Ubuntu partition borked and nonexistent battery life.

ucal · 2010-02-22 17:23:50

Okay, so I ran into a printing issue (installing cups and drivers right now, so it shouldn't be a problem anymore) and tried to boot into ubuntu so I could print. Ubuntu wouldn't boot, citing a mounting issue (status code 3 or something like that). The problem has been pretty consistent. What I think is happening is Arch is mounting the partition ubuntu is on, and not unmounting it on shutdown. I seem to remember windows could do something similar and make life hell for linux users. Then again, I may be completely off base here, so ask for more info, and I'll do my best to provide. I'm asking here, because the only access I have to my computer is the maintenance shell on Ubuntu, and arch.

Next issue is the battery life on my laptop. It's atrocious, lasting about an hour. The computer is also constantly running hot now, so I get the feeling that the fan, and whatever is running on overdrive full time now is the cause. Anyway to find out what's draining me dry here?

Zerathidune · 2010-02-22 17:52:24

I'm not sure about you're first issue, though your hypothesis seems unlikely to me. perhaps if you could post the exact error message it would be easier to help.

As to the battery life issue, have you set up cpu frequency scaling? check the wiki for instructions. Also, how long does it normally last?

Zack89 · 2010-02-22 17:56:12

You dont really give enough information for diagnostic purposes.. Im assuming you have a dualboot between Ubuntu and Arch? And you think Arch is mounting but not unmounting your ubuntu pt when you boot arch? The partition thing can be taken care of easily by removing your ubuntu partition from fstab if its in there.. you wont be able to mount it now but if you dont need to mount it then thats no problem.. run an fsck on your ubuntu partition to repair any damage caused by it not being unmounted.

For your power issue.. its not coincidental your laptop is running hot. Something is using alot of CPU processes causing your laptop to run hot, and cutting down on your battery power. You need to use a performance manager to see whats using what. If you dont have one installed, download one. Ubuntu has one built in, and if your running Gnome on Arch you should be able to download the one ubu uses. KDE should have one built in if your using KDE, KDEmod is a diff story.

ucal · 2010-02-22 18:47:17

The error code (I'm doing this from memory, as I have nothing to write it down right now) is:

Init mountall (or something like that) process (518) failed status code 3.

I'm sorry that it's so vague at the moment, when I get back to my dorm I'll write down the exact code. Those numbers are right though. I made sure to remember those.

Back to powermanagement. I've installed the cpufrequency governors and put the daemon in rc.conf (put the governors in the module section too), but I don't think kde power managers are detecting them, as I still get the same options I had before (which don't actually do anything). Now that they're installed, how do I set them to run, or even tell if they're running? cpufreq-info isn't helping me here.

perbh · 2010-02-23 03:35:54

Do you have the ubuntu partition in your arch fstab?
I believe that whatever is in fstab gets umounted at closedown, but I have run into problems with nfs-mounts and arch ... mainly, I think, because the network is taken down before the filesystems are unmounted ...
I solved the latter case by using /etc/rc.local.shutdown ... something like this

 for d in`cat /etc/mtab | awk '{ if ($3 == "nfs") print $2 }'`; do umount $d; done

Last edited by perbh (2010-02-23 03:47:17)

ucal · 2010-02-23 08:58:07

Is that shell scripting language? I will definitely try that out tomorrow. Right now it's bed time.

On the powermanagement issue. I've tried powernowd as well as cpufreq governors. I can't get either to work atm. Am I using the wrong driver for my processor perhaps? I use Powernow-8, and the processor is an AMD turion I think.

ucal · 2010-02-24 08:18:34

bump.

Bysshe · 2010-02-24 16:42:55

When you run in daemon mode you only need, and should probably only use one driver in your modules section. if you are trying powernow-k8, there should only be that in your modules section besides any unrelated modules like maybe soundcore or !soundcore if you run oss daemon. And of course cpufreq must still be added to your daemons since it would be the actual application. There is a file you have to edit which tells the daemon what mode you want to use.

For me, top is sufficient for resource monitoring. If my hard drive goes nuts, then something is wrong. I never look at it.

ucal · 2010-02-26 06:59:41

Okay, the cpu governors are working to limit my cpu, but they aren't doing much for battery life at all.

ucal · 2010-02-26 16:58:29

Script above isn't working either. Here's the exact error code when attempting to boot into Ubuntu.

init: mountall main process (471) terminated with status 3.

ucal · 2010-02-28 08:09:05

bump. The script for rc.shutdown apparently has syntax errors in it, if the output at shutdown is correct. I'll see what I can do to get it working, but I'm completely new to scripting in that language.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-02-22 17:23:50

Ubuntu partition borked and nonexistent battery life.

#2 2010-02-22 17:52:24

Re: Ubuntu partition borked and nonexistent battery life.

#3 2010-02-22 17:56:12

Re: Ubuntu partition borked and nonexistent battery life.

#4 2010-02-22 18:47:17

Re: Ubuntu partition borked and nonexistent battery life.

#5 2010-02-23 03:35:54

Re: Ubuntu partition borked and nonexistent battery life.

#6 2010-02-23 08:58:07

Re: Ubuntu partition borked and nonexistent battery life.

#7 2010-02-24 08:18:34

Re: Ubuntu partition borked and nonexistent battery life.

#8 2010-02-24 16:42:55

Re: Ubuntu partition borked and nonexistent battery life.

#9 2010-02-26 06:59:41

Re: Ubuntu partition borked and nonexistent battery life.

#10 2010-02-26 16:58:29

Re: Ubuntu partition borked and nonexistent battery life.

#11 2010-02-28 08:09:05

Re: Ubuntu partition borked and nonexistent battery life.

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