Mint 8 Helena hangs (total freeze)

[btr]

Hi,

I am experiencing frequent freezes on Linux Mint 8 Helena. They happen several times a day while I'm simply surfing the web, browsing folders etc. In a previous post I thought I had found a solution (http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=37795) by updating the kernel; Mint behaved well for a while, but freezes came back next morning and are still going on.

How is the freeze: all of a sudden, the whole system hangs and, although the mouse pointer still moves, everything on the screen becomes unresponsive (nothing is clickable), and the only solution is to force restart the computer.

I have Windows XP on the same machine, and no similar crashes happen there. I installed Linux Mint for the first time a few days ago. Except for the freezes, everything else is great.

After reading numerous threads, I found some people describing heating problems as a possible cause. Others suggested the inclusion of "acpi=off" as a default grub instruction (http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=37301 -- this user said it solved his problem; I am trying this out right now, no crashes so far; but Thunderbird [only!] became extremeeeely slow).

So my question is: how can I know for sure what is causing the freezes? Is there a way to make a crash report or something? Is anybody else experiencing similar freezes? What solutions have people found?

Any tips will be greatly appreciated.
I'm installing Mint for my mother, and this is basically the only thing preventing her from becoming a full-time Linux user... : - )

Thanks,

Bruno
- - -
System: Host yara-desktop Kernel 2.6.31-16-generic i686 (32 bit) Distro Linux Mint 8 Helena - Main Edition
CPU: Single core Intel Pentium 4 (UP) cache 512 KB flags (sse2) bmips 4531.23 clocked at 2265.615 MHz
Graphics: Card-1 Intel 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device Card-2 ATI RV280 [Radeon 9200 SE] X.Org 1.6.4 Res: 1280x720@59.9hz
GLX Renderer Mesa DRI Intel 845G GEM 20090712 2009Q2 RC3 x86/MMX/SSE2 GLX Version 1.3 Mesa 7.6 Direct Rendering Yes
Audio: Card Intel 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller driver Intel ICH at ports e000 dc00
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Version 1.0.20
Network: Card Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet at port c400
Disks: HDD Total Size: 40.0GB (13.8% used) 1: /dev/sda ST340014A 40.0GB 39C
Partition: ID:/ size: 21G used: 5.2G (26%) fs: ext4 ID:swap-1 size: 1.04GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
Info: Processes 127 Uptime 28 min Memory 222.9/496.3MB Client Shell inxi 1.2.6

[richyrich]

I am going to suggest that you try turning OFF any visual effects.

Your Intel 845 is a good systemboard, but lacking in the graphics department. (and I see it is using the best available drivers)
Your add-on ATI 9200 card is in the same situation (but it looks like you have it turned off, and are using the onboard graphics).

[btr]

Thanks for your suggestion. You mean simply go to control Center > CompizConfig Settings and turn off visual effects from there? I hadn't activated any visual effect since first install (I was using whatever Mint 8 default settings are).

I'm using the onboard graphics because I couldn't figure out yet how to configure the ATI 9200 (it prevents Mint from booting). In any case, I'm happy with the onboard for now, my main concern is to solve the freezing.

[mikew57]

It appears that this problem is now being tracked as a bug in Launchpad.net. It is #307645. I have had the same problem.

[mikew57]

Anyone know if this is happening in the x64 version of Mint 8?

[LarryJW]

I have the same problem running Helena on my Compaq Evo d510SFF. It uses an earlier onboard Intel 82845G/GL Brookdale chipset with 64 MB of Video RAM. I could tell it wasn't a hardware problem because the pointer would still move. I rarely run more than two or three things at a time, the most intensive would be watching flash videos on Opera. I haven't had this problem since I've used the Compatibility Mode (at least with the Live CD), and I'm about to test another install with that.

EDIT: I've installed Mint 8 in compatibility mode and no problems at all. The only thing is, I have to wrap my mind around how to edit the xorg.conf file properly and added the 'Greedy' line and one other related line to it but no changes so far. I also went to a site that generates a modeline based on your monitor and Video specs input but I'm not sure where to add that.

[deleted]

I get the same results on my HP Pavilion a6720y (AMD Phenom x4, integrated NVIDIA 9100) when I run XP in a vm and enable blutooth.
I'm suspecting the inegrated video, too. I'm going to get a dedicated card to see if I still have the problem.
-Hinto

[rockyjones]

I also have the same problem on an IBM Thinkpad T-60 running Helena. I tried using Opera thinking it might be Firefox but still locked up. Turned off screensaver but that didn't help either. Tried the ACPI=OFF option but that causes my trackpoint to not work anymore so can't use that even to test. I have Helena installed on a desktop running as a HTPC with XBMC and it works fine... no freezes; just the laptop has problems.

I am also running Ubuntu 10.04 alpha 1 on this laptop and I have yet to see any freezes in it but I haven't run it as much. I will be, however, as the freezes in Mint have increased so much, I'm going to switch over to 10.04 since it is very stable and use as my primary distro for a while to see if it indeed will freeze or not.

