PC stalls during startup since installation of 11.0

Hi,

Since I installed 11.0, the startup time has greatly increased. I noticed that it lingers a very long time after some of the following messages (I wrote these down from the screen, if someone can point me where to find them, I’ll be happy to provide more):

Oops: 0000 #1] SMP
...
Pid: 923, comm: modprobe Tainted: P    N(2.6.25.5-1.1.pae #1)
...
(various stuff with the word ‘usb’ in it, e.g.)
Call trace: ... usb_remote_probe
...
udevd-event[909]: run program: '/sbin/modprobe' abnormal exit

Then after maybe half a minute without any indication of activity, it picks up again and finishes the boot process.

There is an external hard drive connected via USB. Could this be the culprit? It would be rather inconvenient if I had to remove it each time I start the computer.

Any suggestions?
TIA, H.

Possibly. Can you try switching the drive to another USB port, swapping ports with another USB device? Also, if this is on a USB hub, try removing the hub and connecting directly. Also, try connecting to a port that is directly mounted on the motherboard (on a desktop machine, on the rear I/O panel).

I put the USB drive on the backside of the system, on the motherboard. This changed only a little: the last line is gone, there is now

sd4:0:0:0 Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0be' abnormal exit

Thanks, H.

hamaryns wrote:

>
> I put the USB drive on the backside of the system, on the motherboard.
> This changed only a little: the last line is gone, there is now
>
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> sd4:0:0:0 Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0be’ abnormal exit
> --------------------
>
>
> Thanks, H.
>
>

The messages you are looking for may be found in /var/log/boot.msg

You could view that file, and cut-n-paste the text from the error messages to
the continuation.

That would help.

Loni

L R Nix
lornix@lornix.com

Indeed if I unplug the external USB drive during boot, the problem does not occur. I guess it’s time to make a bug but it would be good to know what I should be posting there.

In /var/log/boot.omsg I find:

