Arch Linux

Chrys349

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2011-09-04

Posts: 50

[solved] kernel freezes & fails to arrive at login on older PCs

If I install Arch on a Pentium 4, Arch fails to boot, kernel fails to initialise. The same thing happens if I install Debian Testing. But if I install Debian Stable or Ubuntu 10.04, the kernel is initialising succesfully at every boot. How can I find out why the kernel from arch freezes and fails to arrive at login ?

I can't seem to find anyone that is familiar with this scenario: old pentium 4 pc, windows xp and 7 are both working fine on this pc, debian stable and ubuntu 10.04 work great, but the kernels from arch and debian testing keep freezing over and over, at almost every boot... it is anoying to keep reseting the pc several times before I can use arch, but since the pc is not the problem, what else is left ?

Last edited by Chrys349 (2011-11-26 17:04:19)

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: [solved] kernel freezes & fails to arrive at login on older PCs

I've been using Arch on a Pentium 4 for over 2 years w/o a problem.

Have you tried the -lts kernels?

Last edited by karol (2011-10-31 02:18:13)

Chrys349

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2011-09-04

Posts: 50

Re: [solved] kernel freezes & fails to arrive at login on older PCs

could you explain what "-lts kernels" means ?

I'm not sure about this but I think the kernel freezes immediately after udev starts, and I suspect it's because of the video card (Radeon 9200) because someone told me that he had alot of problems with linux because of this video card...

but the kernel from debian stable doesn't have this problem, it never freezes like the kernel from arch does... I just don't understand how can windows, debian stable and ubuntu don't freeze after boot, but arch freezes...

Last edited by Chrys349 (2011-10-31 02:23:35)

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: [solved] kernel freezes & fails to arrive at login on older PCs

http://www.archlinux.org/packages/?name=-lts LTS means long term support, it's an alternative kernel.
I have no knowledge wrt ATI cards but maybe somebody else is be able to help if you provide some logs. What graphics driver are you using? When you computer finally boots, do you experience any other problems?

Chrys349

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2011-09-04

Posts: 50

Re: [solved] kernel freezes & fails to arrive at login on older PCs

but if I install "kernel26-lts" and "kernel26-lts-headers" packages, will they be compatible with the current version of Xorg or other packages already installed with pacman ?

I use the open source radeon driver, but at the time the kernel freezes, I think a generic driver included in the kernel is used and the radeon driver isn't started yet; the pc boots after a couple of resets, I have to push the reset button every time the kernel freezes, and after about 3-8 freezes, it eventually starts normally and I can login, but the number of freezes varies, and very rarely it does not freeze... the kernel freeze is the only problem, everything else works fine, except hardware acceleration for video playback, even though I enabled it in xorg.conf

Chrys349

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2011-09-04

Posts: 50

Re: [solved] kernel freezes & fails to arrive at login on older PCs

I've installed "kernel26-lts" and "kernel26-lts-headers" packages, and still freezes after boot, but sometimes it doesn't freeze, and by the time it supposed to start SLiM dislpay manager, there is no video signal anymore, the display shuts down...

Last edited by Chrys349 (2011-10-31 15:42:33)

sliposk

Member

Registered: 2010-08-19

Posts: 46

Re: [solved] kernel freezes & fails to arrive at login on older PCs

Go to ( /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf )  and insert  ( install processor /bin/false )  and reboot. Or turn off Hyper Threading in the bios .

Last edited by sliposk (2011-10-31 21:48:39)

Chrys349

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2011-09-04

Posts: 50

Re: [solved] kernel freezes & fails to arrive at login on older PCs

solved... I got rid of kernel freeze, or kernel hang, by appending the "acpi=off" parameter in grub and syslinux

I have no idea what "acpi=off" does, but it's the olny solution I found that enables me to both install arch and use it...

Last edited by Chrys349 (2011-11-26 17:07:27)