[deleted]

Bought the card... Haven't put it in, yet...
I'll keep you posted.
-H

[btr]

My current situation: I tried using the boot option "acpi=off" for a few days. The freezes I described above disappeared, however I've got sluggish graphics and overall slow down of opening and closing windows etc. Another side effect of using "acpi=off" for me: every now and then Linux Mint suddenly logs out and brings me back to the log in screen (risking to lose unsaved documents).
Now I am trying the boot option "noapic" instead of "acpi=off". Results so far are better. No more slowed down graphics, and, more importantly, freezes and sudden log outs have NOT happened so far (this is my second day of trying noapic).
I have no idea of what exactly "noapic" does, but I have decided to try it after reading this article: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions

[deleted]

Here's an update.
I currently have this:
HP Pavilion a6720y
http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/hp-pav ... 61679.html
And it would periodically hang, especially when I enabled bluetooth in my XP guest.
It has an integrated 9100 NVIDIA chip.

I recently added this:
Sparkle GeForce 9400 GT Video Card
http://www.compusa.com/applications/Sea ... CatId=3669
and so far no hangs.

-Hinto

[rockyjones]

I decided to install Ubuntu 9.10 over Mint 8 to see if the problem was with Mint or Ubuntu. After the install I started having the exact same freezing problems with Ubuntu as I had with Mint. Since I have been testing Ubuntu 10.04 and saw NO freezes with it, I decided to upgrade to the 2.6.32 kernel on Ubuntu 9.10. This completely cured the freeze problems! I have been running the new kernel for three days now and have not had a single freeze. This tends to convince me that this problem is a kernel problem with 2.6.31.xx. I have not reinstalled Mint 8 yet to test it, but I believe it will also solve the problem with Mint 8 if the kernel is upgraded to 2.6.32.

I used the info at the link below to upgrade the kernel.

http://www.ramoonus.nl/2009/12/03/linux ... ntu-linux/

[pvossen]

I installed the deb files for the kernel you recommended from the ramoonus blog. It
recognized the new kernel, and I've now worked on the computer with no glitches and
much better response. I think it is the answer overall to Helena 8. Its a better kernel,
and more stable than the one off the disk or updated from repositories.

Patrick

I decided to install Ubuntu 9.10 over Mint 8 to see if the problem was with Mint or Ubuntu. After the install I started having the exact same freezing problems with Ubuntu as I had with Mint. Since I have been testing Ubuntu 10.04 and saw NO freezes with it, I decided to upgrade to the 2.6.32 kernel on Ubuntu 9.10. This completely cured the freeze problems! I have been running the new kernel for three days now and have not had a single freeze. This tends to convince me that this problem is a kernel problem with 2.6.31.xx. I have not reinstalled Mint 8 yet to test it, but I believe it will also solve the problem with Mint 8 if the kernel is upgraded to 2.6.32.

I used the info at the link below to upgrade the kernel.

http://www.ramoonus.nl/2009/12/03/linux ... ntu-linux/

[LarryJW]

Thanks for the heads up. I've installed kernel 2.6.32-020632 successfully and ran update grub, but upon reboot the option to boot into the new kernel wasn't there. any ideas how to get it to show it?

[rockyjones]

LarryJW

when I run update-grub, here is my output... what is yours?

joe@LittleDog:~$ sudo update-grub
Generating grub.cfg ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-020632-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-020632-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-16-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-16-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
done

[LarryJW]

Thank you rockyjones for your reply. Sorry mine is late but other things got in the way for a moment. Here's what I got:

Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
Searching for default file ... found: /boot/grub/default
Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst
Searching for splash image ... none found, skipping ...
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.32-020632-generic
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.31-16-generic
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic
Found GRUB 2: /boot/grub/core.img
Found kernel: /memtest86+.bin
Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done

[rockyjones]

Looks like you have both the "old" grub as well as grub2 installed. Perhaps that is the problem. I don't really have the Linux experience level to advise you on how to repair that... If it were me, I would just wipe the drive and re-install after backing up the important info in my home directory.

I saw that some people in the Ubuntu forums fixed a similar freezing problem by installing a new Intel driver. Don't know if that might apply to you. My laptop uses a Radeon mobility chip so that wouldn't have fixed my problem. I'm still very happy with the 2.6.32 kernel... still no freezing on my Thinkpad T-60 after many days of heavy use now.

I use Linux Mint 8 on my eeepc 900a and on my Gigabyte based HTPC and never had any freezing with either using the 2.6.31.x kernel that is in Mint 8 so the problem does seem to be hardware specific.

[LarryJW]

Thank you. I was thinking the same thing. I'm thinking about installing Mint 7 (which doesn't freeze) and installing the new kernel into that before installing anything else and maybe that will do it. All the newest distros of the 2.6.31 kernel freeze or fail to boot or something. If I had the money I'd just get another used PC with another architecture or chipset, but then knowing my luck that would be the next buggy one.

[pvossen]

Thanks for the heads up. I've installed kernel 2.6.32-020632 successfully and ran update grub, but upon reboot the option to boot into the new kernel wasn't there. any ideas how to get it to show it?

Mine wasn't there immediately to move into either. Yet, when I checked the
system kernel in the control panel, it was recognized and running the new kernel.

[LarryJW]

Mine still shows 2.6.31.14. As long as I don't watch flash videos it will be a while before it freezes. Not sure if flash ads have similar effect.