<6>CORE cx23885[0]: subsystem: 0070:71d3, board: UNKNOWN/GENERIC [card=0,autodetected]
<6>lirc_dev: lirc_register_plugin: sample_rate: 0
<4>cx23885[0]: i2c bus 0 registered
<4>cx23885[0]: i2c bus 1 registered
<4>lirc_mceusb2[4]: Formosa21 Beanbag Emulation Device on usb8:4
<4>cx23885[0]: i2c bus 2 registered
<1>BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 00000002
<1>IP: <f96f6387>] :lirc_mceusb2:request_packet_async+0x56/0x1af
<4>*pdpt = 000000003641b001 *pde = 0000000000000000
<0>Oops: 0000 #1] SMP
<6>cx23885_dev_checkrevision() Hardware revision = 0xb0
<6>cx23885[0]/0: found at 0000:02:00.0, rev: 2, irq: 17, latency: 0, mmio: 0xf9e00000
<7>PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:02:00.0 to 64
<0>last sysfs file: /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.2/host1/target1:0:0/1:0:0:0/rev
<4>Modules linked in: arc4 ecb crypto_blkcipher cx23885 videodev rt73usb(+) rt2x00usb rt2x00lib firmware_clas
s v4l1_compat rfkill compat_ioctl32 input_polldev crc_itu_t snd_hda_intel mac80211 v4l2_common rtc_cmos btcx_
risc nvidia(P) intel_agp snd_pcm rtc_core cfg80211 usblp(+) tveeprom ohci1394 sr_mod usb_storage(+) i2c_i801
snd_timer snd_page_alloc rtc_lib agpgart cdrom e1000e videobuf_dvb ieee1394 button lirc_mceusb2(+) snd_hwdepi2c_core iTCO_wdt lirc_dev dvb_core videobuf_dma_sg videobuf_core snd soundcore iTCO_vendor_support sg sd_mod ehci_hcd uhci_hcd usbcore edd ext3 mbcache jbd fan ata_piix libata scsi_mod dock thermal processor
<4>
<4>Pid: 908, comm: modprobe Tainted: P N (2.6.25.5-1.1-pae #1)
<4>EIP: 0060:<f96f6387>] EFLAGS: 00010246 CPU: 0
<4>EIP is at request_packet_async+0x56/0x1af [lirc_mceusb2]
<4>EAX: f783f6c0 EBX: f64d3d40 ECX: 000000d0 EDX: 00000004
<4>ESI: f7893000 EDI: 00000000 EBP: f6d2dca4 ESP: f6d2dc8c
<4> DS: 007b ES: 007b FS: 00d8 GS: 0033 SS: 0068
<0>Process modprobe (pid: 908, ti=f6d2c000 task=f784c120 task.ti=f6d2c000)
<0>Stack: f96f9430 f783f6c0 f6d42700 f783f6c0 0000003f f69e03a0 f6d2ddbc f96f6ef0
<0> 00000005 00000002 00000008 00000001 00000008 00000001 f789305c f7571c00
<0> 40418480 f7893000 f6dd1640 00000000 f783f6c0 00000004 00000008 00000005
<0>Call Trace:
<0> <f96f6ef0>] usb_remote_probe+0x603/0x6df [lirc_mceusb2]
<0> <f9600cb8>] usb_probe_interface+0xc6/0x108 [usbcore]
<0> [driver_probe_device+160/310] driver_probe_device+0xa0/0x136
<0> [__driver_attach+91/145] __driver_attach+0x5b/0x91
<0> [bus_for_each_dev+54/94] bus_for_each_dev+0x36/0x5e
<0> [driver_attach+20/22] driver_attach+0x14/0x16
<0> [bus_add_driver+157/442] bus_add_driver+0x9d/0x1ba
<0> [driver_register+71/167] driver_register+0x47/0xa7
<0> <f9600ead>] usb_register_driver+0x66/0xc0 [usbcore]
<0> <f8870056>] usb_remote_init+0x56/0x73 [lirc_mceusb2]
<0> [sys_init_module+6539/6840] sys_init_module+0x198b/0x1ab8
<0> [sysenter_past_esp+109/169] sysenter_past_esp+0x6d/0xa9
<0> <ffffe430>] 0xffffe430
<0> =======================
<0>Code: c3 0f 84 03 01 00 00 8b 45 08 ba d0 00 00 00 e8 90 10 a8 c6 85 c0 89 45 f0 0f 84 d5 00 00 00 8b 45 e
c 83 fe 02 8b 30 75 6e 8b 16 <0f> b6 47 02 0f b6 4f 06 89 73 28 c1 e2 08 c1 e0 0f 09 c2 81 ca
<0>EIP: <f96f6387>] request_packet_async+0x56/0x1af [lirc_mceusb2] SS:ESP 0068:f6d2dc8c
<4>— end trace c445467d6a8acd91 ]—
<4> sdc1
<5>sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk
<5>sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0
<7>usb-storage: device scan complete
<7>ieee1394: Host added: ID:BUS[0-00:1023] GUID[0011d800017f99d8]
<6>Adding 2103480k swap on /dev/sdb5. Priority:-1 extents:1 across:2103480k
<6>device-mapper: uevent: version 1.0.3
<6>device-mapper: ioctl: 4.13.0-ioctl (2007-10-18) initialised: dm-devel@redhat.com
<6>loop: module loaded
<6>kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
<6>EXT3 FS on sdb7, internal journal
<6>EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
<4>fuse init (API version 7.9)
<5>type=1505 audit(1215942917.443:2): operation=“profile_load” name="/bin/ping" name2=“default” pid=1941
<5>type=1505 audit(1215942917.471:3): operation=“profile_load” name="/sbin/klogd" name2=“default” pid=1947
Kernel logging (ksyslog) stopped.
Kernel log daemon terminating.

This seems to be the relevant part. Also some messages like

<4>Driver ‘sr’ needs updating - please use bus_type methods

but that doesn’t seem to have to do with it.

Further on, there is

System Boot Control: The system has been set up
Failed features: boot.udev
Skipped features: boot.cycle
System Boot Control: Running /etc/init.d/boot.local
done<notice>killproc: kill(719,3)

/var/log/boot.log is empty or cannot be accessed (not even as root).

What is the spec on the external? PATA or SATA? USB 1 or USB 2? Can you post back an fdisk on it? What filesystem(s)?

Boot with drive powered off. When you power it on, does it automatically mount? If so, post back result of doing a >mount in a terminal window. Also post back contents of /etc/fstab.

With the drive powered on, boot and immediately open a terminal window. Then do >dmesg to display the kernel boot messages and post that back here (if it helps, “dmesg > text” will send the display to a text file on disk).

I’m afraid you’re going a little fast here; I am not that proficient in hardware-related matters.

This is the closest reference I could find: USB External Portable Hard Disk Drive by Toshiba
The color isn’t that flashy, but I think that’s the one.

