Date: Sat, 21 Aug 1999 13:03:27 +0930 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: Fredrik Carlen <fredrik.carlen@telia.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG, d93-awe@nada.kth.se Subject: Re: Computer running FreeBSD 3.2-RELEASE freezes completely Message-ID: <19990821130327.Q14964@freebie.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <99082019241400.00282@entityone.leonissystems.com>; from Fredrik Carlen on Fri, Aug 20, 1999 at 07:15:31PM %2B0200 References: <99082019241400.00282@entityone.leonissystems.com>
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On Friday, 20 August 1999 at 19:15:31 +0200, Fredrik Carlen wrote:
> Question from Fredrik Carlen <mailto:fredrik.carlen@telia.com>
>
> Hello! I have a really annoying problem, and I can't seem to be able to
> find an answer to it on the Net. I recently "bought" and installed FreeBSD
> 3.2-RELEASE. I have been using it for a couple of weeks, and it's a very
> pleasant experience, except for the fact that *every* *single* *day* the system
> *freezes*. Hangs. I've been told not to reinstall, so, still painfully
> ignorant in the field of UNIX, I am humbly asking for more knowledgeable help.
>
> This is what happens:
> 1.I log in on my usual, every-day account.
> 2.I start X up.
> 3.I start doing the normal stuff, nothing fancy (e.g. reading mail, writing
> notes).
> 4.The system freezes. Every input device stops working. The mouse cursor
> disappering is the first indication. The system is *not* reading from the hard
> drive, at least as far as I can see and hear. No matter how long I wait, the
> system won't respond. It's a complete denial-of-service! The only option
> left is to reboot the hard way. Which doesn't exactly make things better!!!
>
> It happens *frequently* in the following circumstances:
> A. When I try to change something in "preferences" or "options", in
> any program (epecially Netcape). Sometimes it works, sometimes the system
> freezes.
> B.When I am trying to do something in two programs simultaneously,
> e.g. surfing and writing small notes. (By goood I hope it doesn't happen
> right now, please, please, my dear OS, just let me finish this freakin' mail!)
> C. Sometimes without any action from my part whatsoever.
>
> And: Once it happened when I disconnected my PPP connection when Mozilla was
> still downloading a webpage. My experience is that if I have been using X for
> an hour or so, it *will* freeze.
>
> This is my system, in a nutshell:
> Intel Pentium, 166 MHz.
> Motherboard:PA-2007 with VIA VP2/97 chipset
> Video card: S3 trio64V+
> Sound card: Soundblaster compatible (ESS ES1868)
> HD: 4 gigs
> RAM: 32 megs
> +I've installed the old object format, aout, to be able to use Netscape.
What do you mean by "install"?
> Both my everyday user account and my root account is left as-is, no fancy stuff
> there.
I'd guess that this is some kind of hardware problem, but that doesn't
help you much. The fact that the mouse cursor disappears suggests
that it's related to X. A couple of things to try:
1. When it happens next, try changing virtual terminals to, say,
ttyv1. You do this by pressing ctrl-alt-F2. If this works, it's
not the system freezing, it's X. You can log in and shoot X
down. Look for the process called Xwrapper.
2. If that doesn't help, switch to ttyv1 *before* it freezes. Leave
it overnight or longer to see if it still freezes.
3. If you still have no joy, let's hear more about the X
configuration. Are you using some exotic window mangler?
Greg
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