Randomly Freezes - How Can I Diagnose the Problem?
- by j0rd4n
At random times, Ubuntu 10.04 freezes, and I have to do a hard shutdown. It was upgraded from 9.10 which didn't freeze. First, is this is common problem with a quick answer, and if not, what can I do to diagnose it? I've tried checking application/kernel logs, but nothing gives me a clue as to what caused the problem. My guess, is that since the OS froze, no logs could be updated.
Ideas?
SOLUTION:
Solved it.
My particular problem was my graphics card (integrated Radeon 9000 series). netconsole revealed I was getting the error: "reserve failed for wait". After trial-and-error, I manually configured my video card and disabled hardware acceleration. Completely fixed the issue.
Here is what I did:
Manually Created xorg.conf
Ubuntu automatically configures xorg.conf and doesn't use a file. To edit this file, you have to tell Ubuntu to explicitly create one and then edit it. Here are the steps:
Restart system
Hold Shift as GRUB boots
Select root terminal in GRUB login menu
Execute: X -config xorg.conf.new
Copy: cp xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Disable Hardware Acceleration
The following is specific to my Radeon card, but I'm sure other cards have a similar setup.
Edit xorg.conf
Find "Device" section for graphics card
Uncomment "NoAccel" option and set to "True"
Save + reboot
Hope that helps.
