Arch Linux

HappyClown

Member

Registered: 2015-08-15

Posts: 161

What first steps should I take when trying to solve an issue

When trying to solve an issue without any error messages or details as to what might have gone wrong, where do I start looking? My machine seems to randomly freeze up, I've only recently started using Arch. These problems seemed to have started after installing my window manager/desktop environment but I've also installed a bunch of packages after that. What log files/program outputs should I be looking at? Do note that I haven't installed any additional drivers.

jasonwryan

Anarchist

From: .nz

Registered: 2009-05-09

Posts: 30,424

Website

Re: What first steps should I take when trying to solve an issue

The first step is to define what "freeze up" means. Is it X or the whole machine? Can you get to a TTY or SSH in?
  - if it is just X: look in Xorg.log
  - if it is a complete lock up, after you reboot, look at the tail of the journal for the previous boot and see if there is a clue there, Check dmesg as well.

---

Arch + dwm   •   Mercurial repos  •   Surfraw

Registered Linux User #482438

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,804

Re: What first steps should I take when trying to solve an issue

Tell us what kind of processor.  Make and model of your computer.  What you installed (which iso).  Graphics Chip.  Disk partition scheme.
You want to look at the journal, and the output of dmesg.  Tell us if the keyboard lights are flashing after the freeze.
Tell us if you have installed the microcode updates.
Tell us what kernel you are using.   Tell us what guide you followed to install Arch.

Read the article linked in my signature.

---

Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

HappyClown

Member

Registered: 2015-08-15

Posts: 161

Re: What first steps should I take when trying to solve an issue

Sorry about that... The whole machine freezes up. The keyboard indicators don't flash and I can't get to a TTY. I don't have an SSH server installed.

Acer AXC-603-EB11
Processor: Intel Pentium (Don't know which one) 64BIT
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics

Output of lsblk:
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0 931.5G  0 disk
├─sda1   8:1    0  14.9G  0 part [SWAP]
├─sda2   8:2    0  29.8G  0 part /
├─sda3   8:3    0 119.2G  0 part /server
└─sda4   8:4    0 767.6G  0 part /home

Anyhow, I have just installed the intel-ucode package and have reconfigured grub. After rebooting and entering dmesg | grep microcode into the terminal, this is my output, so it seems that nothing has updated.

[    1.162082] microcode: CPU0 sig=0x30678, pf=0x4, revision=0x809
[    1.162108] microcode: CPU1 sig=0x30678, pf=0x4, revision=0x809
[    1.162118] microcode: CPU2 sig=0x30678, pf=0x4, revision=0x809
[    1.162132] microcode: CPU3 sig=0x30678, pf=0x4, revision=0x809
[    1.162257] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.00 <tigran@aivazian.fsnet.co.uk>, Peter Oruba

Also, thanks for the help. I've gotten further into solving this problem now that I understand a little bit more.

Last edited by HappyClown (2015-09-12 00:44:17)