Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 10:42:34 -0700 From: Kent Stewart <kstewart@3-cities.com> To: fredrik.carlen@telia.com Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG, d93-awe@nada.kth.se, primary@cowmob.nu Subject: Re: Computer running FreeBSD 3.2-RELEASE freezes completely Message-ID: <37BD938A.4C3187D7@3-cities.com> References: <99082019241400.00282@entityone.leonissystems.com>
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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!!! I had a P166 on a superMicro P5STE motherboard that also froze after extended X use. It would also hang on Win 95 if I played Freecell or Solataire. It was really slow, so I finally ended up replacing motherboard, cpu, memory, and video card. The system on the HD works perfectly with a Celeron 433. The hang was obviously hardware related and a new system worked. If you have parts, you might try swapping some of the parts. I would start with the video card. Can you do a buildworld. That is a good test for the rest of the system. If you get a signal error, that is a good clue it is memory. Kent > > 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. > > Both my everyday user account and my root account is left as-is, no fancy stuff > there. > > This is the output of "$ uname -a": > > FreeBSD entityone.leonissystems.org 3.2-RELEASE FreeBSD 3.2-RELEASE #0: Tue > May 18 04:05:08 GMT 1999 jkh@cathair:/usr/src/sys/compile/GENERIC i386 > > (leonissystems.org is my fake domain...go ahead, laugh if you want to...) > > I am sorry if I have missed some section of the FAQ, or "the Complete > FreeBSD handbook" I really should have checked, but I am almost *certain* > there's nothing there that relates to my problem. I haven't got a clue as what > to do, except maybe reinstalling and *not* choosing stuff from compat22...(the > aout) Apart from this hassle, I *really* like FreeBSD, and since I am soon > working as a security administrator, I can't have this sort of thing happening > when I am promoting FreeBSD as the UNIX of choice for PC:s, right? If you > could help me, I owe you a big one. > Thank you for your time. > /Fredrik Carlen, Sweden. mailto:fredrik.carlen@telia.com > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message -- Kent Stewart Richland, WA mailto:kstewart@3-cities.com http://www.3-cities.com/~kstewart/index.html SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) @ Home http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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