Re: [gentoo-user] mysterious freezes when browsing Internet
On Tuesday 06 March 2007, Peter Alfredsen wrote: On Tuesday 06 March 2007, Philip Webb wrote: Otherwise, my system is very stable problem-free. I'm experiencing something similar at equally random intervals. Just for your information, I discovered what the problem was. My 2½ year old Maxtor hd decided to let out the magic smoke. On my next reboot (evoked by a freeze), I was told my system was unable to mount my hd. It seems a number of bad blocks had been forming on my hd for these past few months, just waiting to trap me between a rock and a hard place. Luckily, the bad blocks were contained to a single area of the hd. My method of recovery was straight-forward. I checked for bad blocks with badblocks, did a complete reiserfsck with --rebuild-tree and entered the hd and chrooted. Uhoh. /bin/bash segfault. I guess it's not called reiserfsck for nothing. A number of files had gotten little cutesie binary things embedded into them by reiserfsck, even though they weren't anywhere near the bad blocks. I had ordered a new hd by now and was waiting for it to arrive. I fixed the /bin/bash segfault by getting a quickpkg of the livecd bash. Gcc was fscked too. I downloaded a binpkg off tinderbox.gentoo.org. I did this until I had a fully functioning emerge system. I then did an emerge -e world to get the right files in place, with FEATURES=buildpkg, so I could use the binpkgs to get a working system with my new hd. I learned of a new portage location here: /var/cache/edb/dep/usr/portage/. emerge --metadata didn't work, segfaulting, and if I tried to emerge some things, it would complain of the missing syake dependency. This was fixed by deleting /var/cache/edb/dep/usr/portage/ and doing emerge --metadata. Yesterday morning, the emerge -e world had completed and I received my new hd later that day. Installing that was a comparative breeze. I just copied /etc/* to the new hd, emerged everything from binpkgs and was up and running. But when I emerged new stuff not from binpkgs, the configure would complain of the missing /usr/bin/as. Uhoh. It seems gcc doesn't create the necessary symlinks in /usr/bin automatically when emerging from binpkg (FIXME). I fixed this by installing the necessary symlinks from the bad hd. I am now in the process of a new emerge -e world, to get everything back in perfect order. /PA -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] mysterious freezes when browsing Internet
On Thursday 08 March 2007 00:34, Hemmann, Volker Armin wrote: On Donnerstag, 8. März 2007, Philip Webb wrote: I emerged Memtest86 ran it -- it takes 1 hr for my 1 GB memory -- , but I can't find anything to explain the output. It found 2 errors : You need to run it overnight. After 32 passes or what not you should have some consistent output. Before you start memtest86 I suggest that you remove and reinsert the memory sticks a couple of times (just to make sure you get a good electrical contact). If you get the error(s) coming up in every pass my guess would be that you need new memory. The problem: memtest86 and memtest86+ both find sometimes errors that aren't ones. Or don't find them, when there are some. From my experience Memtest86 is not particularly good at digging out problems which involve faults occurring when the memory switches from one module to the next (i.e. when the memory controller comes into play) or from memory to swap. There's a script that you could run which puts your memory and memory controller through its paces. It's been published in this list a couple of times; have a look and if you cannot find it let me know and I'll have a look for you. -- Regards, Mick pgpkComI5VvO3.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-user] mysterious freezes when browsing Internet
070306 Mick wrote: On Tuesday 06 March 2007 21:22, Philip Webb wrote: During the past few months, I've been bit by sudden total freezes while using Epiphany Konqueror to browse Internet sites. The only way out is to hit the reset button: eg Ctl-Alt-F2 doesn't work. The only time I had suffered similar symptoms (but different applications) was when I had a bad memory problem. Memtest86 did not show anything and it was only through trial and error that I found the faulty module. I emerged Memtest86 ran it -- it takes 1 hr for my 1 GB memory -- , but I can't find anything to explain the output. It found 2 errors : ... c6e37c0 198.1MB ... ... d6e37a0 214.1MB ... I realise that these lines refer to hex locations, but I don't understand the reference to 'MB' (perhaps they're the same info in a different form). I have a note that : To tell kernel not to use bad patch of memory, append via Lilo : 'badram=m,n', where m n are obtained via 'memtest'. However, the above lines don't give pairs of addresses, only 1 each. Yes, I did look at the official site the installed README. Does anyone have further advice ? Meanwhile, I plan to compile Kernel 2.6.20-gentoo , following the other piece of advice received. I still suspect an obscure bug in Xorg-x11 . Thanks for both suggestions. -- ,, SUPPORT ___//___, Philip Webb : [EMAIL PROTECTED] ELECTRIC /] [] [] [] [] []| Centre for Urban Community Studies TRANSIT`-O--O---' University of Toronto -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] mysterious freezes when browsing Internet
