[CONFIGURATION] About those random lockups

[DoYouKubuntu]

A little while back, I posted about random lockups; I did various things to try and hone in on the culprit. I was 99% sure it was SeaMonkey, for long boring reasons I'll spare you. But then, after creating a new SM profile--nice and clean, with no carried-over crud in it--guess what? FROZE solid. Again.

One of the tests I'd done was create a new user; when logging in with it, the lockups never happened. I was lazy, though, and didn't follow through with what I'd originally planned, i.e., using the new account and copying in data, like documents, from the old one, but not any configuration stuff, then ultimately renaming the user to my real name.

But today I'd had enough.

So I did something I can't recall ever doing before--after testing it with a dummy account--deleted everything related to configuration in my $HOME. Then started fresh with a blank slate. I'm now rebuilding my preferred look and feel (though by importing my QtCurve settings, that part was pretty easy).

I'm now just waiting... Waiting to see if the lockups will stop. If not, I guess I'll go back to plan A, though I really don't see how that's fundamentally different from what I've just done. I mean, by completely erasing any trace of configuration files in $HOME, how is that different from starting with a new user?

I'm just posting for the hell of it! Maybe if my problem is solved now, this will somehow help someone else in the future. Oh, during this process I also upgraded to the latest and greatest SM version, 2.53.5.1, so that's good, too. I'm always really bad about upgrading...anything...

[jglen490]

Maybe it's just Seamonkey ...

Just sayin'

[DoYouKubuntu]

You may be right, although the MozillaZine SM boards certainly don't reflect that. I mean I just don't see posts there about SM locking up computers.

And, as I've said before, I like SM and the way I have it set up. When I have to use a different browser, I feel lost! So I'm planning on sticking with it until one of us dies.

[jglen490]

Yep, understand. It's likely just a coincidence, but not something random. Just keep watching!

[GreyGeek]

Snowhog's Sherlock Holmes quote should go here, but I can't remember it. Something about "when all other possibilities have been eliminated ...", or something like that.

[DoYouKubuntu]

I know what you're referring to, GG, but I can't think of it either.

BTW, here's how many lockups I've had since posting yesterday: ZERO!

[GreyGeek]

Good!
It appears that the cruft causing your issue is now in the rear view mirror. Hope it fades out of sight!

[Snowhog]

Snowhog's Sherlock Holmes quote should go here, but I can't remember it. Something about "when all other possibilities have been eliminated ...", or something like that.

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth"

[DoYouKubuntu]

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth"

There you go! Thanks.

By the way, we're now on day FOUR without a single lockup! I'm trying to refrain from jumping up and down for joy just yet, but I'm getting close.

[GreyGeek]

There you go! Thanks.

By the way, we're now on day FOUR without a single lockup! I'm trying to refrain from jumping up and down for joy just yet, but I'm getting close.

Good idea. As the robot pilot said " ... and nothing can possibly go wrong ... go wrong ... go wrong ...."

[DoYouKubuntu]

Good idea. As the robot pilot said " ... and nothing can possibly go wrong ... go wrong ... go wrong ..."

Ha ha ha ha! Indeed.

BTW, we're on day FIVE with no lockups! *not jumping for joy yet*

[DoYouKubuntu]

Do you think it's safe to jump for joy now? SEVEN DAYS!!! Not a hint of a lockup.

So, for now, and hopefully forever, let's assume there was something in my account that was causing these repeated lockups. What might that be?

Of course, I realize this is a broad, sweeping question, because...just because. No two members of this forum have EXACTLY identical setups, and no one (including me) knows for sure everything that was in my account's settings/directories. Just in general terms, is anyone aware of/have any experience with/have any idea about what could've caused this problem?

As noted originally, they happened in a seemingly random way; they could happen two minutes after booting up, or two hours or, rarely, two days later.

The only thing consistent was four programs I routinely use: Konsole, Dolphin, and SeaMonkey [browser and mail client]. While troubleshooting, I pared that down to SM only--it kept happening. Then I switched to Firefox--and it happened. Dolphin only--it happened. Konsole only--it happened. Nothing. It happened.

These are the directories I deleted from $HOME:

.cache
.config
.gnupg
.kde
.local
.nv
.pki
.qt
.themes
.thunderbird

I also deleted all config files, like .profile and .bashrc; I did not delete .mozilla (directory) because I had a new, clean profile in it AND I'd ruled it out as the culprit.

Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated. I hope I never run into a problem like this again, but if I did, I'd at least like to have a clue what's causing it!

[GreyGeek]

Without having a binary copy of your HD before the deletions it is impossible to tell what content in any of those directories or files could have caused your lockups. Apparently it is not the kernel or the libc libraries/utilities that caused the problem. My guesses would be either something in .nv or in .kde/share/config/kdeglobals

[DoYouKubuntu]

Without having a binary copy of your HD before the deletions it is impossible to tell what content in any of those directories or files could have caused your lockups. Apparently it is not the kernel or the libc libraries/utilities that caused the problem. My guesses would be either something in .nv or in .kde/share/config/kdeglobals

Oh, but guess what, GG? I DO have copies!

I carefully backed everything up before plunging in and deleting it all. I figured if my purge hopelessly screwed things up and I couldn't log in, I'd log in as root, copy the files back, log in and then figure out Plan B.

Luckily, that didn't happen. *huge sigh of relief*

Anyway, I do have copies, although of course they're not in their original location on the hard drive. But the files/directories are intact.

[DoYouKubuntu]

NINE DAYS...and then it happened now.

I had just opened two sites/three tabs in SeaMonkey (in addition to my usual tabs), two of which were heavy with animation/effects. The two heavy ones: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ and https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/virtual-tour/

The other one was this https://www.jurassicquest.com/

I suspect the JPL pages, but I have nothing to back that up...other than the fact that I'd had *ZERO* lockups for nine days...until I opened them.

I overwrote my .mozilla directory with a backup, and we'll see what happens next.