[SOLVED] XFCE4.10 main panel and freeze problem

root · 2012-04-30 20:09:33

Hello everyone.

I just have upgraded to XFCE4.10 and after rebooting (as the update included also a new kernel) the main panel is double its size just like the icons. I would have included a screenshot but here is where my second problem appears.
Whenever I try to open a window the system just freezes.

The strange thing is that when I try random things (checking 'Appearance' to see if my Oxygen theme wasn't working anymore with 4.10 or fixing the missing 'Separator' issue for correct window display - former freezed though after clicking on 'Accept') it works but the 'real' things (opening browser - both from applications menu or xfce shortcut panel - or Thunar) do not.
I also noted that when trying to save the 'Separator' fix when I hit the actions button to close the session I was directly just given that option instead of displaying the full menu of restart etc.
Should I consider this a new issue or something I have to setup in 4.10 in comparison to 4.8 where it work perfectly?

I am considering a kernel downgrade to see if it fixes the freeze issue though I doubt, if it does, it would relate to the panel size issue (or that 'only close session' allowance that I have just referred to). The reason for not having tried the downgrade yet is that the system apparently works fine as long as I do not open any window "for real", as said.

Any suggestions?

Last edited by root (2012-05-02 17:34:03)

neowolf · 2012-04-30 21:36:25

Just upgraded myself with the same deal. They changed how the panel works pretty heavily with 4.10, with the new deskbar option and all. I just had to add a stretched separator after the window list to get things back to normal there, and changed my panel size back to something more to my taste.

root · 2012-04-30 22:41:33

#2

As you do not mention it, I presume you did not experiment any freezes just like I do. At least now I know that one of my problems should be fixed through some option in the new 4.10 "outfit".

In my case things just got worse as, after checking it with Openbox, the system crashed at the first try of logging out of this WM and afterwards (logging out fine) freezed randomly. Therefore I decided to downgrade the kernel and right in the middle of the 3.3.3-1 kernel install there was a wall of text of numbers (222...- 7777...) and messages (f.e. sysense_??).

So now the laptop boots but I get a fail in loading user modules and at a time it did not detect any soundcard (now it does when loading hte alsa module). But in the end it loads the login screen and everything freezes.

Am I inevitably heading towards a reinstall or is there a possible fix to this (new) situation?
Hopefully the latter as it is odd to be stuck using a Knoppix Live CD right now :s

ConnorBehan · 2012-05-01 06:06:18

Like neowolf said, my panel got bigger too but I resized it using the panel settings dialog.

Any chance you can post the exact error messages? Errors that get printed during a kernel upgrade or downgrade probably have something to do with your mkinitcpio.conf. And the only failed modules should be third party 3.3.4 modules that you forgot to downgrade to 3.3.3 along with the kernel. What do you have in /lib/extramodules-3.3-ARCH?

iTanguy · 2012-05-01 06:51:06

You are not alone, unfortunately.

On this happy morning, coming back from a week-end, I have updated my latptop on arch +xfce, and I exeprience very similar freezes.
I am writing this on my other PC, which does not seem to have the same symptoms, while its sotfware config is very similar (Arch, Xfce...)

When it's frozen, it doesn't even answer to a "ping" on the network,and the caplocks led state does not change when pressing the MAJ key, if it can help...

Edit: Freeze occurs on a old Acer laptop (Celeron, Sis graphical chipset). 2 years ago, the Hard drive died, so I boot on a USb key, but recently I "lost" the touchpad, I had to plug a mouse. At the beginning, I though it was "again" a hardware failure, but if it occurs not only on my hardware... I tried to "fallback" kernel, but with the sam result...

Last edited by iTanguy (2012-05-01 08:04:02)

foutrelis · 2012-05-01 08:21:40

@iTanguy

Can you check if you get freezes with the linux-lts kernel (mind you, the 3.0.29 one from [core], not 3.0.30 from [testing] -- there might be something funky going on with the latest kernels.)

@root

Very wild guess here, but is your storage medium a bit on the slow side? I got a few weird kernel panics with both 3.3.4 and 3.0.30 on my Aspire One netbook (with its crappy slow SSD), iTanguy is seeing random freezes (might be similar kernel panics) using an (inherently slow) USB drive... I'm starting to see a pattern here.

Last edited by foutrelis (2012-05-01 08:31:26)

iTanguy · 2012-05-01 11:41:45

foutrelis wrote:

@iTanguy
Can you check if you get freezes with the linux-lts kernel (mind you, the 3.0.29 one from [core], not 3.0.30 from [testing] -- there might be something funky going on with the latest kernels.)

Great, it does not seem to freeze anymore with kernel 3.0.29-1-lts under usual workload. Though I feel like it's slower (but that laptop has never been very responsive).
Tell me if/how I could help further. Thanks.

root · 2012-05-01 20:58:23

%$$& Wrote everything nicely down and got logged out xD

Let's see how much I remember.