On Donnerstag, 8. März 2007, Philip Webb wrote: 070306 Mick wrote: On Tuesday 06 March 2007 21:22, Philip Webb wrote: During the past few months, I've been bit by sudden total freezes while using Epiphany Konqueror to browse Internet sites. The only way out is to hit the reset button: eg Ctl-Alt-F2 doesn't work. The only time I had suffered similar symptoms (but different applications) was when I had a bad memory problem. Memtest86 did not show anything and it was only through trial and error that I found the faulty module. I emerged Memtest86 ran it -- it takes 1 hr for my 1 GB memory -- , but I can't find anything to explain the output. It found 2 errors : ... c6e37c0 198.1MB ... ... d6e37a0 214.1MB ... I realise that these lines refer to hex locations, but I don't understand the reference to 'MB' (perhaps they're the same info in a different form). I have a note that : yes it is the same info. MB = Megabyte. It says, that the errors are at 198,1 and 214,1MB. The problem: memtest86 and memtest86+ both find sometimes errors that aren't ones. Or don't find them, when there are some. Let it run several times to make sure - and then replace the stick. To tell kernel not to use bad patch of memory, append via Lilo : 'badram=m,n', where m n are obtained via 'memtest'. However, the above lines don't give pairs of addresses, only 1 each. Yes, I did look at the official site the installed README. Does anyone have further advice ? yes, get new ram. Everything else is not safe. -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
[gentoo-user] mysterious freezes when browsing Internet
During the past few months, I've been bit by sudden total freezes while using Epiphany Konqueror to browse Internet sites. The only way out is to hit the reset button: eg Ctl-Alt-F2 doesn't work. At first, I believed it was a bug in Epiphany, which is good to use, but not well-supported as KDE Firefox. However yesterday, it happened in similar circumstances with Konqueror, which uses quite different libraries rendering. It seems to happen when the browser is downloading images, esp adverts, I simultaneously use the middle mouse button to click or scroll. I may have several news stories downloading in different tabs I middle-click on a link to open another tab or scroll down a list one of the other tabs is still downloading extra images. This is the only situation in which it happens. There are Forum threads covering other situations, which don't apply to me, the only thread which is similar is http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-521365-highlight-random+freeze.html which does not offer any helpful advice. There are no bugs answering to 'Epiphany freeze' or 'Konqueror freeze'. I'm using Kernel 2.6.18-gentoo, KDE 3.5.6 , Epiphany 2.16.3 Xorg-x11 7.1 . Otherwise, my system is very stable problem-free. Has anyone else run into this bizarre phenomenon ? Does anyone have useful suggestions ? -- ,, SUPPORT ___//___, Philip Webb : [EMAIL PROTECTED] ELECTRIC /] [] [] [] [] []| Centre for Urban Community Studies TRANSIT`-O--O---' University of Toronto -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] mysterious freezes when browsing Internet
On Tuesday 06 March 2007 21:22, Philip Webb wrote: During the past few months, I've been bit by sudden total freezes while using Epiphany Konqueror to browse Internet sites. The only way out is to hit the reset button: eg Ctl-Alt-F2 doesn't work. At first, I believed it was a bug in Epiphany, which is good to use, but not well-supported as KDE Firefox. However yesterday, it happened in similar circumstances with Konqueror, which uses quite different libraries rendering. It seems to happen when the browser is downloading images, esp adverts, I simultaneously use the middle mouse button to click or scroll. I may have several news stories downloading in different tabs I middle-click on a link to open another tab or scroll down a list one of the other tabs is still downloading extra images. This is the only situation in which it happens. There are Forum threads covering other situations, which don't apply to me, the only thread which is similar is http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-521365-highlight-random+freeze.html which does not offer any helpful advice. There are no bugs answering to 'Epiphany freeze' or 'Konqueror freeze'. I'm using Kernel 2.6.18-gentoo, KDE 3.5.6 , Epiphany 2.16.3 Xorg-x11 7.1 . Otherwise, my system is very stable problem-free. Has anyone else run into this bizarre phenomenon ? Does anyone have useful suggestions ? The only time I had suffered similar symptoms to what you are describing (but with different applications) was when I had a bad memory problem. No sooner had I changed the memory module, the freezes were gone. Memtest86 did not show anything and it was only through trial and error that I found the faulty module. Good luck. -- Regards, Mick pgptsrDuhNfmT.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-user] mysterious freezes when browsing Internet
