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Trisha Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 31 Mar 2004 Posts: 97
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Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2004 10:37 pm Post subject: computer locks up, have to restart, any advice? |
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Almost once a day now my laptop running linux with gnome locks up on me. I can't move the cursor, so I can't do
Applications -> System Tools -> system Monitor -> end process
Which I read somewhere to do. I also read to do ctrl + alt + backspace to restart x if the whole system freezes. That dosen't work either. I always end up having to just manually shut down the computer. So far I haven't lost any data doing this, but it has me concerned.
How can I find out what might be causing this? I am really not running many programs at one time. A large percent of the time this happens, but not all the time, I am trying to dial in with a modem using kppp.
It's not really a crisis, but in case it starts happening more frequently I thought I should start asking around a bit to get some ideas of what to do.
Thanks |
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MrApples Guru
Joined: 13 Dec 2002 Posts: 511
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Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2004 11:38 pm Post subject: |
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give us some more information about your hardware and system configuration, like kernels and filesystems/partitions |
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Trisha Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 31 Mar 2004 Posts: 97
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Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2004 12:33 am Post subject: |
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I bought the laptop with gentoo preinstalled from a company call Linux Certified. These are laptops they have manufactured just for them. Unfortunately, I don't know what type of motherboard, etc. it uses, but I could find out from them, if I know what information you need.
It's got a 60 G hard drive, a Pentium 4 and I believe I got 512 Ram - I know that much.
Kernals, I don't know about. How can I find that out? I haven't had the computer too long and have not yet done an emerge sync or world, but am planning to soon.
As far as filesystems/partitions go, I'm not sure what you are looking for here. It's not a dual boot system though, just gentoo.
Sorry I don't know more about my own system. I'm new to linux and have a lot to learn, and hardware stuff was never my thing really. |
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Trisha Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 31 Mar 2004 Posts: 97
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Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2004 11:10 pm Post subject: |
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So has anyone else had problems with their system locking up and ctrl + alt + backspace not working?
Luckily, I haven't had any problems the past day and a half. |
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TyroneSlothrop n00b
Joined: 27 Sep 2003 Posts: 39 Location: Franconia, Central Europe
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Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2004 11:20 pm Post subject: |
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I once had the same problem, and it had to do with the hardware. I trusted the onboard temperature monitors of my mainboard too much and thought, what the heck, let's turn the casefan off. Took me some time to track down this source of errors, but i learned sth on the way, too: don't trust reiserfs After fsck lost+found contained from 10kB to 100MB of files, especially if the lockup occured during compile time. By now i've gone back to ext3. _________________ warning: potentially offensive but true nonetheless... |
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Trisha Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 31 Mar 2004 Posts: 97
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Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2004 11:45 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks TyroneSlothrop - but please forgive me for my ignorance: what is 'reiserfs'.
And could you (or someone) please translate:
"After fsck lost+found contained from 10kB to 100MB of files, especially if the lockup occured during compile time. By now i've gone back to ext3." ?
It sounds like you are trying to say there were files left on your computer because of having to shut it down that needed to be deleted, and it was worse if you were compiling something when it locked up.
OT - where did the quote in your sig come from? |
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netaku Apprentice
Joined: 13 May 2004 Posts: 193
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Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2004 11:50 pm Post subject: |
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reiserfs is a formatting style, just like ntfs for windows, ext2 and ext3 for linux, and fat for windows and dos. _________________ Valar Morghulis |
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TyroneSlothrop n00b
Joined: 27 Sep 2003 Posts: 39 Location: Franconia, Central Europe
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Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2004 11:57 pm Post subject: |
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Forget the post from reiserfs on. It's no longer on topic.
But for the record:
Reiserfs is an immensly hyped filesystem which everyone seems to use, but with which some people (i know a few) also have made bad experiences. And ext3 is an ancestor of ext2, the traditional linux filesystem. And it's rock solid. Fsck means filesystem check, and it occurs if the system hasn't shut down properly or if a specific mount count (number of times the filesystem was "accessed") has been reached. And if this fsck find's some data on your disk that used to be files (or part of files), but whose connection to the filename got lost, it will be put in /lost+found, a special directory just for this single thing.
And the quote i won't tell, although it shouldn't be to difficult to figure... _________________ warning: potentially offensive but true nonetheless... |
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Trisha Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 31 Mar 2004 Posts: 97
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Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 2:24 am Post subject: |
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ok, it's a type of file system. How can I tell what kind of file system my computer is using?
Where would I find the /lost+found directory if one has been created?
(I googled the quote.) |
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electrofreak l33t
Joined: 30 Jun 2004 Posts: 713 Location: Ohio, USA
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Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 4:43 am Post subject: |
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Trisha wrote: | ok, it's a type of file system. How can I tell what kind of file system my computer is using?
Where would I find the /lost+found directory if one has been created? |
Probably looking in /etc/fstab would be youre best bet for finding the filesystem. just look for the root (/) partition and look at the filesystem it uses.
as for the lost+found, it is found in the root of every mount. such as /boot, it would be found in /boot/lost+found (that is if boot is a seperate partition) |
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blue.sca l33t
Joined: 28 Aug 2003 Posts: 680 Location: Mainz, Germany
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Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 7:11 am Post subject: |
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on what kernel you are and are you using nvidia drivers?
im getting regular lock-ups once a day, went to /var/log/kern.log and the last entries where something like "Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address", and a following kernel panic: trying to kill init ;)
i had problems with nvidia-drivers and a 2.6.7 kernel (2.6.7-love7 to be exact), so i hope, it is related to this, but it could also be bad memory. i will investigate this, if i found an solution i let u know. _________________ geek by nature, linux by choice
i want my avatar back... thank you
:wq |
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TyroneSlothrop n00b
Joined: 27 Sep 2003 Posts: 39 Location: Franconia, Central Europe
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Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 10:15 am Post subject: |
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Trisha wrote: | ok, it's a type of file system. How can I tell what kind of file system my computer is using?
Where would I find the /lost+found directory if one has been created?
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Just execute mount without any arguments, it'll show all mounted filesystems including their type. But this shouldn't have anything to do with your lockup problems. I just wanted to state that for me stability problems were related to the hardware.
blue.sca wrote: | i had problems with nvidia-drivers and a 2.6.7 kernel |
I'm running 6106 just fine with vanilla 2.6.7, in fact every 2.6.x made no problems with nvidia drivers for me. One exception though: My graphics adapter got too hot (because of it's passive cooling and the disabled case fan), and i had my major lockup problems when for example resizing mplayer output or even browsing the web. _________________ warning: potentially offensive but true nonetheless... |
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blue.sca l33t
Joined: 28 Aug 2003 Posts: 680 Location: Mainz, Germany
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Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 4:05 pm Post subject: |
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ok, i did some random investigation, running memtest86 from the livecd (very good tool ;)) and had some errors (15 after three tests, bad or worse?). then i lowered the timing settings in the bios from 2-2-2 to 3-3-3 and it passed the test without errors. i hope this will explain the lock-ups, and if, i say sorry to 2.6.7 and nvidia-drivers ;) _________________ geek by nature, linux by choice
i want my avatar back... thank you
:wq |
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malone Apprentice
Joined: 19 Feb 2004 Posts: 159 Location: The p-n junction.
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Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 4:43 pm Post subject: |
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You can find out what kernel you're using with
It may also help to post the output of
to give us an idea of what kind of hardware you're using. _________________ malone |
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