You are not logged in.

#1 2006-01-05 15:23:27

killerwhale
Member
Registered: 2006-01-05
Posts: 6

Strange system hang

Greetings all.  I've been using Arch for a few months, and it's good to finally join the forum.

With that said, I'd like to see if anyone has seen this problem before.

I have a Thinkpad T40 which is now 2.5 years old. I no longer need to use a specific Windows program so I decided to install something else.  wink

First, I installed FreeBSD 6.0 as I wanted to play around with a new system. The install went smoothly and after looking around the system for a few minutes, the screen went blank and the system became unresponsive. After playing around with the thing for a couple of hours, I found that the system always crashed in this manner, whether I was at the console or running X.

Since it was late, I popped in an old Ubunutu LiveCD I had laying around, thinking this was some obscure BSD driver thing.  However, Ubuntu crashed in the same manner.

The next day, I started with a fresh install of Arch. The install went smoothly and I was able to upgrade to the latest packages without any incident. I left the thing running in console for the better part of the day without a hang. I went ahead and installed and configured X.org. Everything seemed okay, but once I started using X for a while, the same problem occured. This has happened everytime that I have used X, but without consistent conditions or length of time until a hang.

I thought it may be an X driver problem, but it did hang once at the console without ever launching X once.

More specifically, when I say the system hangs, the screen goes blank, but the backlight stays on. After a second, I hear the HD spin down, and the hole system just seems to be at an idle. I have tried using ssh to connect to the hung system, but it is not even responsive to ping. I have to kill the power by holding down the power button.

FYI, the system has a 1.3 Ghz Pentium M with the Centrino package, 512 MB RAM (half system, half 3rd party expansion) and a ATI 7500 mobility video chipset with 32MB RAM.

Because of these hangs, I went into the IBM diagnostic program and did a series of system, video, and RAM tests without a single failure. I updated the BIOS soon before installing FreeBSD using the IBM updater without issue.

My current theories revolve around some problem with either the video system/driver or the power management. Without any configuration on my part, dmesg shows me that the kernel at least detects an ACPI interface. I know power control can be tricky on laptops and thought the system may be hanging due to some conflict or misconfiguration. My search of the internet has indicated that people have similar video related hangs, but nothing all that close to my specific situation.

I guess this was a pretty long first post. I appreciate any help anyone can give. Thanks!

- JS

Offline

#2 2006-01-07 03:00:03

Komodo
Member
From: Oxford, UK
Registered: 2005-11-03
Posts: 674

Re: Strange system hang

I'm not really a hardware wizard so I can't be of much help, but I can suggest (with knowledge gained from postlogic's post) that perhaps it's some sort of hardware interrupt problem you're experiencing? In which case you may need to try recompiling your kernel with better drive support for your system.

Hopefully someone with better knowledge can help you...


.oO Komodo Dave Oo.

Offline

#3 2006-01-08 17:01:33

Snarkout
Member
Registered: 2005-11-13
Posts: 542

Re: Strange system hang

Have you tried the boot option pci=noacpi?  This seems to clear up a lot of weird lappy hangs/crashes.  You might also try turning off any framebuffer you have in that same line (remove any 'vga=' statement).  I'm looking at putting arch on my t42 shortly - I'll post back with any weirdness/fixes I encounter.


Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.
-Albert Einstein

Offline

#4 2006-01-08 20:33:36

killerwhale
Member
Registered: 2006-01-05
Posts: 6

Re: Strange system hang

Thanks for the info.

I haven't yet tried disabling either, but that will likely be the best test route.

I have found, though, that as of kernel 2.6.10, IBM specific acpi support is availible. I checked and the stock arch kernel has it already compiled as a module.

I'll play around with things tonight and see what happens.

Thanks again!

- JS

Offline

#5 2006-01-09 14:13:01

Snarkout
Member
Registered: 2005-11-13
Posts: 542

Re: Strange system hang

Well, I did the install yesterday, and though everything isn't finished (by a long shot) I'm not having any hanging/freezing issues.  Have you tested the RAM or anything else to eliminate hardware fsck ups?


Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.
-Albert Einstein

Offline

#6 2006-01-10 03:57:02

killerwhale
Member
Registered: 2006-01-05
Posts: 6

Re: Strange system hang

I think I may have solved the issue.

After perusing http://thinkwiki.org, I learned how to load the ibm_acpi with the experimental control interface. It ends up that my GPU was likely overheating and automatically shuting the system down.

I enabled DynamicClocks support in X for my radeon chip and I haven't yet had a crash. After messing around with fan and power control, the machine seems to be running as well as it did under windows, at least when running on AC power.

Now I'm working on getting the wireless to work.

-JS

Offline

#7 2006-01-11 00:14:11

Snarkout
Member
Registered: 2005-11-13
Posts: 542

Re: Strange system hang

What card do you have?  Now you've got me concerned.


Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.
-Albert Einstein

Offline

#8 2006-01-11 14:53:05

killerwhale
Member
Registered: 2006-01-05
Posts: 6

Re: Strange system hang

My laptop has a Radeon 7500 Mobility chipset.

-JS

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB