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**GreyGeek** · Sep 15, 2010, 12:01 PM

Re: Still Suffering Program and KDE Crashes

I don't recognize your kernel and I didn't see it in the repository. Where'd you get it from?

Also, it appears that, the kernel aside, most of your problems are related to your NVidia driver. Which one are you using?

**mhumm2** · Sep 16, 2010, 10:10 AM

Re: Still Suffering Program and KDE Crashes

GreyGeek;

Hello and thanks for answering.

To your first question, I don't know. The kernel was the one that installed; I did nothing to change or replace it. I installed from a CD I made from the iso download of Kubuntu 10.04, 32-bit desktop distro.

I also changed kde from 4.5 to 4.4.5 because of the crashing and restarting problems.

I also removed nepomuck and Virtuoso for the same reason.

I also replaced the KNetwork Manager with Wicd to improve system stability.

That's the system change history.

Now for Nvidia drivers... installed right now is NVIDIA Driver Version 195.36.24

Thanks again for responding and, when convenient, I would love to know how you know my nv driver is the probable source of my issue.

**GreyGeek** · Sep 16, 2010, 10:56 AM

Re: Still Suffering Program and KDE Crashes

Originally posted by mhumm2

...
To your first question, I don't know. The kernel was the one that installed; I did nothing to change or replace it. I installed from a CD I made from the iso download of Kubuntu 10.04, 32-bit desktop distro.

I asked because of this frequently occurring line: "AMD-Phenom-II kernel..."
Open a Konsoe and issue "uname -a" and post what it shows.

I also changed kde from 4.5 to 4.4.5 because of the crashing and restarting problems.

You may want to upgrade to KDE 4.5.1 which, in my experience, is the most stable of all the KDE 4.x series desktops.

I also removed nepomuck and Virtuoso for the same reason.

I also replaced the KNetwork Manager with Wicd to improve system stability.

Good moves, IMO. I've depended on "locate" to find what ever I want, and it is exceeding fast. A cron script updates it every day, but if you want to update it right after a download or major addition or removal from your installation you can run "sudo updatedb".

...
Now for Nvidia drivers... installed right now is NVIDIA Driver Version 195.36.24
....I would love to know how you know my nv driver is the probable source of my issue.

Well, I'm no video expert, but when your listing included:

Sep 15 05:38:04 AMD-Phenom-II kernel: [ 10.321557] nForce2_smbus 0000:00:01.1:
Error probing SMB2.

and because of what I've read about NVidia drivers:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=nvidia+card+high+failure+rate
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=nvidia+cover+up
and because of the experience of some of my friends whose NVidia chips went toes up within a year after they purchased their computers, a couple within a month, I have cause for concern.

In my experience the longer an electrical component runs the more likely it will continue to run well for a LONG time. By 18 to 24 months, if you haven't have any component failures on your equipment, the likelihood is that your device will continue to run will for a LOT longer. See MTBF. Poor quality or defective components reveal themselves fairly quickly.

Failure rates by a French company willing to report them put the GTX280 at nearly 1 in 10. It seems that the NVidia corporation kept the failure rates secret for 18 months before news leaked out. There are high failure rates in the 6, 7, 8 and 9 series chips. It pretty much affects a lot of their production between 2005 - 2008. If you have an NVidia chip in that series consider yourself lucky if it still runs after 18 months.

**dibl** · Sep 16, 2010, 11:18 AM

Re: Still Suffering Program and KDE Crashes

The most disturbing thing I see in the OP is the report that the root password is needed to run wicd. wicd is a 100% user space package -- I cannot imagine why the root password would be needed to do anything with it. That can't be a good thing, and the intermittent nature of it only reinforces the suspicion that something is broken.

As for the "nvidia" messages, the Nvidia nForce2 is not a graphics processor, it is an Intel-compatible chipset (PCI, ethernet, audio channels, etc.).

http://www.nvidia.com/page/nforce.html

I don't think any of those messages represent an error condition, although I don't claim expertise on the nForce2.

Which raises the question in my mind -- what is the GPU on that system? A lot of crashes, especially browsers, end up having the video driver, or flash, or something video-related as the cause.

Can we see the outputs of

Code:

lspci -v

and

Code:

lsusb

please?

