Screen freeze

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hi,

I have a problem using Suse 11.4, 64 bit (2.6.37.1-1.2).

The system frequently freezes the screen. The mouse is still moveable but there is no reaction on any click. Keyboard does not work either (pushing Num-Lock does not toggle the Num-Lock light on the keyboard). However, Alt-Print-b works for a reboot. The only other way out is to turn of the computer.

I had this effect some time ago where I thought it was a problem due to the NVIDIA graphics driver. Since then, I changed back to the standard VESA driver and thought the problem would be gone. Just a thought :frowning:

I toggled through the log files in /var/log which had the file date/time of the crash but I could not find any hint.

Which log files could I look as well to dig for the problem? Or any idea for such an effect?

Thanks in advance!!!

2

On 07/15/2011 10:06 PM, udorapp wrote:
>
> The system frequently freezes the screen.

does it only happen when a Flash video/youtube/game/anything is running
in a browser?

what desktop environment are you running?

how much RAM?

> However, Alt-Print-b works for a reboot. The only other way out is to
> turn of the computer.

how about Ctrl+Alt+Backspace? any affect?

if not, just WAIT…maybe 10 minutes, maybe it comes back…wait and
see…really!!

–
DD
Caveat-Hardware-Software
openSUSE®, the BMW® of operating systems!

3

It’s not freezing fully randomly. Most of the times I have Evolution running together with Firefox (several tabs open, good possibility that a flash is running in background). I think there is a higher freezing quote when a patience game is running.

I am running KDE, the machine has 4GB of memory.

I tried this Crtl-Alt-Backspace combination, no visible effect.

At least one time, I left the machine running for >15 minutes in the frozen state, did not come back.

4

you need to ctrl-alt-backspace twice

ctrl-alt-F1

bring you to a terminal?

5

A double ctrl-alt-backspace works? I thought you had to set a flag in the X configs to kill it with ctrl-alt-backspace.

6

I’ll try double Ctrl-Alt-Backspace with the next freeze. However switching to other terminals does not work, tried that already :frowning:

7

And double Ctrl-Alt-Backspace… no reaction :frowning:

8

On 07/16/2011 12:06 AM, udorapp wrote:
>
> good possibility that a flash is running in background

i tend to think you have a flash problem (lots of folks do…some worse
than others) so, i’d suggest you try to fix you flash, see here:

http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/how-faq-forums/unreviewed-how-faq/459950-fix-your-flash-11-4-_64-flash-square.html

let us know if that fixes your freeze problem…

–
DD
Caveat-Hardware-Software
openSUSE®, the BMW® of operating systems!

9

Thanks for the tip… although I think I had crashes without firefox running as well.

Change is introduced, I will report soon :slight_smile:

10

Oh man, thought that was it. Didn’t have a crash for at least one hour but… happened again :frowning:

11

:frowning: … is the graphic card model/make mentioned anywhere in this thread ? What is the age of the PC ? Age of the power supply ?

12

Thanks for supporting me @ all :shame:

The graphics card is an NVIDIA GeForce GT220, the PC is ~2 years old, same for the power supply.

I had this suspicion before as well, opened the machine already to be sure the temperature is not the problem. However, the kind of crash is a bit funny for me and I could not imagine that it could be a hardware problem: Screen freezing but mouse still moving. Keyboard not working for switching sessions but keyboard working for Alt-Print-b

I have just found a thread that explained me the activation of the Ctrl-Alt-Backspace hotkey to kill the X windows… have to wait for the next crash.

Does anyone have an idea which log files could maybe hold some information?

13

Is this a self assembled PC ? Are you confident the power supply has adequate power for the graphic card ?

I see this behaviour almost 100% certainly for DIFFERENT reasons on an old laptop with Intel 855GM graphics, EXCEPT there once the ‘freeze’ happens, I can press <CTRL><ALT><F1> or <CTR><ALT><F2> and go to a full screen text mode. In my case with my hardware its a known kernel problem (with no easy solution) and its specific to the Kernel driver and Intel driver combination.

Since you note the problem occurs with the VESA and the proprietary nVidia driver, I’m lead to believe its either a kernel problem or its a hardware problem.

Is there anything unusual in your BIOS settings ?

Log files to look at are /var/log/messages, also dmesg (ie /var/log/boot.msg or /var/log/boot.omsg). In case its X related you could also check /var/log/Xorg.0.log or /var/log/Xorg.0.log.old

14

You have checked the memory???

15

On 07/16/2011 04:36 PM, udorapp wrote:
>
> Oh man, thought that was it. Didn’t have a crash for at least one hour
> but… happened again :frowning:

ok, so we need to learn more about your equipment and situation there:

  1. Is openSUSE running directly on the machine, or is it in a virtual
    machine? Which VM and version? What is the host operating system, and
    version?

  2. The problem/symptom you describe, did it begin immediately after
    initial install, or did it come suddenly some time later?

  • If the problem began immediately after initial install (before you did
    any customizations, additions, deletions or changes) these would be
    useful to know:

  • Was it installed from media downloaded from software.opensuse.org, or
    some other place? Where?

