System is locking up

[Shelnutt2]

Well I love how when things like this, system locking up, it happens after a few changes were made, so I don't know whats causing it..

Here is whats happened:
A) Monday night, a few split second power blinks happen, I walk in later to find my computer at turn off (its on a UPS, so it should have been perfectly fine, the power blinks lasted seconds.)
B) I started it install the SVN version of KDE4 via the overlay to get beta4, so I can play with it, this was Tuesday evening.
Wednesday morning, I wake up to find it locked up. I reboot it, KDE doesn't start, at the splash screen it just stops and then I have a blank screen till I kill the x server. My guess is that it is because I don't have KDE4 finished installing since it locked up, and that I need to change the command to tell it to launch KDE3.5, as that is still installed. I open Gnome instead, and start it installing the rest of KDE4, via the portage svn overlay.
C) I get home today, and my computer is locked up again
D) After reboot I don't start X, and just try to install KDE4, it starts, and then tell me its out of room. I do df, and find out I have 30mb free in / . (I have / and /boot and /home on separate partitions). I am downloading the gpart livecd now in windows to edit my partitions to get mroe space. I have a 10 gig partition thats was going to be used to dual boot linux's but I'll just make my / partition bigger...I start to download it in linux but the system locked up on me.

My system is at stock clocks, and I'm 3 passes of memtest stable, haven't run P95 yet as I'm downloading gparted live cd right now..

What do you think is the culprit?

 

[Adak]

I think the power problems caused some dirty power to trick your UPS, and it reached your computer.

Now something on your system is marginal and is throwing errors, occasionally.

If I had to guess, I'd guess the BIOS has been "jinked", and I wouldn't trust your software you were installing at the time.

I'm running on the end of my sleeve here, but my advice would be:

1) Unpower the system, including turning off the switch on the psu so the board get's NO power.

2) Move the jumper on the CMOS to drain away the current settings. Leave it there for 30 minutes or so.

3) Replace the CMOS jumper. Leave the board unpowered for 24 hrs.

4) Power it back up, and set the BIOS to it's default (loosest) settings.

5) Run it 24/7 on those settings for 3 days. Do all the other testing software, and be sure to include a thorough test of the disk, AFTER you remove the software you were installing at the time. Let's assume that data is compromised, or at least not pristine.

6) Re-install the software.

7) Reset your BIOS setting to tighten things up, as the system will bear it.

Good luck!

 

[dipspit]

What distro and version are you using?

 

[Shelnutt2]

What distro and version are you using?

Gentoo, I have the 2.6.20 kernel. KDE 3.5, Partial install of KDE 4 beta4, Gnome. I like them all!

Adak I'll try all of your suggestions.

 

[dipspit]

Gentoo, I have the 2.6.20 kernel. KDE 3.5, Partial install of KDE 4 beta4, Gnome. I like them all!

Adak I'll try all of your suggestions.

If it's gentoo that's freezing, my first instinct would say hardware. gentoo is usually rock solid. Also, if you're a desktop environment fan you should really try Enlightenment (e17 version), it's spectacular. It feels like a fluxbox mixed with some compiz fusion.

Also do you have fusion? If so, how is it with KDE 4?

 

[Zerix01]

Also do you have fusion? If so, how is it with KDE 4?

Just a quick note: KDE 4 when released will have compositing built in and will have no need for Compiz Fusion.

But I guess in theory with the latest KDE beta you could have compiz running. I think the latest SVN has compositing though.

 

[dipspit]

But do you really think KDE's compositing will be on par with the battery of plugins and endless configuration possibilities that exists with C-F?

 

[Zerix01]

But do you really think KDE's compositing will be on par with the battery of plugins and endless configuration possibilities that exists with C-F?

From the sounds of it from the KDE devs (I have not tried it out myself) it should have most of the popular compiz plugins already re-made. Stability should be acceptable by the 4.0 release. Keep in mind that 4.0 will be more for early adopters and 4.1/.2 will be far more stable and feature complete. As it stands right now even though I have Compiz fusion working with KDE 3.5 the overall intergration with the DE sucks. It sound like the GNOME people are having much better luck with it. So as far as I'm concerned as long as KDE 4 has no show stoppers I'm looking forward to better compositing intergration over more features. They will catch up soon enough.

 

[dipspit]

I think C-F integrates a bit better with gnome, but the latest git versions are just as impressive in KDE, if enlightenment had some more devs, It might be the best out there. The only problem is, the enlightenment apps suck, and you have to end up maintaining a consistent theme with enlightenment/qt/gtk to get your apps to look normal. Also, if KDE can't put a shell right on the desktop, that's a big problem for me, because I love c-f's ability to do that.

@ Shellnut

Do you have an update for us?

 

[Zerix01]

Also, if KDE can't put a shell right on the desktop, that's a big problem for me, because I love c-f's ability to do that.

Ummm how?! I've been trying to do that for a long time.

 

[Shelnutt2]

@ Shellnut

Do you have an update for us?

Well the system seems to be stable now, and I'm back to my overclock speed of 3.15GHz. KDE4 beta 4 finished compiling over night.

Now when I tried to run it, both KDE3.5 and 4.0 launched.
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/6863/64048658iq8.png
http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/3028/29908310tt0.png

I launched it with the command exec /usr/kde/3.95.0/bin/startkde just like the gentoo forums said.

 

[dipspit]

Well the system seems to be stable now, and I'm back to my overclock speed of 3.15GHz. KDE4 beta 4 finished compiling over night.

Now when I tried to run it, both KDE3.5 and 4.0 launched.
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/6863/64048658iq8.png
http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/3028/29908310tt0.png

I launched it with the command exec /usr/kde/3.95.0/bin/startkde just like the gentoo forums said.

That is WEIRD. Are you using KDM to manage your desktops?

@Zerix

I'm too new here to start hijacking threads already! Install gnome-terminal (can't use it with Konsole or x-term) and then send me a pm. You basically use compiz window rules and some other plugins to stick it to your desktop and you create a transparent profile in gnome-terminal.

 

[Shelnutt2]

That is WEIRD. Are you using KDM to manage your desktops?

@Zerix

I'm too new here to start hijacking threads already! Install gnome-terminal (can't use it with Konsole or x-term) and then send me a pm. You basically use compiz window rules and some other plugins to stick it to your desktop and you create a transparent profile in gnome-terminal.

Nope I use xsessions, I just edit .xinitrc and tell it what desktop to launch. When I boot my computer I am left at the CLI.

If you want to see something weirder, give me a minute and I'll have Gnome+KDE3.5+KDE4 all running overtop of each other.

(Please note, I am not making KDE4 run overtop of KDE3.5, I don't want this, it is a bug. But Gnome + KDE I already knew how to do)

 

[dipspit]

So you're able to load 3 desktops in one xserver? I was going to accuse KDM of messing up your xinit.

What (if any) flags did you build kde4 with?