This is part of The Pile, a partial archive of some open source mailing lists and newsgroups.
Subject: RH7.0 locks up From: John Koyle <koiler@lineo.com> Date: Mon, 09 Oct 2000 08:41:27 -0600 I've been running linux for about 5 years now and haven't seen anything like this before. A friend and I just upgraded our workstations from RH6.2 to 7.0. We did a full re-install however, not the upgrade off the CD. We are both having a lot of problems where the system will hang. I've had it hang in the middle of moving my mouse across the screen and doing nothing at all. It's been installed for about a week, and there hasn't been a single morning yet where I've come into work to find the machine still on. I can't ping it from another box, I can't get any video, keyboard or mouse movement. A hard reset is needed. There is nothing in the log files at all, they simply stop cold: Oct 6 00:40:00 koily CROND[6450]: (root) CMD ( /sbin/rmmod -as) Oct 6 08:45:39 koily syslogd 1.3-3: restart. Oct 6 08:45:39 koily syslog: syslogd startup succeeded ----- Oct 8 04:30:14 koily rhnsd[10411]: running program /usr/sbin/rhn_check Oct 8 04:30:18 koily rhnsd[713]: command returned: ERROR: unable to read system id. Oct 9 08:23:56 koily syslogd 1.3-3: restart. Oct 9 08:23:56 koily syslog: syslogd startup succeeded System info: Microstar MB Athlon 700 Adaptec 29160 Seagate 160 drive Matrox G200 8MB Intel Etherexpress 100 ES1371 soundcard My friend has the some config only with a 2940 controller and UW drive. Does anyone have any ideas on this? === Subject: Re: RH7.0 locks up From: Hal Burgiss <hal@foobox.net> Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2000 10:49:09 -0400 On Mon, Oct 09, 2000 at 08:41:27AM -0600, John Koyle wrote: > I've been running linux for about 5 years now and haven't seen anything > like this before. > > A friend and I just upgraded our workstations from RH6.2 to 7.0. We did > a full re-install however, not the upgrade off the CD. We are both > having a lot of problems where the system will hang. I've had it hang > in the middle of moving my mouse across the screen and doing nothing at > all. It's been installed for about a week, and there hasn't been a > single morning yet where I've come into work to find the machine still > on. > My friend has the some config only with a 2940 controller and UW drive. > > Does anyone have any ideas on this? Is it running X 4? I would try reverting to 3.3.6. It's included too. See Xconfigurator man page for configuration of this. Wild guess actually. The mouse hang you mention sounds like maybe X related. === Subject: Re: RH7.0 locks up From: Charles Galpin <cgalpin@lighthouse-software.com> Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2000 10:49:25 -0400 (EDT) I haven't had the box long enough to be sure, but I have had the same problem. I believe it is XFree86 4.0 and the mga driver (i have a g400). Switch back to 3.x and it should work fine. nyway, I had to take the box back because it wasn't detecting my full cpu speed - when I get it back, I'll report on my stability. === Subject: Re: RH7.0 locks up From: "Adam Sleight" <adams@linearcorp.com> Date: Mon, 09 Oct 2000 10:12:22 -0700 Same here...I have a g400, RH7.0, XFree86 4.01 and a KVM switch...my KVM switch gets stuck and the keyboard locks up to. I guess I'll have to revert back to 3.3.6 and see if that won't fix it. I had fsck it on 27GB it takes about 8-10 minutes. === Subject: Re: RH7.0 locks up From: Gordon Messmer <yinyang@eburg.com> Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2000 11:51:40 -0700 (PDT) On Mon, 9 Oct 2000, John Koyle wrote: > A friend and I just upgraded our workstations from RH6.2 to 7.0. We did > a full re-install however, not the upgrade off the CD. We are both > having a lot of problems where the system will hang. I've had it hang > in the middle of moving my mouse across the screen and doing nothing at > all. It's been installed for about a week, and there hasn't been a > single morning yet where I've come into work to find the machine still > on. ... > System info: > Microstar MB > Athlon 700 > Adaptec 29160 > Seagate 160 drive > Matrox G200 8MB > Intel Etherexpress 100 > ES1371 soundcard > > My friend has