Problem origin identification

[David Curry]

Jim Cornette wrote:

> David Curry wrote:
>
>> A question for the more experienced and expert fedora users.
>>
>> I have encountered several minor, but somewhat unconvenient 
>> (sometimes irritating), problems while running FC2.  Some of them 
>> surfaced on first boot after installation.  Others surfaced later as 
>> I broadened use of the system.  In several instances, the problems 
>> appeared to lessen or disappear with kernel and other upgrades.  On 
>> occasion, critical failures occured promptly following some updates 
>> as with initial installation of kernel-2.6.10-1.14_FC2.
>>
>> While my system froze up twice in succession shortly after 
>> introduction of the .14 kernel, I am more and more suspicious that 
>> Gnome and/or its sound applications are contributing factors if not 
>> the outright cause of those freezeups.  There is also some basis for 
>> suspecting X.org.
>>
>> Some guidance on how best to pinpoint the source(s) of system 
>> freezeups would be helpful.
>>
>
> I'm guessing that you have a computer that has an Intel 865G video 
> card,   I however have no idea without knowing what hardware is 
> utilized on your computer. If you do happen to have the Intel 865G 
> video card, FC2 crashed randomly for me also. Even FC3 install worked 
> better than FC2 did and the lockups were no longer present with FC3.
>
> Enough of that, my guess is probably far fetched, but upgrading to FC3 
> might be your answer to get rid of the lockups.
>
> Good luck,
>
> Jim
>
Thanks for responding, Jim.

Actually, my system hardware consists of a Gigabyte GA-7VAX mobo with 
onboard sound chips and 256Mb ram, ATI Radeon 7000 AGP video card, 
compaq MV400 monitor, 80GB WD harddrive, CD-ROM, CD-RW, 3.5" floppy, HP 
Lj6L (parallel connector), and HP d135 multifunction OfficeJet (usb 
connector).

Prior to installing FC2, I was running RH8 on the same system X the HP 
6L and with a different hard drive and monitor.  System freeze ups also 
occurred running RH 8 with the same mobo and video card but different 
harddrive and monitor.

The system froze up again running the 10-1.14FC2 kernel sometime between 
04:00 and 10:00 hours.  The system log shows nothing between 01:52:12 
hours (localhost su(pam_unix)[24779] session closed for user root) and 
10:06:11 hours (localhost syslogd 1.4.1:restart) when I discovered the 
freeze up.

Maillog entries exist for shortly after 04:00 hours as follows:

Feb 26 04:02:03 localhost sendmail[25170]: j1Q923W2025170: from=root, size=3090, class=0, nrcpts=1, msgid=<200502260902.j1Q923W2025170 at localhost.localdomain>, relay=root at localhost
Feb 26 04:02:03 localhost sendmail[25172]: j1Q923RN025172: from=<root at localhost.localdomain>, size=3398, class=0, nrcpts=1, msgid=<200502260902.j1Q923W2025170 at localhost.localdomain>, proto=ESMTP, daemon=MTA, relay=localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]
Feb 26 04:02:03 localhost sendmail[25170]: j1Q923W2025170: to=root, ctladdr=root (0/0), delay=00:00:00, xdelay=00:00:00, mailer=relay, pri=33090, relay=[127.0.0.1] [127.0.0.1], dsn=2.0.0, stat=Sent (j1Q923RN025172 Message accepted for delivery)
Feb 26 04:02:05 localhost sendmail[25173]: j1Q923RN025172: to=<root at localhost.localdomain>, ctladdr=<root at localhost.localdomain> (0/0), delay=00:00:02, xdelay=00:00:01, mailer=local, pri=33637, dsn=2.0.0, stat=Sent


Checking the X.org X11 log shortly after system restart disclosed three, 
recent red-flagged exceptions.  (Unfortunately, no time readings are 
associated with X11 log entries.)  The first read "drmOpenDevice: Open 
failed".  A few messages later two consecutive flagged messages read,

drmOpenDevice: Open failed
[drm]failed to load kernel module "agpgart"

On a prior occasion, a system freeze up with the 10-1.14FC2 kernel was 
immediately preceded by display of a dialogue box advising that Gnome 
volume control on the panel has failed unexpectedly and asked if it 
should be restarted.  I chose NO and the system froze almost immediately.