  • Did you md5 or sha1 check the .iso prior to burning the install disk?

  • Did you burn the disk as slow as you could set your burner?

  • Did you proof test the install disk by doing this
    http://tinyurl.com/2ebcf27 before the install?

  • Is this a fresh format and install system? Or, did you upgrade
    (keeping any partitions from a former install of Linux? Which
    distro/version was the former version and what partitions did you
    retain? For example, did you keep your previous /home intact, or only
    transfer personal data (music, mails, documents, etc)?)

  • Is this a multi-boot machine? If so, what other operating systems are
    loaded? Do any partitions have read/write access by more than one
    operating system?

  1. If it worked ok for a while and then not, answer these please:

  • Did this problem begin after a particular update or install?

  • Can you pinpoint which update or install is the most likely cause for
    the new problem? NOTE: you can check your update/install history with
    this code, in a terminal: rpm -qa --last | less

  • Did you, as root, edit any configuration files just before this
    problem began?

  • Did you, as root, change any file or directory permissions with chown
    or chmod?

  • Have you recently (or ever into this install) added software from a
    repo with tumbleweed, factory, playground, evergreen or unstable in its
    name/path?

  • Do you routinely (or ever) log into KDE, GNOME, LXDE (or any other
    Linux GUI desktop environment) as “root”, “superuser”, “su”, or “System
    Administrator”. If so, please report that (it makes a big difference on
    how to proceed with repair)

  • If you use YaST to add a new test user, and then log in as that new
    user do you see the same symptom?

  1. Tell us about your hardware, please:

  • Netbook, laptop, desktop, tower, rack mount server (remote/local),
    hosted server, supercomputer?

  • Computer brand and model number?

  • CPU maker, model number, speed?

  • Amount of RAM and size of swap partition?

  • Number of hard drives?

– Any with troublesome partitions connected by USB?

– Any accessed over a LAN/WAN or via internet tunnel, etc?

– Any have non-Linux file systems (like hpfs, ntfs, vfat, etc)? Which?

– Any use non-ext_ file systems (like reiserfs, smbfs, etc)? Which?

– Any use RAID or LVM?

– Any partitions encrypted?

  • Tell us how old your hardware is and have you followed the
    manufacturer’s recommendation on how, and how often to clean out the
    machine?

  • Have you added power hungry add-ins without increasing the power
    supply capability?

  1. you said you had looked at the logs: the next time it freezes notice
    the time and then when you get it under control again look in
    /var/log/messages around that time stamp for any errors/warnings/clues
    of any kind, and report those back to here…

  2. when you finish with the machine and make ready for bed: boot from an
    openSUSE install disk and select the “Memory Test” at the bottom of the
    list on the first green screen…and, let it run all night, at least
    (with 4 GB RAM it is better to let it run a full 12 hours, at
    least)…if you have any errors, that will be too many!

–
DD
Caveat-Hardware-Software
openSUSE®, the BMW® of operating systems!

16

No, Acer, bought fully configured.

Kernel could be. I didn’t have any problems in Suse 10.3, then upgraded to 11.4. Having many trouble with X and this kind of crash, I tried 11.2, 11.3, 32-bit and so on. The latest configuration in 11.4 worked for weeks (after I have removed that Nvidia-driver) until it came back two weeks ago.

All standard. But I will look now whether I can change memory test settings in there for an extended memory test.

Will check this after the next crash.

Whereas, the funny thing is: With changing the Flash driver as proposed some posts ago, the crash seems to happen once per hours only, before it was ~once per 15 minutes:\

17

/var/log/messages (Crash showed 18:29, Alt-Print-b obviously was 18:34, short memorytest (memtest86+) until new boot on 18:38)

