Occasional semi-freezes

sweiss · 2004-02-20 13:45:35

Hi. I've been using Arch for like 2-3 days, and I've already encountered some problem.

At some point, my X server freezes, yet I can still move the mouse around. Apart from the ability to move the mouse, the system is not functioning. I can't restart X or move to another virtual console, I can only reboot my computer at this point.

I've noticed that 2 of these freezes occured with Mozilla: The first one happened right after I finished retrieving e-mail messages from Mozilla's mail client. The
The second occured when I switched to another tab inside Mozilla Firefox.

I have Mozilla installed from pacman, yet Firefox is from Mozilla's website. However, these have not occured on Slackware.

Any ideas what's wrong?

dp · 2004-02-20 14:26:31

try mozilla-firefox from current ... no need to download the direct way when you can have it from pacman

can you maybe kill the X?
([Crtl][Alt][Backspace])

what says the log? (/var/log/XFree86.0.log
)

what graphic-chip module do you use?

what kernel? what kernel on slack? try the other (2.4 -> 2.6 // 2.6 -> 2.4)

sweiss · 2004-02-20 15:13:02

A few answers:

Couldn't kill X.
2.6.3 kernel on Arch. 2.4.24 kernel on Slackware. The nVidia driver (5336).

The log doesn't say anything really

afu · 2004-02-20 16:21:01

Hopefully it is a software thing that can be fixed. If it continues to get worse, keep in mind the possibility of a hardware issue.

I was having periodic system freezes and couldn't get a pinpoint on it. Certainly looked like software. Thought it was Windows actually. Then my Slackware install started occationaly locking up. To shorten the story up, it started getting worse and driving me nuts, thought it was the video card, but nope. Right before it froze completely, I found out that a huge number of motherboards produced in the late 1990's were built with defective electrolytic capacitors.

Hope it's not something like this, but it's maddening to find out the hard way.
-Shawn

dp · 2004-02-20 16:55:11

and if you boot kernel 2.4. on arch? still funny behaviour? if not, maybe it's the kernel module that changed

sweiss · 2004-02-21 14:32:48

Well, I heard a lot of bad things about the 2.6.3 kernel so now I'm using 2.6.2-rc2-mm1. I also had occasional screen stand-by's all of a sudden. Maybe that's a kernel issue, I'll see how this one works.

Thanks for your help folks

andy · 2004-02-21 15:19:36

Usually these X-semi-freezes happen when an X application grabs focus/cursor and doesn't release it (at least this is my experience and your description somehow sounds like it). That happens when the said program is in an uninterruptable state like waiting for I/O to happen or waiting for specific network responses.
My guess would be that mozilla is to blame - or something related to its configuration (could even be your network configuration).
What happens if you wait a few minutes ?
Try to run a system monitor that tells you which process is using how much CPU and see if one process is suddenly using the whole CPU.
If you are in the lucky situation to have more than one computer you can try to log in remotely and see if killing suspects helps.

sweiss · 2004-02-21 16:08:52

Well, starting the system monitor wasn't really an option, my system completely froze (apart from the mouse). I do have reason to believe it might be a part of the kernel's fault, due to other weird troubles I've been having.

sweiss · 2004-02-26 21:56:17

So, those semi freezes seem to be the kernel's fault, 2.4.25 is running very stable... I wonder what exactly is causing the freeze though.

Arch Linux

#1 2004-02-20 13:45:35

Occasional semi-freezes

#2 2004-02-20 14:26:31

Re: Occasional semi-freezes

#3 2004-02-20 15:13:02

Re: Occasional semi-freezes

#4 2004-02-20 16:21:01

Re: Occasional semi-freezes

#5 2004-02-20 16:55:11

Re: Occasional semi-freezes

#6 2004-02-21 14:32:48

Re: Occasional semi-freezes

#7 2004-02-21 15:19:36

Re: Occasional semi-freezes

#8 2004-02-21 16:08:52

Re: Occasional semi-freezes

#9 2004-02-26 21:56:17

Re: Occasional semi-freezes

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