Arch Linux

webb

Member

From: Canada

Registered: 2019-06-13

Posts: 3

Website

Torrenting crashes and locks up entire computer

Whenever downloading torrents at random times my entire PC locks up. i3 freezes and the sysrq key doesn't work. Pressing the restart button that usually instantly ungracefully shuts down and restarts the computer takes about 15 seconds to actually shut off. It's important to note I'm using a 3TB 5400RPM Internal SATA drive for storing my torrents.

Steps I've taken:
- Using alternative torrenting clients (qBittorrent, Transmission, Deluge are some of them I tried)
- Reinstalling Arch multiple times

Steps to reproduce on my system:
- Open torrent client and start downloading/seeding
- After a random amount of time (usually more than a half an hour to an hour) the computer locks up

Important info:
- This happens specifically on my installation of Arch. When I had a Windows (alongside Arch) installation it did not have this issue, but Arch did
- I don't see anything suspicious in the journalctl and dmesg, it's possible it didn't even log sessions when it freezes/locks
- It never happens outside of when I'm torrenting
- Playing games like DOOM off the hard drive doesn't crash the system
- Possible clue is the fact that when pressing the restart button it takes a longer time. Maybe it's unresponsive and some hardware is forcing a restart because of it?

Specs:
Kernel: 5.1.5-arch1-2-ARCH
CPU: Intel i5-4440 (4) @ 3.300GHz
Memory: 8G of DDR3
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB

I'm kind of lost on where to continue troubleshooting. I would think it's a hardware issue but Windows had a fine time torrenting on it, and no clues show up in logs.

Last edited by webb (2019-06-13 18:27:51)

jasonwryan

Anarchist

From: .nz

Registered: 2009-05-09

Posts: 30,426

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Re: Torrenting crashes and locks up entire computer

If it crashes, you can get a core dump. Or you can strace it.

Also, look at SSHing in, or using an alternative kernel (-lts) and trying to reproduce.

Moving to NC...

---

Arch + dwm   •   Mercurial repos  •   Surfraw

Registered Linux User #482438

webb

Member

From: Canada

Registered: 2019-06-13

Posts: 3

Website

Re: Torrenting crashes and locks up entire computer

If it crashes, you can get a core dump. Or you can strace it.

Also, look at SSHing in, or using an alternative kernel (-lts) and trying to reproduce.

Moving to NC...

Forgot to mention this. SSHing doesn't work, neither does pinging after the freeze. This issue has  been across multiple kernel versions but I'll try switching to give it a shot.

I don't see why the stracing would be helpful if it's a full machine freeze and happens on multiple clients. Maybe lockup wasn't the best word to use. I'll try it anyways.

ugjka

Member

From: Latvia

Registered: 2014-04-01

Posts: 1,962

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Re: Torrenting crashes and locks up entire computer

Did you try the LTS kernel?
How are you connected to the network? I suspect that wifi/ethernet card's drivers are acting up on high traffic/connection count.
Do you have some other network gear to test this hypothesis out?

webb

Member

From: Canada

Registered: 2019-06-13

Posts: 3

Website

Re: Torrenting crashes and locks up entire computer

Hey guys sorry for the silence. I have to leave from my computer for a couple of days.

@ugjka It's a wireless card I'm using. I've tried multiple drivers and kernels (I think the LTS one but I'll give it another shot).  I don't have any other cards I can try.