USB2, double connection, one for data, an extra one for power (actually, one cable which splits up).

fdisk -l gives me information about the two built-in disk, and I think this is relevant for the external one:

Schijf /dev/sdc: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 koppen, 63 sectoren/spoor, 24321 cilinders
Eenheid = cilinders van 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Schijf-ID: 0xd0295fc6

Apparaat Opstart Begin Einde Blokken ID Systeem
/dev/sdc1 1 24321 195358401 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

As you see, I have a Dutch Linux. I think you should be able to understand though, expecially if you do fdisk -l yourself, it has the same layout, right?

The drive does not have a power on/off button. It has no buttons, in fact. Just a led which shows that it’s connected, a USB port and an AC port. This makes it difficult to find any more information on it.

Yes, it does automatically mount. It does so if I unplug it and replug it as well. Once the system is running, everything seems to work fine. Also other USB sticks.

I’m afraid, though, that the phenomenon is not consistent: sometimes it starts up quicker (it did this time), and the error sometimes also occurs when the drive is not connected. I think because it remembers it from last time.

dmesg: I am afraid it is quite long, so I put it in Pastebin: http://pastebin.com/m8a00e8e

Since it’s this long already, let’s make you happy with the relevant line from /etc/mtab:

/dev/sdc1 /media/USB-HDD vfat rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,flush,uid=1000,utf8,shortname=lower 0 0

Thanks for your help. H.

The hardware detection looks OK, no errors. The kernel detects the drive and assigns a drive-name and partition to it, sdc1.

Unfortunately, none of your logs show the mount attempt. You might try to get at that again, either in dmesg (since it’s apparently sdc1, you can just do “dmesg | grep sdc” to isolate those lines). Or the same from /var/log/messages, because a usb mount should be written to that log. Since an entry was written to fstab for the drive (you were right about that, that’s how it “remembered”), you might try doing a manual mount, i.e., without using fstab (which will be used by a mount command if there is a matching device). A simple way is to temporary comment out that line in fstab. Umount it if it is mounted. Then do “mount -t vfat /dev/sdc1 /media/USB-HDD” (if this folder is not already there permanently, create it). Then do “mount”. You’ll see the options with which the device was mounted. Check that you can access it properly. Then edit fstab again, uncommenting the line and changing the options column to whatever you saw when you did “mount”. This is just a quick way to check if perhaps the options automatically generated to fstab are somehow a problem.

Also, be sure you are connecting to a USB 2.0 port. It’s difficult to tell from dmesg if you have any USB 1.0 ports because the hub controller for 2.0 requires the 1.0 controller which it uses as a slave should a 1.0 device be plugged into a 2.0 port. Your device is powered thru the port, and if it’s on a 1.0 you could get intermittent behavior - which you’ve observed. I’d also try using various ports and be sure not to use a physical hub.

Power and the mount are the only two things I can think of to look at. Sorry I can’t offer more. Perhaps others will have some ideas.

I have the same problem as you, but sometimes the pc boot ok and somtimes fails.

Do you have an integrated ir in your pc? The mine has one, and I think the probles is here:

<6>lirc_dev: lirc_register_plugin: sample_rate: 0
<4>cx23885[0]: i2c bus 0 registered
<4>cx23885[0]: i2c bus 1 registered
<4>lirc_mceusb2[4]: Formosa21 Beanbag Emulation Device on usb8:4
<4>cx23885[0]: i2c bus 2 registered
<1>BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 00000002
<1>IP: <f96f6387>] :lirc_mceusb2:request_packet_async+0x56/0x1af

But I don’t know how to resolve it.