**GreyGeek** · Sep 16, 2010, 11:47 AM

Re: Still Suffering Program and KDE Crashes

Originally posted by dibl

The most disturbing thing I see in the OP is the report that the root password is needed to run wicd....

Didn't notice that. Proof that "to a thousand (or in this case four) eyes all bugs are shallow"

.....
Which raises the question in my mind -- what is the GPU on that system? A lot of crashes, especially browsers, end up having the video driver, or flash, or something video-related as the cause.

Can we see the outputs of

Code:

lspci -v

and

Code:

lsusb

please?

It would suprise me if it were not an NVidia GPU (But I'm no video expert either, obviously)

**dibl** · Sep 16, 2010, 12:00 PM

Re: Still Suffering Program and KDE Crashes

Originally posted by GreyGeek

It would suprise me if it were not an NVidia GPU (But I'm no video expert either, obviously)

You're not going to be surprised this time, GG.

The following dmesg lines are consistent with an Nvidia GPU and a version of the proprietary driver:

Code:

Sep 15 05:38:04 AMD-Phenom-II kernel: [  10.462372] Linux agpgart interface v0.103
Sep 15 05:38:04 AMD-Phenom-II kernel: [  10.497482] nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
Sep 15 05:38:04 AMD-Phenom-II kernel: [  10.497485] Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint

But, we don't know which GPU, whether GLX is working, whether flash is installed, etc. etc.

**mhumm2** · Sep 19, 2010, 12:24 PM

Re: Still Suffering Program and KDE Crashes

GreyGeek et al;

Okay I've upgraded my nvidia video driver to 260.19.04 before I read your responses or posted this message. Of course that means that all system output reports in this post, are subject to the new graphics version. I still get the "...error probing SMB2" message on system boot up, but that's a known bug, I think, for all things nvidia at this point.

AMD-Phenom-II is the name I set for my computer system. Here's the output from uname -a:

Code:

Linux AMD-Phenom-II 2.6.32-23-generic #37-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jun 11 07:54:58 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux

Since lspci -v spewed out multiple pages of information, I took the -v option off. If you'd like me to repeat the terminal vomiting, I will add the -v back in, but I think you'll see from here that I purchased the ASUS mobo with the nVidia driver set and SLI graphics capability because I've read that nVidia supports Linux better than ATI. I suppose I was using the "duct tape theory" if a little nvidia is good, more is always better.

Code:

00:00.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] Memory Controller (rev a2)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] LPC Bridge (rev a2)
00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] SMBus (rev a1)
00:01.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:01.3 Co-processor: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] Co-Processor (rev a2)
00:01.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] OHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a1)
00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] EHCI USB 2.0 Controller (rev a1)
00:04.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] OHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a1)
00:04.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] EHCI USB 2.0 Controller (rev a1)
00:06.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] IDE (rev a1)
00:07.0 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP72XE/MCP72P/MCP78U/MCP78S High Definition Audio (rev a1)
00:08.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] PCI Bridge (rev a1)
00:09.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] SATA Controller (non-AHCI mode) (rev a2)
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation MCP77 Ethernet (rev a2)
00:10.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)
00:13.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] PCI Bridge (rev a1)
00:14.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP78S [GeForce 8200] PCI Bridge (rev a1)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] HyperTransport Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] Miscellaneous Control
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] Link Control
01:0a.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6306/7/8 [Fire II(M)] IEEE 1394 OHCI Controller (rev c0)
02:00.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Device 05b1 (rev a2)
03:00.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Device 05b1 (rev a2)
03:02.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Device 05b1 (rev a2)
04:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G92 [GeForce 9800 GT] (rev a2)

Here's the output from lsusb (I learn so much from you guys!)

Code:

Bus 004 Device 003: ID 06a3:053c Saitek PLC X45 Flight Controller
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 046d:c03d Logitech, Inc. M-BT96a Pilot Optical Mouse
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 051d:0002 American Power Conversion Uninterruptible Power Supply
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 008: ID 03f0:2305 Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 3970c
Bus 002 Device 007: ID 046d:0990 Logitech, Inc. QuickCam Pro 9000
Bus 002 Device 006: ID 0424:2228 Standard Microsystems Corp. 9-in-2 Card Reader
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 0424:2602 Standard Microsystems Corp. 
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0424:2502 Standard Microsystems Corp. 
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

So far, since upgrading the nvidia driver, I've not had to enter a pw for wicd, but I've only booted up the system 3 times. I'll keep you posted on that. Could it possibly be a timing issue with the system boot up and accessing the LAN? I ask because, as I posted, most of the time, it's automatic, but sometimes (1 out of 8 boot ups) it asks for a pw in a pop-up window complete with the wicd logo on the left side of the pw entry field.

