Problems with latest updates...I think

[luggw1]

I've got two machines, one running 64-bit 10.10 and the other 32-bit 10.10, that are both acting strangely after updating to the latest kernel version - 2.6.35-26. The 64-bit machine won't even boot to the desktop. It hangs during the boot on the blue Kubuntu screen - the white dots count off and then it just sits there. If I select the previous kernel (2.6.35-24) in the GRUB, everything runs fine, so I've just kind of blown it off until now.

My 32-bit machine is an older IBM Thinkpad that was working fine up until it wanted to do a bunch of updates. The looked innocuous enough so I went ahead and installed them, including the kernel update, thinking that I could just fall back to the previous version if need be. However after installing, restarting and logging in, it goes to thrashing the disk and finally Akonadi fails. I've tried getting to a console with CTRL ALT F1, but this is also VERY slow. It finally logs in and reports an out of memory condition related to Akonadi also. In the case of this machine, falling back to a previous version doesn't fix the problem.

I assume that one of these updates has hosed my installation? Is there any way to recover from this?

I'm not too worried about the 64-bit machine right now and everything seems to be working fine, but the 32-bit machine is dead in the water, which is unacceptable.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Bill Lugg

[daihard]

Re: Problems with latest updates...I think

I've got two machines, one running 64-bit 10.10 and the other 32-bit 10.10, that are both acting strangely after updating to the latest kernel version - 2.6.35-26. The 64-bit machine won't even boot to the desktop. It hangs during the boot on the blue Kubuntu screen - the white dots count off and then it just sits there. If I select the previous kernel (2.6.35-24) in the GRUB, everything runs fine, so I've just kind of blown it off until now.

My 32-bit machine is an older IBM Thinkpad that was working fine up until it wanted to do a bunch of updates. The looked innocuous enough so I went ahead and installed them, including the kernel update, thinking that I could just fall back to the previous version if need be. However after installing, restarting and logging in, it goes to thrashing the disk and finally Akonadi fails. I've tried getting to a console with CTRL ALT F1, but this is also VERY slow. It finally logs in and reports an out of memory condition related to Akonadi also. In the case of this machine, falling back to a previous version doesn't fix the problem.

I assume that one of these updates has hosed my installation? Is there any way to recover from this?

I'm not too worried about the 64-bit machine right now and everything seems to be working fine, but the 32-bit machine is dead in the water, which is unacceptable.

Is 2.6.35-26 part of the regular 10.10 updates? I have Kubuntu 10.10 on two 64-bit machines, and I don't see any update listed on either machine right now, even after I updated the source list. Do you have non-supported sources enabled?

[luggw1]

Re: Problems with latest updates...I think

I think it is. As far as I know I haven't done anything to the sources to get unsupported software on these machines. Where would I go to find this bit of info out?

What kernel version are you running?

Thanks.
Bill Lugg

[daihard]

Re: Problems with latest updates...I think

I think it is. As far as I know I haven't done anything to the sources to get unsupported software on these machines. Where would I go to find this bit of info out?

What kernel version are you running?

I have 2.6.35-25-generic on both machines. You can run KPackageKit to see if you have unsupported packages enabled. Go to Settings, click the "Edit Origins" button on the bottom right corner, and select the "Updates" tab. See if "Unsupported updates" is checked or not.

[luggw1]

Re: Problems with latest updates...I think

I checked that last night and it is not checked.

I'm running the same kernel version and that seems to be when all the trouble started. Perhaps it's coincidental.

I'm at a loss to know what's going on.

Thanks.
Bill Lugg

[sithlord48]

Re: Problems with latest updates...I think

switch to TTY1 (ctrl+alt+f1) and stop kde
"sudo /etc/init.d/kdm stop"

then use top see if your situation has improved, it possible that a setting got changed in kde durring the upgrade, if that works and your cpu usage drops down try moving your ~/.kde directory to another location and (this will remove all the settings for kde) then try to start it back up with

"sudo /etc/init.d/kdm start"

also you can boot to an older kernel (provided you have not removed it yet) hold shift while the machine is starting grub to get to the grub menu try another kernel.

[luggw1]

Re: Problems with latest updates...I think

Well, I finally got a chance to try the things suggested in the last post. I began by switching to TTY1 after logging on (which took a bit because of the disk thrashing) and started with a top. I found that akonadi_maildir is hogging the CPU and memory it ranges from 7%-60% CPU usage and 70-81% memory usage. It finally dies with an out of memory error for akonadi_control and kills akonadiserver and akonadi_ical_re.

So I performed the steps suggested, but to no avail. I watched top after recreating the .kde folder and it went through the same exercise as above. It seems to work better after akonadi dies...until you start messing with Kontact again.

Any thoughts? What's puzzling is that it was working fine for some time and then it just seems to have taken a dump.

Thanks.
Bill Lugg

[Snowhog]

Re: Problems with latest updates...I think

What version of Kontact are you using? You didn't by chance add the repository for the version that's in Natty? Here, with 10.10 (32-bit) and KDE 4.6.00, Kontact is version 4.4.9 and Kmail is 1.13.5. I have no problems with akonadi and Kontact.

[luggw1]

Re: Problems with latest updates...I think

My versions are as follows: KDE 4.5.1, Kontact 4.4.6, KMail 1.13.5. Keep in mind that this is on a 32-bit machine. My 64-bit machine works fine as long as I don't boot off the latest kernel. I really want to get the 32-bit machine back on its feet. I'm beginning to wonder if a reinstall is my only option.

All ideas are welcome.
Bill Lugg