grep sdc /var/log/*

/var/log/boot.msg:<5>sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk
/var/log/messages:Jun 26 23:38:20 linux-klgq smartd[12540]: Device: /dev/sdc, opened
/var/log/messages:Jun 26 23:38:20 linux-klgq smartd[12540]: Device: /dev/sdc, NO MEDIUM present; skip device
/var/log/messages:Jun 27 08:51:13 localhost smartd[4053]: Device: /dev/sdc, opened
/var/log/messages:Jun 27 08:51:13 localhost smartd[4053]: Device: /dev/sdc, NO MEDIUM present; skip device
/var/log/messages:Jun 29 10:54:37 localhost smartd[4011]: Device: /dev/sdc, opened
/var/log/messages:Jun 29 10:54:37 localhost smartd[4011]: Device: /dev/sdc, NO MEDIUM present; skip device
/var/log/messages:Jun 30 21:16:25 localhost smartd[4079]: Device: /dev/sdc, opened
/var/log/messages:Jun 30 21:16:25 localhost smartd[4079]: Device: /dev/sdc, Bad IEC (SMART) mode page, err=4, skip device
/var/log/messages:Jun 30 21:16:37 localhost hald: mounted /dev/sdc1 on behalf of uid 1001
/var/log/messages:Jun 30 21:52:52 localhost hald: unmounted /dev/sdc1 from ‘/media/AUDIOGOGEAR’ on behalf ofuid 1001
/var/log/messages:Jul 3 09:10:44 localhost smartd[3996]: Device: /dev/sdc, opened
/var/log/messages:Jul 3 09:10:44 localhost smartd[3996]: Device: /dev/sdc, IE (SMART) not enabled, skip device Try ‘smartctl -s on /dev/sdc’ to turn on SMART features
/var/log/messages:Jul 3 09:11:08 localhost hald: mounted /dev/sdc1 on behalf of uid 1000
/var/log/messages:Jul 3 09:26:46 localhost hald: unmounted /dev/sdc1 from ‘/media/USB-HDD’ on behalf of uid1000
/var/log/messages:Jul 3 22:31:37 localhost smartd[4053]: Device: /dev/sdc, opened
/var/log/messages:Jul 3 22:31:37 localhost smartd[4053]: Device: /dev/sdc, IE (SMART) not enabled, skip device Try ‘smartctl -s on /dev/sdc’ to turn on SMART features
/var/log/messages:Jul 3 22:31:53 localhost hald: mounted /dev/sdc1 on behalf of uid 1000
/var/log/messages:Jul 3 22:40:50 localhost hald: unmounted /dev/sdc1 from ‘/media/USB-HDD’ on behalf of uid1000

and similar like that. As you can see, sdc1 is also used for AUDIOGOGEAR, which is a 1G usb stick/mp3 player.
If I grep for sdg, I get similar things. Trying the recommended smartctl -s on /dev/sdg1 gives an error:

smartctl -s on /dev/sdg1

smartctl 5.39 2008-05-08 21:56 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-8 by Bruce Allen, smartmontools Home Page (last updated $Date: 2008/07/25 10:43:23 $)

unable to fetch IEC (SMART) mode page [unsupported field in scsi command]
A mandatory SMART command failed: exiting. To continue, add one or more ‘-T permissive’ options.

I could not test this since there was no entry in fstab. There was in mtab, as I wrote in my previous post, but that one’s gone now (I started with the drive detached). Well, after plugging it in, it contains /dev/sdg1:

/dev/sdg1 /media/USB-HDD vfat rw,nosuid,nodev,uid=1000 0 0

after unmounting, this disappears. (Duh, after reading mtab - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)

mounting it by hand with your command (s/sdc/sdg/) I get:

/dev/sdg1 /media/USB-HDD vfat rw 0 0

I tried sveral ports. I tried booting with the drive detached or attached. It stays unpredictable: sometimes the error occurs even when the drive is not connected, sometimes the converse. I’m starting to give up here.

I have no idea, what do you mean by ‘ir’?

But indeed:

lirc_dev: lirc_register_plugin: sample_rate: 0
ieee1394: Host added: ID:BUS[0-00:1023] GUID[0011d800017f99d8]
cx23885[0]: i2c bus 0 registered
lirc_mceusb2[4]: Formosa21 Beanbag Emulation Device on usb8:4
cx23885[0]: i2c bus 1 registered
cx23885[0]: i2c bus 2 registered
cx23885_dev_checkrevision() Hardware revision = 0xb0
cx23885[0]/0: found at 0000:02:00.0, rev: 2, irq: 17, latency: 0, mmio: 0xf9e00000
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:02:00.0 to 64
usb 8-5.1: reset low speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4
lirc_dev: lirc_register_plugin: sample_rate: 0
lirc_mceusb2[4]: Formosa21 Beanbag Emulation Device on usb8:4
BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 00000002
IP: <f97c9387>] :lirc_mceusb2:request_packet_async+0x56/0x1af
*pdpt = 000000003551c001 *pde = 0000000000000000
Oops: 0000 #1] SMP

An Infrared Remote.

My Pc (an HP Pavillon) has one (it’s a USB device integrated with the card reader)

I have filled a bug about it:

https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=412068

Workaround, blacklist the lirc_ceusb2 module

Add this line to file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
blacklist lirc_mceusb2

This solved the issue, it seems, thank you very much! How am I going to know when I can remove this line again, or why? Is there a bug that needs reporting for the kernel?

Where can I find more information on this? Ah, there it is: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=2023332&group_id=5444&atid=105444