages in dmesg (no more ‘nouveau’ driver) and no more stuttering of the kernel.

Thanks again

#8

On 2011-03-16 05:06, magmaiceman wrote:
>
> WOW. What a difference. Added the NVIDIVA repository, and YaST
> automatically picked the right (four) packages to install, and I’m back
> up and running. No more error messages in dmesg (no more ‘nouveau’
> driver) and no more stuttering of the kernel.

Then, you should report this in Bugzilla.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

#9

Yes I can do that - thanks for the suggestion. Where is the bugzilla repository located?

#10

http://bugs.novell.com

#11

Thanks. It is posted now as 680193.

#12

I also noticed that kworker takes huge amount (90-95% from core 1) of CPU load. But why?

My HW:
HP EliteBook 8540w
Processor (CPU): Intel(R) Core™ i7 CPU M 620 @ 2.67GHz
Speed: 2 667,00 MHz
Cores: 4

Total memory (RAM): 7,7 GiB
Free memory: 6,5 GiB (+ 718,4 MiB Caches)
Free swap: 8,0 GiB

OS Information
OS: Linux 2.6.37.1-1.2-desktop x86_64
Current user: hantte@hantte.site
System: openSUSE 11.4 (x86_64)
KDE: 4.6.00 (4.6.0) “release 6”

Display Info
Vendor: nVidia Corporation
Model: Quadro FX 1800M
2D driver: nvidia
3D driver: NVIDIA 260.19.44
(via YaST from nVidia repo)

Does anyone know, how to slow down kworker?

Br,
Hantte

#13

the first thing I might do is check user group membership - especially after an update.

if root runs fine or if the problem manifests itself only when away from home network then group membership might be too restrictive.

#14

On 05/19/2012 12:36 AM, sem101 wrote:
> if root runs fine

is that is a recommendation to check by running a desktop environment as
root? if so, please don’t recommend that…

running KDE, GNOME and etc as root is not a way to troubleshoot any
problem, and it often causes far more ills than it could hope to cure.

more:
http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Login_as_root
http://tinyurl.com/ydbwssh
http://tinyurl.com/4nsaqst
http://tinyurl.com/665h5ek
http://tinyurl.com/6ry6yd

–
dd

#15

why have root at all?

#16

On 2012-05-20 03:26, sem101 wrote:
>
> why have root at all?

To be used wisely.

Why are you advising people to work as root, as a solution to a problem
that was posted a year ago and is forgotten in dust?

What is your rationale for thinking that working as root will solve his
freezes? I would like to see that justified.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

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

#17

On 05/20/2012 03:26 AM, sem101 wrote:
> why have root at all?

to administer the system and keep it safe for users, and from user
mistakes, external attacks and etc…

–
dd