Hi,

This is bugging me since I can't figure out the cause. I have a new system (to me, it's an off lease pc, about 2 weeks old) that I've installed Knoppmyth onto. For some strange reason it will just randomly freeze up. The GUI is unresponsive, I can't ssh to it and most of the time even if I already have an ssh session, it is unresponsive too. Most of the time it happens when I'm not using it (ie. over night)

Ok, this is what I've got:
IBM Netvista tower (serial 8307-ryu)
Intel P4 1.8 GHz
Intel chipset motherboard (according to IBM's website Intel 845G chipset)
256 MB DDR 266 (I tested with the memtest before installing, no errors)
Hauppauge 150 WinTV PVR
nVidia Geforce 6200 for TV out
onboard Nic and Sound
1 x 40 GB HD that came with the PC
1 x 250 GB Maxtor new to PC

Last night I tried to monitor a couple log files (Knoppmyth-run.log and mythbackend.log, using tail -f) but oddly enough nothing was displayed (I put --- marks to show me where new entries would be). From the top I was running, it locked up 3 hours ago. I've tried looking through various log files after the fact, but nothing really shows me anything useful.

Thanks,

Kevin

When you installed did you use the "testcd" option to make sure that the image was good? If not, toss the CD in the drive, reboot with that option, and let it go far enough for all those checks to run.

Next on my list would be to get yourself a cd with memtest86 on it and leave that run for as long as you can stand to. About 12-24 hours is minimal to declare that memory problems aren't an issue.

Ok, just noticed something. One of my ssh sessions I left running over night isn't frozen, it's just running really slow. The odd thing is that the date seems stuck.

Wow, never saw that happen before on a system. I run date and it shows the time 3 hours ago. I run it again and the seconds haven't changed.

Er, hold on, running it again and it's changed. Erm...ok, this is bad, running it again and the seconds have changed to a lower number. wtf?

Uh, I guess that's my problem. If the system can't keep time right that would really scew things up. Would that be hardware or software?

Kevin

Hi,

May want to boot up the KM cd and boot memtest86 I think is called, just to make sure you aren't chasing a green herring. Don't think it is a KM issue, but something basic. One timing issue that has been mentioned was the agp window in cmos, try setting it to half value ~64 as I know that helped me on a particular machine.

Mike

Thanks for the replies, I'll try doing those tests.

Kevin

Both tests (cdtest and memtest86 (which I ran from the knoppmyth CD)) came out fine, no errors. My AGP aperature is set to 64MB in BIOS. Oh, and, yes, the nVidia card is AGP.

While I was in BIOS I noticed I couldn't set PCI latency. Is there a way to check that in Linux? I looked through some logs and I think it's being automatically set to 64, but I'm not sure.

I've already updated the BIOS to the latest too, just to make sure that's not an issue.

Here's the website for the computer: http://www-306.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-42867 (it's the 8307-ryu model). It says ATA 100 for the hard drive. I'm not sure if that's for the controller as well or not. I'd think it weird that the controller wouldn't be ATA 133 since the memory is DDR. Perhaps it means the HD is only ATA 100, which is understandable to save money.

Thanks,

Kevin

If things are running slow, you could try top to see if something's hogging all of your resources.

Hi,

What version of KnoppMyth have you installed? Sometimes I believe the apic causes problems, may add that to the append line in lilo.conf and re-run lilo -v just add apm=power-off nomce noapic then reboot of course.

Check for any automatic "throttle back" features, suspend, turn off printer, anything that may cause irq's to go nuts. Sata options should be disabled if not using sata and that is an option.

The only other thing that comes to mind would be something with the nvidia driver isn't happy.

That is about the limit of my suggestions, but maybe it will trigger someone elses memory if none of those help.

Mike

If memtest passes then it might be worth checking the harddisk next. As it's a Maxtor, download the PowerMax ISO here:
http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxto ... loadID=113

Burn it to a CD, boot from it, then run the "full" diagnostic test on your disk. Let us know how you get on!

Ok. Tried power max full tests, both drives passed.

I've left top running on the system overnight and it's frozen but it doesn't reveal anything. One weird thing with top I've noticed is that even though when watching live tv, total CPU usage is below 50%, but my load average numbers are over 1. While MythTV is in the main menu, load average goes down to normal. But, as I said, top doesn't show me what's using the system resources.

Oh, ya, sorry, forgot to say which version of KnoppMyth. It's R5C7.

I've tried with both the nvidia driver that comes on the CD and the latest update. I don't really see any display glitches or problems with either.

I think I've got most of the power options in BIOS turned off, but I haven't tried turning off serial/parallel/etc stuff I'm not using. What about PnP OS? Should that be on or off? I think it's off.

I'll try putting the nVidia card into my main PC so I can use it with games. I had the Hauppauge card in my PC for a month or 2 now with no probs. The only other thing would be the HD, I'll check that out too.

Thanks,

Kevin

The apic -noapic fix is limited to certain nforce 2 boards. That is sorted by the -noapic switch or turing off front side bus spread spectrum (and possibly a bios update). As you are using intel chips, it shouldn't be an issue.
Could it be as simple as a heat problem?

_________________
Version:R8
Intel C2D 7400, Nvidia 5600 via HDMI to Samsung B37B650TW (PAL), Asus P5QL-E mobo, 4Gb PC6400 DDR2 ram, Samsung Spinpoint 500 Gb & 1Tb drive, Nova-HD-S2 (x2)

Same problem over here.
I also have a date problem, but I think it comes from the battery which is dead.


Sometimes I have no picture after a reboot, I can ssh but it's really really slow.

The computer is a Dell GX260 with 512 MB Ram
Maxtor DM10 250 GB ATA133
Asus GForce 6200 low profile
WinTV 150 low profile.
MCE remote
Ir Blaster.

I've test the RAM with memtest and the harddrive. everything is correct
In the bios, there is an IRQ manager I can't disable it. It says that Video Card, TV card and another are on the same IRQ.

Nvidia Corp VGA adapter IRQ3
Serial Bus 11
multimedia 11
USB adapter 3
USB adapter 10
USB adapter 9
USB adapter 3
unknow multimedia 3
network card 9




I don't if linux share this IRQ as well for these cards. How can I see it?

I've been fighting a similar problem on a (spare) computer for months. It is an ebay IBM 8185 that grinds to a crawl, with date & time running slow, but is not locked up. It acts like software in that a reboot will bring it back immediately, (so is probably not a heat issue either)

Thing is- I discovered the problem on several versions of KM, but it is probably hardware related, because it also happens when I switch in another hard drive with another distro and also running from live CDs. (I used Mepis & Ubuntu to check it- give that a shot) No KM in sight during those checks....

Your NetVista ( I got a couple of those too..) is old enough to be part of the 'great Taiwan bad electrolytic capacitors debacle' so check those electrolytics for leaks or bulges. I resurrected a NetVista with electrolytics replacement.

I'm still fiddling with mine as time allows, & if I find 'it' I'll post my solution here, if you do please post likewise...

Edited to add that turning off hyperthreading in BIOS is looking good as the cure....