Suse Linux -> Machine Lockups?

djmcmath · 11-02-2004, 08:30 AM

In the interest of being completely apolitical on the most political day of the decade, I thought I'd post a random computer question. I'm a Linux guy, down deep. I was running FreeBSD back when I had to borrow somebody else's high speed connection to download the whole thing onto 3" floppies. I remember tweaking my .clock settings and griping about the CL5430 series of cards that wouldn't let you probe to get the clock settings. (sigh) But windows is just so much easier, when I'm busy and don't have time to tinker, so I've been running Windows XP for quite a while on my home box.

Well, recently a friend bought Suse 9.1, and found it to be outstanding, so I figured I'd have another go at it. Did the install, which was very friendly, and found that my machine began locking up randomly while running Suse. Now my machine is very reliable. I can think of like ... maybe twice in the last year that my machine has misbehaved under Windows. But running Suse, she locks up pretty routinely -- like 5-15 minutes of run-time, and she just stops responding. No mouse movement, no keyboard activity, no nothing. The lockups don't seem to be tied into any particular activity -- sometimes it'll die while I'm using it, sometimes it'll die when I'm just watching it, or while the screensaver is up, or while it's playing music.

Any thoughts? I'd love to convert back into a full-time Linux user, but if Suse is just going to make my computer unusable, I'm not interested. Any ideas from the pros? Stuff I ought to check?

Thanks,

Dan

DanTheCat · 11-02-2004, 08:44 AM

If windows is stable on the same hardware, then the only thing I can think of is hardware driver problems. What about trying a different distro?

What drivers are you using for video and sound? You might try switching, one at a time, to see if that makes a difference.

Dan

dad911 · 08:57 AM

I've been running suse & samba as my office file/print server for over 2 years. No crashes or lockups. No suggestions, but I would try generic video driver, or another video card?

widebody911 · widebody911's Garage

I agree on the h/w|driver issue; either find a different driver or change the h/w. I'm runing various flavors of SuSE here @ work on x86, ia64, x86_64 and Vmware and I'm not having any problems.

djmcmath · 11-02-2004, 10:33 AM

Thanks; that's what I was afraid of. Video and sound are your best guesses? You wouldn't suspect, say, network drivers? (sigh) I hate driver gremlins...

Dan

widebody911 · widebody911's Garage

I don't run sound on any of my systems.
I hate to say it, but it's a matter of process of elimination, unless you have the skills to dump and analyse system calls in real time.

djmcmath · 11-02-2004, 12:00 PM

lol, I know the mentality, Thom.

My home machine is also my MP3 player, as my nickname is "Cheap Bastage." This machine is my only supply of music for the whole apartment.

Thinking through the various devices ... the video card is a relatively elderly piece of gear. Seems that it's running an Intel chipset, which has been reliable under Linux in other machines. The network cards are LinkSys and 3Com -- I'd be a little surprised if either of those was causing problems. I hate to admit it, but you're probably right -- the sound card is onboard the MB, and it's something like a Matsugawa Special, or something similar.

I'll do some troubleshooting and report back. If it turns out to be the soundcard, can anyone recommend a Linux capable card? Thanks for the help.

Dan

azasadny · azasadny's Garage

Dan,

Are your cooling fan(s) working? Bad or failing power supply? Bad RAM, these can all cause the kinds of problems you're experiencing.

layzee · layzee's Garage

You tried Memtest86? It checks all your memory blocks to check for errors.

dd74 · 11-02-2004, 01:28 PM

I've been running SUSE 9.1 w/XP for about four months with no problem except for each time SUSE boots, it asks me to adjust my screen resolution. From all I know, 9.1 and XP do not work well together - for instance, at least with 9.1 personal, there's no file sharing abilities from 9.1 to XP, so there's an inherent issue with that, though I've also heard it could be a matter of how your HD is formatted - NTFS vs FAT32.

SUSE has a large online forum where you can post computer problems with SUSE versions installed. I suggest you check them out.

BTW: what machine are you using?

My issue is this: I have an IBM with all sorts of IBM-related automatic processes that mount on top of the XP processes. At any one time, I have 44 processes running at once on the XP side - far too many even with a 1,000+ mhz processor and 512mb of RAM. I have thought of nixing XP altogether, but can't seem to part ways with it because of networking issues here at my job. In your case, if you can, nix Windows and reinstall SUSE, I wonder if that will correct your problems with SUSE.

Also: if you want to try something else, I can burn you a copy of Knoppix. It's Linux on a live CD. Tell me what you think.

azasadny · azasadny's Garage

dd74,

This site may help you figure out what processes you need and which ones are "spyware" or other unnecesary stuff...

http://www.processlibrary.com/

dd74 · 11-02-2004, 01:57 PM

Thanks, Art. Much appreciated.

djmcmath · 11-24-2004, 08:00 AM

Alright, I finally had time to start digging through the drivers (the Porsche is back together, new suspension, new shoes, etc., woohoo!). Seems that the old NVidia TNT2 driver that ships with Suse is known bad. Apparently, licensing restrictions prevent them from shipping the correct driver with the box that you buy at the store. If you bring up the "online update," it's one of the obvious items on the list, and it works like a charm.

hehehe, once I got my video card working correctly, I ended up playing Tux Racer for like an hour. That game is frighteningly addictive! You're torn between driving the right line, deciding which herring are good and which are "red," trying to figure out how to go faster ... Aargh!

Anyhow, now I just need to persuade my wireless network to work correctly in Suse. And Wine.

Thanks for the help, all, I am so loving not running Windows!

Dan

Joeaksa · 11-24-2004, 08:29 AM

Dan,

Been a W user for years but wanted to try Linux for a while. Seeing this thread may give me a bit of a boost to put it on an old machine I have sitting around the house and play.

Glad you got it working! Sometimes its the little things that take the most time!

Joe