Paul Neuwirth wrote:

Hallo, i have trouble with SuSE distributions 10.0, 10.1 and 9.3. Having them installed on the system, i get a hangup, nothing is working anymore, without a syslog entry. It is caused by different actions, i cannot specify, for example running BOINC (http://boinc.berkeley.edu). I checked most of the hardware... i don't know how to go on to find out what the problem is. do you have any hints? hwinfo: http://lfsle.swabian.net/hardware should i try a live cd?

thanks Paul

My immediate reaction to this is that you have a faulty RAM module. When you install SuSE there is the facility to test the memory (RAM). I suggest that you run this for no less than 30 minutes. If you have a bad module then the test should produce an error by this time. Cheers. -- This computer is environment-friendly and is running on OpenSuSE 10.1

On Thursday 03 August 2006 12:46 pm, Paul Neuwirth wrote:

I can boot all runlevels, but theres no X installed. Maybe "hangup" is the wrong word (English is not my mother language). The system stands completely still, the text-curser doesn't blink anymore, even num-lock isn't working. Some actions in YaST cause that, i even could not install with graphics mode, the install of 10.1 failed every time (i think because of the zen-daemon). Ok. When you boot into single user mode (run level 1 or s), can you log in as root? Or does your system freeze up once the boot ins complete. Single user mode only has your root file system mounted, and no daemons. At this point, only the kernel, kernel daemons, init(8) and bash should be running. You should have a login prompt. It is very important to know if your system is locked up in single-user mode or not.

If you are locked out in single user mode, then the problem could be with your keyboard. I've seen this happen with USB keyboards being locked out after switching from a PS/2 keyboard to a USB. What I am trying to do here is to go back to the most basic setting. We can assume that your memory is ok. If you can work in run level 1, then lets try to run fsck: make sure your root file system is mounted read-only. I've seen the mount command lie, so just test by creating a garbage file: touch foo If you get a permission denied, then root is mounted read-only. If this succeeds and foo is created, then force a read-only mount: mount / -o ro,remount Then run 'fsck -sA" This will run fsck through all your file systems serially. Once this succeeds, then go to run level 2 manually. Keep an close watch on kernel messages. Let's see what happens in run level 2. -- Jerry Feldman Boston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9

Paul Neuwirth wrote:

When the problem occured, the room temperatures were very high (about 40°C and some more), in recent i already had problems at high temperatures with the mainboard's chipset (for example POST errors, BIOS data deleted, BIOS not loading or even such system freezes), the chipset is not actively cooled... now at about 22°C room temperature the system works fine... i would never buy an elitegroup motherboard again...

Check out what Elite says about operating temperature. +40C is quite high, I'm not surprised at all that you've been having problems. With a room-temperature that high, many components will have serious problems getting rid of their own heat, and will very likely be exceeding their normal operating temperature range. /Per Jessen, Zürich

Paul Neuwirth wrote:

On Thursday 03 August 2006 19:16, Jerry Feldman wrote:

...

On Thursday 03 August 2006 12:46 pm, Paul Neuwirth wrote:

...

I can boot all runlevels, but theres no X installed. Maybe "hangup" is the wrong word (English is not my mother language). The system stands completely still, the text-curser doesn't blink anymore, even num-lock isn't working. Some actions in YaST cause that, i even could not install with graphics mode, the install of 10.1 failed every time (i think because of the zen-daemon). Ok. When you boot into single user mode (run level 1 or s), can you log in as root? Or does your system freeze up once the boot ins complete. Single user mode only has your root file system mounted, and no daemons. At this point, only the kernel, kernel daemons, init(8) and bash should be running. You should have a login prompt. It is very important to know if your system is locked up in single-user mode or not.

If you are locked out in single user mode, then the problem could be with your keyboard. I've seen this happen with USB keyboards being locked out after switching from a PS/2 keyboard to a USB.

What I am trying to do here is to go back to the most basic setting. We can assume that your memory is ok.

If you can work in run level 1, then lets try to run fsck: make sure your root file system is mounted read-only. I've seen the mount command lie, so just test by creating a garbage file: touch foo If you get a permission denied, then root is mounted read-only. If this succeeds and foo is created, then force a read-only mount: mount / -o ro,remount

Then run 'fsck -sA" This will run fsck through all your file systems serially.

Once this succeeds, then go to run level 2 manually. Keep an close watch on kernel messages. Let's see what happens in run level 2.

-- Jerry Feldman Boston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9

it's wired... the problem doesn't seem to be existent anymore... but i think to know what the problem is/was. When the problem occured, the room temperatures were very high (about 40°C and some more), in recent i already had problems at high temperatures with the mainboard's chipset (for example POST errors, BIOS data deleted, BIOS not loading or even such system freezes), the chipset is not actively cooled... now at about 22°C room temperature the system works fine... i would never buy an elitegroup motherboard again...

thanks for all the help

I think that you should be grateful that you *do* have a motherboard which is capable of monitoring the temperature of your CPU and motherboard and shuts the system down when the temperature gets too high. What would you rather have, a system which shuts down so that it can keep functioning when the temperature drops or a system which doesn't work at all because the CPU is cooked and has to be replaced? The temperature of your CPU, for example, is the sum of the ambient temperature (40C in your case) plus the operating temperature of the CPU *LESS* the temperature by which your CPU fan or other fan(s) can reduce the temperature of the CPU and the air in the case to try and equal the ambient temperature. So, if your ambient temperature is 40C and you have no fan(s) blowing the heat away from the CPU (and/or the chipsets on the motherboard) then your CPU (and mobo chipsets) is being fried. So you are very lucky that the BIOS on your elite motherboard is smart enough to switch your system off so that you still have a CPU. You would know the brand/type of CPU you have. Look at the specs for it to see what the maximum temperature it can operate at. How often do you open up your computer case and clean out all the gunk/dust from all the components (CPU fan blases, heatsink fins, motherboard and the components, video card fan)? I do mine at least once every 3 months. I have 10 fans (from 120cm to 40cm) in the case and if the temperature of my CPU gets to around 56C I start to get nervous even though the max. operating temp. for it is 77C. Accumulated dust on components prevents heat escaping and while hi-fi components are built to cater for this the computer components are meant to be kept as cool as possible - which is why there is an art, and an associated industry, in keeping CPUs etc cool (see Overclockers.com, eg). Cheers. -- This computer is environment-friendly and is running on OpenSuSE 10.1