Flash is installed for FF and Opera. Thanks again.

**mhumm2** · Sep 23, 2010, 04:18 AM

Re: Still Suffering Program and KDE Crashes

So far Opera nor Firefox has crashed, but Dolphin and kate have. I don't get it. I'm seriously considering going back to 9.10 and waiting another 6 months before upgrading to 10.04.

Attached Files

**dibl** · Sep 23, 2010, 04:49 AM

Re: Still Suffering Program and KDE Crashes

Originally posted by mhumm2

So far Opera nor Firefox has crashed, but Dolphin and kate have. I don't get it.

I don't either, but my suspicion now turns toward KDE. When it was browsers crashing, I suspected video, because browser plugins are demanding on the video driver. But now you have two KDE packages causing segfaults. That's indicative, I think, of software bugs of some sort. GG is more of an expert on software bugs, but maybe if you look at the "details" tab, or in your /var/log files, you can learn a little more about what happened at the moment before your crash.

BTW, you've got a lot of hardware hanging off the USB, including multiple optical and I/O devices. To eliminate the possibility that some hardware issue is contributing to your problems, why don't you disconnect everything that you don't need just to run the computer? Pull the camera, the scanjet, the flight controller, the UPS, and the card reader, and let's see how long your system runs with no crashes. If the crashes disappear, then you can begin adding back your USB devices, one at a time (starting with the UPS), and you might learn that one of them is a bad actor.

**sixonetonoffun** · Sep 23, 2010, 07:40 PM

Re: Still Suffering Program and KDE Crashes

There is a post somewhere GreyGeeks I think referencing updated dbus as a working fix for the persistent Dolphin crashes. I'd take the kde4.5.1 packages and the newer dbus. Then either create a new user or rename the ~username/.kde4 directory. (clean configs)

I have gone one step farther and stopped using kwin completely using compiz-emerald most of the time and Icewm if I am doing serious work that needs the added performance. Fusion-Icon makes switching on the fly so simple even I can do it.

But I agree with dibl kde is the culprit.

**mhumm2** · Sep 24, 2010, 01:41 AM

Re: Still Suffering Program and KDE Crashes

You guys are great. On my last crash I looked up segmentation faults and everything I've read describes a memory issue or memory / kernel issue. I then searched for a good RAM checker and found memtest86+. I downloaded and burned an iso image of the program and booted my system from the CD I made.

MEMORY ERROR! Can you believe it?! I had 4 each 1GB sticks of RAM and 2 of the 4 sticks had bad bits. About 1.102KB of bad bits across the two DIMMs. I've removed the offending RAM and waiting to see if anything crashes. I also noticed that the bad bits were not contingent across the DIMMs; they were actually spread a lot in some cases.

Anyway, I'm not going to yell, "SOLVED" just yet. I want to see if this was truly the culprit. Thanks again and stay tuned.

**GreyGeek** · Sep 24, 2010, 10:58 AM

Re: Still Suffering Program and KDE Crashes

mmm.... Memory errors in RAM are so uncommon anymore, in my experience, I seldom consider that possibility as a problem. But, I never buy cheap RAM, nor devices which use cheap RAM.

The LiveCD usually has a memtest86+ on it.

**kyonides** · Sep 24, 2010, 02:20 PM

Re: Still Suffering Program and KDE Crashes

I thought the memtest was already configured and available in grub after (re-)installing a linux kernel... Maybe you weren't using grub at all and thus missed it.

**GreyGeek** · Sep 24, 2010, 02:56 PM

Re: Still Suffering Program and KDE Crashes

Different name:

jerry@sonyvgnfw140e:~$ locate memtest
/boot/memtest86+.bin
/etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+

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[SOLVED] Still Suffering Program and KDE Crashes !

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