Lately I have been getting system freezes which can only be resolved by a cold reboot. When they happen, nothing works..only pressing On/Off button to shutdown and start up the computer. I am using 64 bit . Has anyone else encountered this issue?
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Re: System freezes once a day
I'm running the 64b Karmic and I am having no lockup issues.
I suspect that you are having video driver problems. What is your video chip? (Open a konsole and issue "lspci" and "lshw" to find out)
With a journaling file system like EXT4 hitting cycling the power will usually cause a journal replay on the boot up. Very rarely will you lose data. Meanwhile, you can avoid the power cycle most of the time by using the Magic SysRQ Keys, a.k.a. "Magic Keys" (paraphrased):
Linux is very stable, but sometimes a kernel panic or an X-server hang can lock your system and you can't bring up a Konsole. There may be a possibility to shut down the system cleanly and find out the source of the kernel panic. For this purpose there is a kernel option called "Magic SysRQ Keys". Magic SysRQ Keys are enabled by default in Kubuntu.
- Alt+SysRq+r takes keyboard and mouse control from the X server. This can be useful if the X-Server crashed, you can change to a console and kill the X-Server or check the error log.
- Alt+SysRQ+k kills all processes on the current terminal. It is a bad idea to do this on a console where X is running. The graphic will stop and you cant see what you type.
- Alt+SysRQ+b is like a reset: a reboot without umounting or sync.
- Alt+SysRQ+o shuts down via APM.
- Alt+SysRQ+s writes all data from the disc cache to the harddiscs, its a sync.
- Alt+SysRQ+u remounts all mounted filesystem readonly. After using this key, you can reboot the system with Alt+SysRQ+b without harming the system.
- Alt+SysRQ+m prints memory information to the console.
- Alt+SysRQ+e sends SIGTERM to all processes except init.
- Alt+SysRQ+i sends SIGKILL to all processes except init.
- Alt+SysRQ+l sends SIGKILL to all processes, including init. (The system is not working after using this.)...
While some lockups include the keyboard, MOST OF THE TIME the keyboard is active but you can't see the output because the X server has locked up. So ...
To shut down the system after lockup, do the following:
Alt+SysRQ+s writes all data from the disc cache to the harddiscs, its a sync.
Alt+SysRQ+e (sends TERM-signal, processes can shutdown properly (e.g. save data))
Alt+SysRQ+u (a sync will be done when unmounting anyway)
Alt+SysRQ+i (for the processes that didn't listen for the TERM signal, this is a kill -9 process)
Alt+SysRQ+b (reboot).
The easy way to do the sequence is to hold the ALT & SysRQ keys down and while keeping them down press s e u i b in that order.
"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
– John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962. - Alt+SysRq+r takes keyboard and mouse control from the X server. This can be useful if the X-Server crashed, you can change to a console and kill the X-Server or check the error log.
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Re: System freezes once a day
GreyGeek's advice is good. Alt-SysRq RSEIUB is worth remembering and using. "Re-Start Even If Utterly Boogered"
I suspect it is indeed a video lockup only. But, to find out, open a Konsole window and enterThen make the window as small as you can while still showing the top 3 to 5 running processes and their resource usage figures, and put it down (or up) in the corner of your screen, where it will be visible when the lockup happens. When the system locks, it will be very helpful to see those top running processes, and how much CPU and memory they are using at that time.Code:top
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Re: System freezes once a day
Ok, I have opened a term with ( keep above ) option so I can see it. I will let you guys know what happens during next lockup.
It seems I am not the only one with a similar problem:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ing-up-783765/
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1314532
Could this be a kernel issue?Comment
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Re: System freezes once a day
I forgot to mention that during the last lockup, I had music playing and that too lockedup.Comment
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Re: System freezes once a day
I ran the command *cat /var/log/messages* and the end of the output ( around the time the lockup happened )
Jan 22 14:35:56 Testmachine kernel: [ 122.873870] UDF-fs: No VRS found
Jan 22 14:35:56 Testmachine kernel: [ 122.873873] UDF-fs: No partition found (1)
Jan 22 14:48:14 Testmachine kernel: [ 860.276980] UDF-fs: No VRS found
Jan 22 14:48:14 Testmachine kernel: [ 860.276983] UDF-fs: No partition found (1)
Jan 22 15:12:46 Testmachine kernel: [ 2332.188711] UDF-fs: No VRS found
Jan 22 15:12:46 Testmachine kernel: [ 2332.188714] UDF-fs: No partition found (1)
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Re: System freezes once a day
See http://forums13.itrc.hp.com/service/...hreadId=724798Originally posted by raffytaffy
Apparently there's some issue with a CD that you're using.Comment
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Re: System freezes once a day
Hmmmm -- that does sound like a hard system lockup. Can't tell whether it's a kernel issue, unless you can boot a different kernel, and get a different result.Originally posted by raffytaffyComment
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Re: System freezes once a day
I have been looking around here : http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/Originally posted by dibl
They have newer kernels ..would installing one be wise? Or should I try to revert to 2.6.31-14?Comment
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Re: System freezes once a day
Rather than installing one, can you make a Live CD with a different one? For example, you could go to the 10.04 daily build site here:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/daily-live/current/
and grab an ISO and test it in Live CD mode for awhile. I'm not sure I would advise you to install an Alpha level OS, but if it does not hang on your hardware, that may tell you good news is on the way.
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Re: System freezes once a day
When grub shows its menu, type 'e' , for edit, and add "nomodeset" to the end of the linux line, and see if it stops freezing.Originally posted by raffytaffy
Like so (your uuid will be different):Code:linux /vmlinuz root=UUID=e5ab8bdc-50cc-4fbe-aecd-7a52fb024301 ro nomodeset
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Re: System freezes once a day
When it does freeze..can pressing the On/Off button to shutdown / restart damage any hardware?Originally posted by diblComment
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Re: System freezes once a day
It won't damage your hardware (well, nothing is 100% certain, but it's very unlikely to damage hardware). It can damage the filesystem, i.e. it can induce corruption in your data and software and settings. That's why Alt-SysRq RSEIUB is so desirable, if it will work in your situation.
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Re: System freezes once a day
Ok cool, I am grabbing a daily build of 10.4 ( I plan to upgrade to it as soon as its beta ) ..I noticed it has the same dates as the RC kernels so I am going out on a limb to say that it probably has those kernels. Reason I mentioned the 2.6.33 kernel is from a few posts by other users claiming that the lockups stopped when they updated..plus 2.6.3 will finally support my lm-sensors. I will report back once I have tested the 10.4 alpha. Thank you for your time.Originally posted by diblComment
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Re: System freezes once a day
Sure, no problem. I also plan to install 10.04 when it is Beta.
Just for fun, there are newer kernels in this OS:
http://www.sidux.com/index.html
I'm running a 2.6.32-4 at the moment. You might want to give a sidux Live CD a try also. It is also KDE4, and does well on most hardware.Comment
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