Random freeze on booting into desktop

[poochandy]

hi all,

I am new to this forum. I have been running arch linux for some time on my laptop and wanted to use a different distro for the desktop. I wanted a stable system and decided to use the 201012 LMDE ISO(x64), tracking squeeze repos as per the community tutorial. My system specs:

AMD Athlon X2 2.0 Ghz x64
2 GB RAM
512 MB nvidia 8600GT
Asus M2V-TVM motherboard

I used unetbootin to boot LMDE off a USB drive. On arriving at the live desktop i clicked on the installer and as i was entering my details, the desktop hung up on me and I had to do a hard reset as the keyboard shortcuts did not work. On reboot, the freezing repeated itself, but at different points of time (once even before the desktop came up). Every time this happens, I hear a beep from my CPU speaker.

I googled a bit and used the "nomodeset" switch to boot into the desktop and finished the installation smoothly. I removed the USB drive to boot back into my installation. I hear a short CPU beep when gdm displays the login prompt(this repeats every time). On logging in, I was able to use the desktop for around 2 minutes after which the system hangs up(I hear a beep every time this happens). I figured this was probably a problem with the video driver. Next time, I ctrl + alt + f2'd into tty2 and stopped gdm using "sudo /etc/init.d/gmd3 stop". I then proceeded to uninstall nouveau drivers using

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get remove --purge xserver-xorg-video-nouveau libdrm-nouveau1 

I then installed the nvidia drivers as per the instruction on the forum. I reckon this went successfully as I get "direct rendering :yes" when I do "glxinfo | grep rendering".

But the problem still persists and my desktop is unusable as it hangs within five minutes of booting up.

It is to be noted that the 'hang up' itself happens differently each time. Sometimes the mouse freezes and i cant do anything. Sometimes, I get to a black screen with a blinking cursor. Other instances include the system restarting by itself and in some occasions, it freezes with a long continuous beep when the desktop is loading. Sometimes i was able to use the desktop for long time and even play youtube videos in full screen. Sound and Internet work out of the box.

I cleaned my motherboard, checked the seating of RAM, GPU, connectors etc.,. I did a memtest only a few months back and it came out without any errors. I am dual booting lmde with my windows xp installation which is running without a glitch(I play games, videos etc for long periods of time). It is because of this reason I think it is not a hardware problem.

Please help me troubleshoot this problem. I have been at this for three days and I really feel if I can get this up and running i could keep this stable setup for a long period of time. Thanks!!

[poochandy]

Hi all,

Just thought I'll post my progress(or lack of progress) here just in case anyone wants to chip in:

I went through the log and caught the following error messages during the kernel panic. This is consistent every time the system hangs:

General protection fault: 000

last sysfs file : /sys/devices/pci0000

this is followed by numbers and code.

I googled and figured this could either be a kernel bug or a memory error. I checked my memory first. I ran memtest again for 6 hours and it completed 6 passes without any errors so I concluded that the problem was not with my RAM.

I then tried the install by connecting to my on-board video instead of the graphic card and the installer still got stuck in the middle of the installation. So I ruled out the video card.

Next I did not want to complicate things by upgrading the kernel so I downloaded the latest version which comes with a different kernel and tried installing it. This is time there was no fooling around. The error was consistent. It appeared every single time i tried to install(even when i used 'nomodeset'). I could not complete the install till the end and had to revert back.

Any idea on how I can proceed. Logic says this should be a hardware error but my windows install is chugging along peacefully..which is why I keep on trying. Any ideas for troubleshooting this further and narrowing down on the things that could be wrong?

[StewArt]

Probably not much help since I'm a newbie myself, but...
1) Is there a reason you're using 201012 instead of 201109?
2) I've had LMDE randomly freeze on every computer I've installed it on until I get the updates installed. After that, it's smooth sailing.

[poochandy]

Hi stewart,

Thanks for the reply.

1. I am using the 201012 ISO cause I wanted to run a stable system following the squeeze repos. (See here: http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/497). BTW I did try the 201109 ISO and couldn't even finish the installation.

2. Yes, I tried updating but it kernel panics half way through the upgrades every time I try it (even after exiting X and doing it through the console).


Now I guess I am going to try another distro and see if this repeats itself.

