[SOLVED] System Hard Freeze

shaurz · 2011-08-27 16:32:24

Since the 3.0 kernels my system occasionally freezes up completely. I can't switch to the console or do anything. The hard disks are not active so it isn't swapping.

It's probably a kernel bug, or maybe my hardware has developed a fault. I will run memtest86 to see if my memory has gone bad.

Solution: Downgrade to catalyst 11.7

Last edited by shaurz (2011-09-06 20:18:13)

bernarcher · 2011-08-27 16:43:36

This is quite vague. Please support more detail about your system and the observable conditions of this freeze so that others can help.

shaurz · 2011-08-30 01:51:37

OK, so it seems to be triggered when playing a video in VLC. Most of the time videos play without issue, but occasionally the screen freezes up randomly and the last few times this has happened I was playing a video in VLC. The audio still plays but the whole screen just freezes, mouse cursor included. Can't switch to the console with Ctrl+Number keys. Can't force X to quit with Ctrl+Backspace. I can ping the machine so the kernel still seems to be running, but all user input is ignored.

My system specs:

P5Q Deluxe motherboard
AMD Radeon HD 6950 (using catalyst-11.8)

warenoso · 2011-08-30 01:54:28

have you checked X logs

shaurz · 2011-08-30 02:05:09

There's nothing in the logs to indicate any errors.

shaurz · 2011-08-31 00:08:49

This has now happened several times even when not playing a video in VLC (just regular web browsing). Happens several times per day now. This is really getting me down, I might have to use Windows for a while...

Gullible Jones · 2011-08-31 01:35:36

Are you using Firefox for browsing? Because the current version uses hardware acceleration.

Maybe try the open source radeon driver, if possible, and see if that keeps things more stable...

Grinch · 2011-08-31 04:56:17

For a rolling-release 'bleeding-edge' distribution I've had extremely few problems with Arch. The only one I've had recently is the problem (freezing/crashing) due to the r8169 driver in kernel 2.37-3.0.x. This will be fixed (finally!) in kernel 3.1, anyway if you have the same (r8169) then this could be the culprit since the symptoms sounds the same. In order to fix this until the upstream solves it (kernel 3.1) you need to compile and install the r8168 driver from AUR and blacklist r8169 in modprobe.conf.

shaurz · 2011-08-31 23:12:43

Yes I'm using Firefox.

Grinch, I wish I had your luck. I've been using Arch since 2004 and it seems that at least every 6 months I have a new major problem after an upgrade... but I can't bring myself to use other distros.

I'm going to try the xf86-video-ati driver for a while. The only problem is that it doesn't control the fan speed, so my system is now quite loud all the time.

If I don't get any freezes in the next day or so, I can assume that catalyst is the culprit. Maybe I could try an older version of it, since I can only put up with the fan noise for so long...

Grinch · 2011-09-01 02:35:49

Hmm sounds like I shouldn't complain about my problem with r8169 Are there alot of problems with ATI cards? I'm currently using a Nvidia GeForce 9600GT with the nouveau drivers and it's been very stable, but I was thinking of going AMD/ATI cards from here on given that they have hired developers to work on open source drivers and generally seems more Linux friendly.

shaurz · 2011-09-02 23:11:07

Haven't had any freezes with the open source driver, so I assume it's a catalyst bug. There are some pixmap corruption bugs in the open source driver though.

shaurz · 2011-09-05 20:58:26

I've installed catalyst 11.7 by downloading the packages from AUR and changing 11.8 in the PKGBUILDs to 11.7 and it has worked without any problems for two days. I'll stick with this version for now :-)

Grinch · 2011-09-06 11:32:03

Glad to hear it seems to be working for you! When you feel certain it's ok you could mark this topic as solved.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-08-27 16:32:24

[SOLVED] System Hard Freeze

#2 2011-08-27 16:43:36

Re: [SOLVED] System Hard Freeze

#3 2011-08-30 01:51:37

Re: [SOLVED] System Hard Freeze

#4 2011-08-30 01:54:28

Re: [SOLVED] System Hard Freeze

#5 2011-08-30 02:05:09

Re: [SOLVED] System Hard Freeze

#6 2011-08-31 00:08:49

Re: [SOLVED] System Hard Freeze

#7 2011-08-31 01:35:36

Re: [SOLVED] System Hard Freeze

#8 2011-08-31 04:56:17

Re: [SOLVED] System Hard Freeze

#9 2011-08-31 23:12:43

Re: [SOLVED] System Hard Freeze

#10 2011-09-01 02:35:49

Re: [SOLVED] System Hard Freeze

#11 2011-09-02 23:11:07

Re: [SOLVED] System Hard Freeze

#12 2011-09-05 20:58:26

Re: [SOLVED] System Hard Freeze

#13 2011-09-06 11:32:03

Re: [SOLVED] System Hard Freeze

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