Well, once again, I have a problem. And again the problem is: openSUSE(11.4) is taking A LOT of time to start, that is, about ten minutes, but this time for other reason.
This behavior began after I had to open the computer case to clean it up, because, although the OS apparently started normally, no image was being shown in the monitor, no video signal. So I cleaned up memory cards, video card, cables, etc, and got video to work fine again, but now something in the file system had been corrupted (perhaps because I went to SETUP and changed the sata HD interface, which until then had been working as IDE, to work as RAID, and later as AHCI, but then put it back as IDE? hehe :S) and the system asked me to run
*# mount -n -o remount,rw /
fsck*
to mount SDA2 as “read and write” and then fix the file system manually. I did this and then restarted the PC, and here’s where the current problem came in. Describing it as precisely as I can: after the GRUB screen there comes that “Loading” screen with the “loading bar” below SUSE lizard. For the first fistful minutes at that screen there’s no access to HD, and apparently no processing at all, as if the entire system is locked. Then suddenly the screen flashes and things begin loading normally.
Oh, I also noticed that if hit I ESC a few times just after GRUB screen disappearing, the “locking” time doesn’t surpass 5 seconds. Also also, if I try to load openSUSE in safe mode, I get no problems at all.
So, do you have any idea of what might be the problem and how to fix it? I’m thinking of upgrading to 12.1, do you think that would fix this problem?
Nobody? Guess I’ll have to upgrade to 12.1 and see if the problem is fixed. I’m afraid of doing that because my current installation is so smooth and I want to avoid eventual conflicts and headaches.
Just fixing the part of the previous post that states the problem… (I still don’t understand how the EDIT function works in this forum)
On 2012-03-19 16:16, granitoce wrote:
>
> and here’s where the
> current problem came in. Describing it as precisely as I can: after the
> GRUB screen there comes that “Loading” screen with the “loading bar”
> below SUSE lizard.
I would disable the splash screen to see what is hapening.
In the file /boot/grub/men.lst there will be something like this:
> ###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
> title Desktop -- openSUSE 12.1 - 3.1.9-1.4 - System D
> root (hd0,6)
> kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.1.9-1.4-desktop root=/dev/disk/by-label/openSUSE resume=/dev/disk/by-label/swap splash=verbose quiet showopts vga=0x31a
> initrd /boot/initrd-3.1.9-1.4-desktop
You will have something like “splash=quiet”. Put verbose instead. Then
reboot, and watch at what line it stops.
–
Cheers / Saludos
Carlos E. R.
(training machine)
Well, there’s no “men.lst” in /boot/grub/. However, there’s a “menu.lst” in there, a binary file which I tried to open with Okteta(hex editor), but the program failed opening it.
Thanks for the suggestion, but as I said, the whole system gets locked, so it does not accept input. After the system resumes activity, if I hit ESC I can watch the processes, but not before that.
Alrighto, “menu.lst” is not a binary, although Dolphin shows it as such, but anyway, I managed to open the file with kwrite as root and edited it - sorry for my noobness. Now I can see what happens.
Right after the GRUB screen, it shows: “ata1: softreset failed (device not ready)”
And it stays like that for an undetermined amount of time (usually from 5 to 10 minutes), while locking the system(apparently), and then unlocks resuming loading with “doing fast boot”.
Now, if I hit ESC quick just as GRUB screen vanishes, it reads
CPU1: Not responding
CPU2: Not responding
ata1: softreset failed (device not ready)
doing fast boot
> Well, there’s no “men.lst” in /boot/grub/. However, there’s a
> “menu.lst” in there, a binary file which I tried to open with Okteta(hex
> editor), but the program failed opening it.
It is a plain text file. Open with any text editor via sudo, not as plain
user. I use joe in a terminal.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)
> Right after the GRUB screen, it shows: “ata1: softreset failed (device
> not ready)”
> And it stays like that for an undetermined amount of time (usually from
> 5 to 10 minutes), while locking the system(apparently), and then unlocks
> resuming loading with “doing fast boot”.
>
> Now, if I hit ESC quick, just as GRUB screen vanishes, it reads
>> CPU1: Not responding
>> CPU2: Not responding
>> ata1: softreset failed (device not ready)
>> doing fast boot
Well, we know something, but not how to solve the problem.
The typical: reseat or change the HD cables, check for bios updates, check
other linux versions. Google the error.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)
Hum… Ok, gonna see what else I can do. Won’t mess again with BIOS cause its most recent version is conflicting with my hardware, already tried it. Don’t believe it’s cables, but it doesn’t cost to try. Oh, and I have no problems on Windows, and all three CPUs show normally. By the way, how can I be sure my processor’s three cores are working after logging into linux?