[Hipster]

Hello All:
I think I have a version of the same problem. It happens during installation. My hardware configuration is different. HP Pavilion g7-1260us Notebook PC. After the ready prompt Ready...
the screen goes blank. there is some activity on the CD/DVD intermittently but the system is dead to the world. This happens using both CD and DVD installments. Gnomes and Xfce for 64 bit. It also seems to show up without solution on the Google searches a lot. Of course md5 checks should always preformed after downloads but this does not seem to be the problem.



Cheers,
Hip

[spandey]

Hi Hipster,
Can you please open a separate thread with details of machine like type of cpu, Amount of ram, Grapchics card etc.? Also, please elaborate your problem a little like what worked what didn't?

[Hipster]

Hi

I can gave you that infor if you can tell me how it get it in window's 7. I'm sorry unfamiliar with M$ stuff. On the other hand I have had success on the Linux front. Using Mint Gnome I've used the recovery boot option then I select resume with normal boot and no problem. In respect to the old problem I suspect that in was a problem switching from text mode to graphics mode taking a very long time (after leaving the laptop and coming back to it diner I noted it was 'unhung') as the opening slash graphics is a bit map I know or I think some manipulating of BIOS occurs to set graphics mode and dragons be there.

[revdjenk]

I think these random freezes are not connected to the new Mint12, per se. Linux Torvalds has reported this being related to a kernel thread tool called, kworker https://lkml.org/lkml/2011/3/30/836.
If you notice your cursor begin to get jumpy, sloppy or slow, open a terminal and type "top" (without the quotes) and hit Enter. You may well see this resource, called kworker often taking 50% or more of one or more CPU activity. Kworker is meant to help start a process (I am a complete dunce at this, and thus may be giving an incomplete summary). However, kworker is just going "nuts" (Linus' description) and begins eating up CPU cycles, until the system freezes. Sometimes this is only temporary, and sometimes a hard boot is required to recover control of your machine. Unfortunately, no one has yet figured out why this is happening, even Linus!
I have this happening on my Mint11 install on my Lenovo T400, on a Mint12 install on a Lenovo T61 and had it happen with liveusb instances with both Mint12 and BodhiLinux 1.3 on the T400! I have seen mention of this occurring in other distros, e.g. Kubuntu, Arch, Fedora.
I have not been successful in reliably recreating this phenomena. I can have all four compiz cube desktops full of apps, Chrome full of tabs and the T400 will work happily all day. Other times, the cursor will slow and then stop, and the keyboard likewise become useless within moments of booting up.

I hope this answers (?) some questions and can point more knowledgeable people toward a solution.

God Bless
Doug

[RavenFB]

Out of curiosity... what would happen if you were to kill the kworker process when it is rampant like this?
What I mean is, your computer is acting up. Trackpad is locked up, mouse slugging. So, you ctrl+alt+t a terminal open, and enter top. You see kworker right there at the top of that list. Of course, the very first bit of information listed is the PID for kworker. So what would then happen if we do "kill <kworker PID>"? I mean, this would probably be a bit sloppy, but is it possible that this could prevent having to reboot the system? Or are those cycles going to be "locked" by kworker even after it's killed? OR, can you even kill it, since the kill/sigkill command may actually need kworker to "help" execute them? I am a bit fuzzy on this subject. So far, I have not had any lock-ups with Mint 12, other than my trackpad simply refusing to work randomly. I have yet to find a way to get it working again other than to restart the computer. Sometimes, this happens almost immediately after logging into the desktop, and other times, it does not happen at all after hours of use. I have not been able to reliably recreate any specific trigger for this bug, and so have no idea of what is causing it, and therefore how to prevent it. I am now curious if it is a related bug? Perhaps it is related to kworker? I will keep an eye open for when the trackpad misbehaves in the future, and see if kworker is rampant in top at the same time. I will post any results when/if I have something to report.

EDIT: minor spelling error fixed, which completely changed meaning of sentence. Changed "not" to "now".

[revdjenk]

If you are still having mouse/trackpad slowdowns, freezes, stuttering caused from returning from suspend or inactivity and you have Intel-based graphics, you may have noticed the kworker kernel process taking over CPU cycles as noted when you run "top" (without apostrophes) in terminal.

If this is so, go to this site:

http://souriguha.wordpress.com/2011/03/ ... 2-35-2-36/

If you are running a kernel newer than 2.5 go directly to Fix #9 (otherwise follow the whole Fix Section) and enter the command in root terminal (sudo su).

This fix will work.

God Bless
Doug