First of all, right now writing from my downgraded 3.3.3-1 kernel. I didn't succeed doing the downgrade while the 3.3.4-1 was loaded thus I had to do it using the change root method. That way I also discovered the, apparent, reason for the user modules fail at startup and the freezing at the login screen I reported in #3. Somehow the system was using the 3.3.3-1 kernel (I do not know when it installed successfully) but the 3.3.4-1 headers. Most likely I made a mistake somewhere during my previous change root attempt when fixing a *new* unable to find root device that popped up then.

As said, I have been able to downgrade using the Arch Install CD and through the change root method but received the warning,

directory permissions differ on usr/src/linux-3.3.3-1-ARCH/
filesystem: 700 package: 755

after the install/downgrade of each package (linux-docs, linux-headers and linux). Should I consider this a new problem? System works fine so far thus I am not sure about this.

Prior to successfully downgrading I tried to install the LTS kernel but wasn't successful with the 3.3.4-1 kernel loaded. Just like with the downgrade I tried using the change root method and could install it.
But despite updating grub's menu.lst accordingly I was receiving an 'unable to find root device message' which could not be fixed through the change root method just like with the 3.3.4-1 kernel (in case of the LTS one changing the final step from mkinitcpio -p linux to mkinitcpio -p linux-lts as far as I understand it). I might give it another try installing it in this working environment later on and report back with the results.

@ConnorBehan

As I have just stated the user modules fail message and the login screen freeze were surely my fault but the error messages I referred to from the beginning with the 3.3.4-1 kernel were like these,

.... = increasing numbers/disk sectors(?) (left/right)

.... ext4_reserve_inode_write .... [ext4]
.... ext4_reserve_inode_dirty .... [ext4]
.... ? unix_write_space ....
.... ? ext4_dirty_inode .... [ext4]
.... ? ext4_dirty_inode .... [ext4]
.... ext4_dirty_inode .... [ext4]
.... __mark_inode_dirty ....
.... ? mnt_clone_write ....
.... file_update_time ....
.... __generic_file_aio_write ....
.... generic_file_aio_write ....
.... ? ext4_file_mmap .... [ext4]
.... ext4_file_write .... [ext4]
.... ? ext4_file_mmap .... [ext4]
.... do_sync_readv_writev ....
.... ? security_file_permission ....
.... ? _copy_from_user ....
.... ? rw_verify_area ....
.... do_readv_writev ....
.... ? ext4_file_mmap [ext4]
.... ? sockfd_lookup_light ....
.... vfs_writev ....
.... sys_writev ....
.... sysenter_do_call ....

@foutrelis

You may be right with regard to the drive as it is a quite old laptop I am running Arch on. Now that you refer to the drive could the freeze/errors I reported to ConnorBehan be related to the tweaking of the vm.vfs_cache_pressure value I did?
I am just taking a wild guess myself comparing my ide drive to your ssd one. I had never had this kind of problem prior to 3.3.4-1. Just as if this kernel could not handle my tweak anymore (value is 50 and worked fine so far).

foutrelis · 2012-05-01 21:37:18

Not sure about your tweak to vm.vfs_cache_pressure, but your backtrace looks similar to mine:

I probably need to stop being lazy and research this/report it upstream.

root · 2012-05-02 17:33:37

As said, a wild guess as I do not know if someone else, f.e. iTanguy or you yourself, did tweak that setting as I did. You are right, backtrace looks pretty similar to the one I posted in #8.

Due to the XFCE problem having been fixed and the main problem ended up being the kernel (and is already being discussed in its related forum if I am not mistaken) I will mark this as solved.

Thanks everyone for their help.

Last edited by root (2012-05-02 17:35:01)

Arch Linux

#1 2012-04-30 20:09:33

[SOLVED] XFCE4.10 main panel and freeze problem

#2 2012-04-30 21:36:25

Re: [SOLVED] XFCE4.10 main panel and freeze problem

#3 2012-04-30 22:41:33

Re: [SOLVED] XFCE4.10 main panel and freeze problem

#4 2012-05-01 06:06:18

Re: [SOLVED] XFCE4.10 main panel and freeze problem

#5 2012-05-01 06:51:06

Re: [SOLVED] XFCE4.10 main panel and freeze problem

#6 2012-05-01 08:21:40

Re: [SOLVED] XFCE4.10 main panel and freeze problem

#7 2012-05-01 11:41:45

Re: [SOLVED] XFCE4.10 main panel and freeze problem

#8 2012-05-01 20:58:23

Re: [SOLVED] XFCE4.10 main panel and freeze problem

#9 2012-05-01 21:37:18

Re: [SOLVED] XFCE4.10 main panel and freeze problem

#10 2012-05-02 17:33:37

Re: [SOLVED] XFCE4.10 main panel and freeze problem

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