EDIT: /proc/cpuinfo reads
processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 16
model : 2
model name : AMD Phenom™ 8450 Triple-Core Processor
stepping : 3
cpu MHz : 2100.000
cache size : 512 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 1
core id : 0
cpu cores : 1
apicid : 0
initial apicid : 0
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 5
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow constant_tsc rep_good nopl nonstop_tsc extd_apicid pni monitor cx16 popcnt lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy abm sse4a misalignsse 3dnowprefetch osvw ibs npt lbrv svm_lock
bogomips : 4219.11
TLB size : 1024 4K pages
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 48 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts ttp tm stc 100mhzsteps hwpstate
It was supposed to be 3. :\
On 2012-03-21 15:26, granitoce wrote:
>
> robin_listas;2450100 Wrote:
>> Well, we know something, but not how to solve the problem.
>>
>> The typical: reseat or change the HD cables, check for bios updates,
>> check
>> other linux versions. Google the error.
> Hum… Ok, gonna see what else I can do. Won’t mess again with BIOS
> cause its most recent version is conflicting with my hardware, already
> tried it. Don’t believe it’s cables, but it doesn’t cost to try. Oh, and
> I have no problems on Windows, and all three CPUs show normally.
I would then try another version of oS. if you are using 12.1, try 11.4.
If the older version works, report in Bugzilla. Or other distros. Don’t
forget google.
> By the
> way, how can I be sure my processor’s three cores are working after
> logging into linux?
Top in a terminal, then type “1”. Another one I like is “gkrellm”
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
1195 root 20 0 166m 65m 14m R 13.6 3.3 5:26.79 Xorg
3736 henio 20 0 794m 87m 43m S 11.9 4.4 1:46.95 plasma-desktop
3691 henio 20 0 488m 72m 47m S 4.0 3.6 3:35.16 kwin
3887 henio 20 0 1057m 359m 33m R 3.0 17.9 14:25.07 firefox-bin
3807 henio 20 0 703m 64m 40m S 0.7 3.2 1:24.95 ktorrent
2897 mysql 20 0 152m 19m 4520 S 0.3 1.0 0:07.10 mysqld
3167 henio 20 0 22016 2636 672 S 0.3 0.1 0:15.65 dbus-daemon
3480 root 20 0 342m 12m 5328 S 0.3 0.6 0:00.38 httpd2-prefork
3744 henio 20 0 8816 980 664 S 0.3 0.0 0:07.70 ksysguardd
I would then try another version of oS. if you are using 12.1, try 11.4.
If the older version works, report in Bugzilla. Or other distros. Don’t
forget google.
I’m using 11.4.
I’ll search some more and try whatever method I find. If nothing works I’ll try installing 12.1.
>> I would then try another version of oS. if you are using 12.1, try
>> 11.4. If the older version works, report in Bugzilla. Or other distros.
>> Don’t forget google.
> I’m using 11.4.
> I’ll search some more and try whatever method I find. If nothing works
> I’ll try installing 12.1.
This happened after you cleaned the machine… perhaps some cable or
connector could be damaged or not connected properly. You also did
modifications to your bios setting re the hard disk - perhaps something
changed that Linux doesn’t like. Perhaps if you have a spare partition and
you install 11.4 there it might work. Dunno.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)
> On 2012-03-21 16:06, granitoce wrote:
>
>> Had already checked the cores. http://tinyurl.com/7eorv5u Only one of
>> the three is working.
>
> This happened after you cleaned the machine… perhaps some cable or
> connector could be damaged or not connected properly. You also did
> modifications to your bios setting re the hard disk - perhaps
> something changed that Linux doesn’t like. Perhaps if you have a spare
> partition and you install 11.4 there it might work. Dunno.
>
If he cleaned the machine it would be interesting to know how he did it
and if he was grounded when he did it. It only takes a couple tenths of
an volt to damage components.
Well, I’ve cleaned memories, video card, processor’s heatsink, some very dirty parts of the motherboard and the hard drive’s logic cable(just unplugged it and cleaned superficially), using a kind of soft brush. I’ve already checked what I had messed with, and everything seems fine.
About the BIOS update, I did it around 4 or 5 MONTHS ago, and since then no new update is available. There’s a version available that’s newer than the one I have installed, but it’s bugged on my rig, don’t remember what was the problem, but anyway, I think this openSUSE installation is not older than the last BIOS update I’ve done.
Also, just to reiterate, Windows starts up perfectly normal.
And… An information that might be important, previous to cleaning, the sata HD was set to work in IDE mode, and after I put things back together I changed it’s mode to SATA and restarted, then the problem in Linux appeared. In this mode Windows failed(fails) to start, but I thinks that’s because Windows XP doesn’t have a good SATA support system, just guessing from my not so technical view point. And since Linux still starts in SATA mode, even if with the same handicaps as in IDE mode(again, handicaps in normal start mode, but working fine in failsafe mode), I don’t think this is a problem with hardware.
Something is wrong with the menu.lst stance or the fstab. menu.lst shows root to be part 3 but fstab is showing root to be part 2 and swap to be part 3.
So which partition is your swap and which is your root?
sda2 is root. So, should I try changing this root’s value from root=/dev/sda2 to root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-MAXTOR_STM31000340AS_5QJ0MYDF-part2?
And what does “cold boot” mean?
Guess I’ll have to upgrade to 12.1 and see if the problem is fixed. I’m afraid of doing that because my current installation is so smooth and I want to avoid eventual conflicts and headaches.