Jul 16 18:17:33 Linux-4 smartd[2696]: Device: /dev/sda [SAT], SMART Usage Attribute: 194 Temperature_Celsius changed from 102 to 101
Jul 16 18:30:31 Linux-4 kernel:  8032.345085] usb 2-2.2: USB disconnect, address 5
Jul 16 18:30:31 Linux-4 avahi-daemon[2308]: Withdrawing workstation service for eth1.
Jul 16 18:30:31 Linux-4 kernel:  8032.353051] ipheth 2-2.2:4.2: Apple iPhone USB Ethernet now disconnected
Jul 16 18:30:31 Linux-4 ifdown:     eth1
Jul 16 18:30:31 Linux-4 ifdown: Interface not available and no configuration found.
Jul 16 18:34:09 Linux-4 kernel:  8250.549553] SysRq : HELP : loglevel(0-9) reBoot Crash terminate-all-tasks(E) memory-full-oom-kill(F) kill-all-tasks(I) thaw-filesystems(J) saK show-backtrace-all-active-cpus(L) show-memory-usage(M) nice-all-RT-tasks(N) powerOff show-registers(P) show-all-timers(Q) unRaw Sync show-task-states(T) Unmount force-fb(V) show-blocked-tasks(W) dump-ftrace-buffer(Z)
Jul 16 18:34:10 Linux-4 kernel:  8250.773534] SysRq : HELP : loglevel(0-9) reBoot Crash terminate-all-tasks(E) memory-full-oom-kill(F) kill-all-tasks(I) thaw-filesystems(J) saK show-backtrace-all-active-cpus(L) show-memory-usage(M) nice-all-RT-tasks(N) powerOff show-registers(P) show-all-timers(Q) unRaw Sync show-task-states(T) Unmount force-fb(V) show-blocked-tasks(W) dump-ftrace-buffer(Z)
Jul 16 18:34:12 Linux-4 kernel:  8253.373361] SysRq : HELP : loglevel(0-9) reBoot Crash terminate-all-tasks(E) memory-full-oom-kill(F) kill-all-tasks(I) thaw-filesystems(J) saK show-backtrace-all-active-cpus(L) show-memory-usage(M) nice-all-RT-tasks(N) powerOff show-registers(P) show-all-timers(Q) unRaw Sync show-task-states(T) Unmount force-fb(V) show-blocked-tasks(W) dump-ftrace-buffer(Z)
Jul 16 18:34:12 Linux-4 kernel:  8253.573343] SysRq : HELP : loglevel(0-9) reBoot Crash terminate-all-tasks(E) memory-full-oom-kill(F) kill-all-tasks(I) thaw-filesystems(J) saK show-backtrace-all-active-cpus(L) show-memory-usage(M) nice-all-RT-tasks(N) powerOff show-registers(P) show-all-timers(Q) unRaw Sync show-task-states(T) Unmount force-fb(V) show-blocked-tasks(W) dump-ftrace-buffer(Z)
Jul 16 18:38:35 linux-jmwx kernel: imklog 5.6.3, log source = /proc/kmsg started.
Jul 16 18:38:35 linux-jmwx rsyslogd: [origin software="rsyslogd" swVersion="5.6.3" x-pid="952" x-info="http://www.rsyslog.com"] start

checked boot.msg, no specific things found. Should I post all that stuff?

var/log/Xorg.0.log The file does not show time/date… Attached one section that I do not understand (I thought that the nvidia-driver should not be part of my system any more?) If I should post further things from this log: Is it possible to specify the interesting parts?

    27.201] (II) LoadModule: "nvidia"
    27.204] (WW) Warning, couldn't open module nvidia
    27.204] (II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
    27.204] (EE) Failed to load module "nvidia" (module does not exist, 0)
    27.204] (II) LoadModule: "nouveau"
    27.205] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/nouveau_drv.so
    27.206] (II) Module nouveau: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
    27.206]    compiled for 1.9.3, module version = 0.0.16
    27.206]    Module class: X.Org Video Driver
    27.206]    ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 8.0
    27.206] (II) LoadModule: "nv"
    27.207] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/nv_drv.so
    27.207] (II) Module nv: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
    27.207]    compiled for 1.9.3, module version = 2.1.18
    27.207]    Module class: X.Org Video Driver
    27.207]    ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 8.0
    27.207] (II) LoadModule: "fbdev"
    27.209] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/fbdev_drv.so
    27.209] (II) Module fbdev: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
    27.209]    compiled for 1.9.3, module version = 0.4.2
    27.209]    ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 8.0
    27.209] (II) LoadModule: "vesa"
    27.210] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/vesa_drv.so
    27.210] (II) Module vesa: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
    27.210]    compiled for 1.9.3, module version = 2.3.0
    27.211]    Module class: X.Org Video Driver
    27.211]    ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 8.0
    27.211] (II) NOUVEAU driver
    27.211] (II) NOUVEAU driver for NVIDIA chipset families :
    27.211]    RIVA TNT    (NV04)
    27.211]    RIVA TNT2   (NV05)

DenverD

On 07/16/2011 04:36 PM, udorapp wrote:
&gt;
&gt; Oh man, thought that was it. Didn't have a crash for at least one hour
&gt; but... happened again

ok, so we need to learn more about your equipment and situation there:

1. Is openSUSE running directly on the machine, or is it in a virtual
machine? Which VM and version? What is the host operating system, and
version?

…

Started already collecting information. However, most important: Yes, the home-directories and all drive mappings from the earlier 10.3 system have not been changed with the upgrade.

18

I think I missed something in your explanation. How is it you are able to run a memory test when the screen is frozen ?

What are those USB messages about ? Do you have external USB devices plugged in each time there is a freeze?

19

Hope that helps (me, thanks to your help :wink: )

20

Crash happened at 18:29. I left the machine running for a few more minutes to be able to separate boot messages from crash messages. Then reboot with Alt-Print-b at 18:34. With the boot-screen, I started a memory test with memtest86+. As I will run an overnight memory test, I stopped the test after one walk through memory and rebooted normally.

At present, there was an iPhone connected via USB. From the log, it looks like the iPhone disconnect at 18:30:31 (~ 1minute after freeze) was still logged. With the next freeze, I will connect/disconnect the USB hardware to see whether the kernel is still running normally in spite of the frozen screen.