the some config only with a 2940 controller and UW drive. In light of other reports of problems with Matrox cards, I thought I'd through in my system config. I also have Red Hat 7.0 installed, though I'm using a kernel that I compiled previously for LVM support. I have: Intel DK440LX dual CPU MB 2x Intel PII 300Mhz Adaptec 2940 (AIC-7895) :: aic7xxx Matrox G400 32MB :: mga XF4.0 Intel Etherexpress 100 :: eepro100 Crystal sound? onboard :: ALSA snd-card-cs4236 PS/2 keyboard and MicroSoft USB Intellimouse My system has been totally stable. I've left myself logged in to X for 13 days until this morning, when I installed the glibc errata from Red Hat and rebooted the system. When I test hardware, I usually take the following steps: download the latest copy of memtest86 (find it on freshmeat) and run it for at least 8 hours. boot linux into single user mode, remove any modules you don't need, and start compiling kernels in a loop: #!/bin/sh cd /usr/src/linux while: ; do if ( make bzImage >/dev/null ) ; then echo "GOOD kernel compile at `date`" >> /tmp/compile.log else echo "BAD kernel compile at `date`" >> /tmp/compile.log fi if ( make modules >/dev/null ) ; then echo "GOOD modules compile at `date`" >> /tmp/compile.log else echo "BAD modules compile at `date`" >> /tmp/compile.log fi done That should run for about 24 hours. give or take a length of patience. If either of those tests produce ANY errors, you have hardware issues, and you should take the issue up with your manufacturer/place of purchase. If they turn up no errors, then your scsi controller is probably good, as is your drive, processor, motherboard and RAM. That leaves your video card, sound card, NIC, or peripherals as possible problems. Testing that shouldn't be too difficult if you machine locks up reliable every day. Just start switching cards out for other brands of cards until it stops ;) I'd be interested in what you learn. === Subject: Re: RH7.0 locks up From: Charles Galpin <cgalpin@lighthouse-software.com> Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2000 15:13:18 -0400 (EDT) On Mon, 9 Oct 2000, Adam Sleight wrote: > Same here...I have a g400, RH7.0, XFree86 4.01 and a KVM > switch...my KVM switch gets stuck and the keyboard locks > up to. I guess I'll have to revert back to 3.3.6 and see > if that won't fix it. I had fsck it on 27GB it takes > about 8-10 minutes. grin. maybe the next RH installer will be smart enough to install a journaling filesystem when it detects a matrox card :) I only have 18gb, so I get more annoyed at losing my current work/state when it happens! === Subject: Re: RH7.0 locks up From: Charles Galpin <cgalpin@lighthouse-software.com> Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2000 16:54:42 -0400 (EDT) I also do a kernel compile loop burn in test on my machines (first sugested to me by the honorable Donald Becker oncE :) ) I have used the same g400 in two machines, both able to compile the kernel with -j4 for days. As an aside, on one of these machines I actually forgot I was compiling the kernel for a few days as she still performed well :). The card worked fine for several months under 6.2 XFree86 3.x. Once I upgraded the first machine to 7.0 and played around tiht XFree86 4.0 and dual-headed (perhaps the real problem there) It started locking up. Even when I went back to single headed, and the original mga driver it continued to lockup. It is not locking up now with an ATI card. I did some brief testing on a new machine (but with the same card) and it locked up after leaving it overnight. This could very well have been an apmd issue since I hadn't completed configuring the box. I will be redoing the burn in test when I get it back, and will report on it's stability too. But, I do see something common amongst these machines (with lockups). They are all athlons. this may be pure coincidence. My "old" system: Microstar MB Athlon 500 Adaptec 2940U2W 2 x IBM 9GB LVD drives Matrox G400 32MB lynksys or netgear thernet SB 64 sound (i think) My new system: Asus K7M MB Athlon 800 (only reported 550 so I sent her back) Adaptec 29160 Seagate 160 drive 18GB Matrox G400 32MB (same card as above) 3com nic some built in sound - not configured ===