Re: [gentoo-user] KDE and HARD lock ups.

[Dale]

Mark Knecht wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 3:00 PM, Dale<rdalek1967@×××××.com>  wrote:
>
>> Mark Knecht wrote:
>>
>>> If I had to guess I'd say, since this followed a power failure where
>>> the machine was live and operating (if I've understood the thread
>>> through a quick scan) that some file on disk has gotten corrupted and
>>> it's that corruption that's causing the problem. You've checked
>>> memory. Let's assume that te processor and MB weren't damaged by this
>>> event. If that's the case - and unfortunately I don't know of any way
>>> to ensure it hasn't as it requires one to have a bit-accurate image of
>>> the machine before the power failure - there's probably no way to
>>> eliminate this as a possibility short of an emerge -e @world.
>>>
>>> It's not where I'd start. I'd probably look for core dump files or
>>> very carefully do experiment s trying to isolate exactly what part of
>>> KDE is firing off the problem. re-emerging the NVidia driver is a
>>> no-brainer as it takes no more than 1-2 minutes to test things.
>>> Rebuilding the machine is certainly more involved.
>>>
>>> If you have lots of disk space you might rsync the whole machine to a
>>> new partition to do the work, then using something other than KDE
>>> which doesn't crash rebuild the copy from a chroot which leaves the
>>> machine usable while the rebuild is going on.
>>>
>>> None of this sounds like fun...
>>>
>>> - Mark
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> I did something similar at least.  I have two drives in here that are for my
>> OS.  I have a third that is for data, videos, audio stuff and documents.
>>   The data drive is a 750Gb.  The old main OS drive is a 160Gb and the spare
>> OS drive is a 250Gb.  I downloaded a stage3 tarball.  I then set up the
>> spare OS drive and mounted the partitions basically following the docs.  I
>> then copied over /etc, disfiles and the world file.  After that, I did a
>> emerge -e world which installed everything that I had before.  It also has a
>> slightly newer kernel as well.
>>
>> So, after running my memtest this morning while I took a nap, I booted into
>> the new install.  I checked with the mount command to make sure I was in the
>> new install too.  I deleted EVERYTHING KDE in my home directory.  After
>> that, I logged into KDE.  A box popped up that composite was disabled.  It
>> said I could hit shift alt F12 to enable.  After I started Firefox, it
>> locked up complete with my keyboard lights blinking again.
>>
>> What does Fluxbox use as opposed to KDE?  Both use the Nvidia drivers right?
>>   I use KDM for my login screen and I think nvidia is loaded when it starts
>> and it uses nvidia thereafter.  So, if it was the driver, would it not mess
>> up in Fluxbox too?   What makes Fluxbox work and KDE fail?
>>
>> Could my video card be having issues?  I may take the sides off and unplug
>> replug everything and give it all a once over.  Maybe just a bad connection
>> or something.  Maybe?
>>
>> If one of you guys were me, would you order a video card and try that?  Keep
>> in mind, I have surge protection inside the UPS on the wall side.  I also
>> have a surge protector strip that my modem, router, puter and monitor plugs
>> into.  It's kind of hard to imagine that a surge could make it through all
>> that and not at least smell up  the place a bit.  I'm not saying it couldn't
>> but just hard to imagine.  I got surge protection coming out the ears here.
>>
>> Thoughts?
>>
>> Dale
>>
> And this is your newer machine machine, correct? The one you built a
> few months ago IIRC?
>
> Sounds like you've takn the right steps to eliminate lots of problem
> sites and it just isn't working. What a drag!
>
> A machine lockup can come from almost anything not working. Bad
> software is the easy one, but it could be hardware.
>
> As for fluxbox vs KDE that's apples and oranges. They probably use
> totally different parts of X and do it in very different ways. However
> if fluxbox works perfectly for weeks then it wouldn't seem likely to
> be a hardware issue unless it's a really unlikely corner case, but you
> wouldn't think KDE would hit is every time and fluxbox never hits it.
>
> Have you tried the most up to date ~amd64 drivers?
>
>
>

Let me add some more confusion.  I'm in KDE right now.  I took the sides 
off and blew out a VERY little bit of dust and replugged things, video 
card, mobo power cables and such as that.  I also booted to the newly 
created .kde directory instead of my old one.  This is the old install 
tho.  I logged in with nothing running, blank session, and then took a 
nap.  I got up a few minutes ago and KDE is still running.  I opened 
Kpat, card game, and played a little of it.  After a few minutes, I 
opened Seamonkey and am typing as you can see.  Same kernel, same 
nvidia, same packages and same hardware.

I did notice something a bit ago but have not posted since I noticed 
it.  It seems to crash when I open Konsole as root.  I have my menu set 
up to run it as root and that is where I do my sync and updates.  As 
soon as the window pops up, my mouse pointer freezes.  I thought it was 
a coincidence until now.  After I send this reply, I'm going to open 
Konsole and nothing else.  I want to see if it does it again.  Since it 
has been running this long with Konsole closed, it would be odd if it 
fails when I open that up here shortly.

I have tried to eliminate things one by one.  I tried a different kernel 
before I ever posted anything but I'm not sure I mentioned it.  Doing 
that is almost like breathing.  If I run into issues, I try a old kernel 
first.  I have also tried both nvidia drivers that are in portage with a 
few different kernels.  As mentioned, I also tried a fresh install as 
well.  This makes me question hardware but since everything has to work 
together, who knows where to start.  Could it be the extra ram that 
Konsole accesses?  Could it be a bad instruction that the CPU doesn't 
like?  Could it be the video card trying to redraw the screen?  Lots of 
questions with few answers.

Well, I'm going to send this then open Konsole.  See if it locks up again.

Dale

:-)  :-)