On Tuesday 06 March 2007, Philip Webb wrote: which does not offer any helpful advice. There are no bugs answering to 'Epiphany freeze' or 'Konqueror freeze'. I'm using Kernel 2.6.18-gentoo, KDE 3.5.6 , Epiphany 2.16.3 Xorg-x11 7.1 . Otherwise, my system is very stable problem-free. I'm experiencing something similar at equally random intervals. I have had maybe 3 of these freezes since the end of December. I am reasonably sure it is not memory, since I have emerge -e world 3-4 times since then (don't ask) and I have never had any unreproducible gcc errors. At one time I had a routine that helped me replicate the problem (now I just avoid it): Go to forums.gentoo.org, grab a thread with massive posts. Click-drag a link quickly in circles. Boom! The last freeze I had was last week, when I had 10 Konqueror windows open with on average 3 tabs each. Rtorrent was running in the background and suddenly my system deadlocked. I could still move the mouse but I couldn't click on anything. I suspect that if I could bother to write down the magic SYSRQ keys, I would be able to do a clean reboot. The program I suspect is Konqueror (probably bad interaction with fglrx), since that is always open. I also always have Kmail, Konversation, Akregator, AmaroK, rtorrent and Kate running, though. AMD Athlon 2500+ Ati X800 fglrx AGP 1 GB ram ~X86 Kernel 2.6.19-gentoo-r4 (waiting for someone to make a stable .20) -- /PA -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] mysterious freezes when browsing Internet
Peter Alfredsen wrote: On Tuesday 06 March 2007, Philip Webb wrote: which does not offer any helpful advice. There are no bugs answering to 'Epiphany freeze' or 'Konqueror freeze'. I'm using Kernel 2.6.18-gentoo, KDE 3.5.6 , Epiphany 2.16.3 Xorg-x11 7.1 . Otherwise, my system is very stable problem-free. I'm experiencing something similar at equally random intervals. I have had maybe 3 of these freezes since the end of December. I am reasonably sure it is not memory, since I have emerge -e world 3-4 times since then (don't ask) and I have never had any unreproducible gcc errors. At one time I had a routine that helped me replicate the problem (now I just avoid it): Go to forums.gentoo.org, grab a thread with massive posts. Click-drag a link quickly in circles. Boom! The last freeze I had was last week, when I had 10 Konqueror windows open with on average 3 tabs each. Rtorrent was running in the background and suddenly my system deadlocked. I could still move the mouse but I couldn't click on anything. I suspect that if I could bother to write down the magic SYSRQ keys, I would be able to do a clean reboot. The program I suspect is Konqueror (probably bad interaction with fglrx), since that is always open. I also always have Kmail, Konversation, Akregator, AmaroK, rtorrent and Kate running, though. AMD Athlon 2500+ Ati X800 fglrx AGP 1 GB ram ~X86 Kernel 2.6.19-gentoo-r4 (waiting for someone to make a stable .20) Have you tried a 2.6.20 kernel just for grins (taking note of waiting for someone to make a stable .20 )? I experienced various lockups / freezes with 2.6.19 that seem to have left me when I went to 2.6.20. I was getting various timeouts on my ata controller that show in the logs as the source of the freezes. Of course I run ck-sources, so I don't know if the problem existed with the kernel itself or the ck patches. My freezes would occur in firefox mostly of course I am almost always browsing the Internet for something. Of course, I just joined the gentoo-user mailing list today so forgive me if this was already mentioned. -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] mysterious freezes when browsing Internet
On Tue, 6 Mar 2007 16:22:24 -0500, Philip Webb wrote: The only way out is to hit the reset button: eg Ctl-Alt-F2 doesn't work. If you have MAGIC_SYSREQ enabled in your kernel config, you can do a clean reboot fro the majority of lockups by holding Alt and SysRq and pressing S, U and B in sequence, which respectively sync your drives, unmount them (and remount read-only) and reboot. It's a lot more friendly to your filesystems than hitting the reset button and should work unless the kernel has crashed. As for the cause, faulty memory has already been mentioned and I would go along with that. The fact that it happens when you have several sessions running, and thus working memory harder, adds weight to the likelihood of this. -- Neil Bothwick Top Oxymorons Number 24: New classic signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-user] mysterious freezes when browsing Internet
On Mittwoch, 7. März 2007, Neil Bothwick wrote: On Tue, 6 Mar 2007 16:22:24 -0500, Philip Webb wrote: The only way out is to hit the reset button: eg Ctl-Alt-F2 doesn't work. If you have MAGIC_SYSREQ enabled in your kernel config, you can do a clean reboot fro the majority of lockups by holding Alt and SysRq and pressing S, U and B in sequence, which respectively sync your drives, unmount them (and remount read-only) and reboot. but U will not work, when processes are hogging the harddisk. So start with E (terminate all processes), I (Kill all processes), and then S, U, B. Or even better, start with R and K. Sometimes you can wrestle control from X that way and get your box back into a working state, without rebooting. And the best thing - there is even a builtin help -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
