Linux freezes at start up

[TheCruelOne]

I recently got a copy of SuSE and i love it.  It is great, but i have one small problem with it, and and other versions of linux.  Sometimes when i boot up the computer linux stops loading and just freezes. It just freezes and at random spots, and doesn't always freeze up.  This doesnt just happen on my computer, it happens on my friends comp too.  The comp with SuSE on it is a Dell inspiron 7500 (yeah i know dell sucks, but i didn't buy it).  Thanks for your help  

[ September 02, 2003: Message edited by: TheCruelOne ]

[Calum]

it probably is (as you hint) an issue with trying to detect hardware.

What i suspect is happening is:
the default startup script looks for some hardware, finds one it thinks it can get to work, tries to get it to work, continues trying for a while and eventually gives up and loads the OS (or continues to try). In the meantime user gets very irritated.

The solution (if this is indeed the problem) is read up a bit on how to edit your startup scripts, then using the output of "dmesg", edit your startup scripts to remove the offending entry that makes it look for whatever is causing the delay. alternatively find out how to make whatever item it is work, and do that. this way there won't be a delay when it is trying to make it work on bootup.

if that's not the problem then please ignore this reply.

[Faust]

Tried running a copy of Knoppix on that machine?  Knoppix is a "boot of CD" distribution which will help eliminate some errors.

Otherwise:
check if your hardware is supported (red hat / suse sites should help here.)
check for dust
check for heat
how old is your ram?
how old is your hard drive?
are all the connections in your case in snug?

edit:
I meant to say "help eliminate some variables that could be causing errors" rather than "help eliminate errors."

[ September 02, 2003: Message edited by: Faust ]

[Stryker]

where does it stop? while booting the kernel? while booting services? while booting the gui? if services, what services? what is the message it freezes at?

[TheCruelOne]

The laptop is about three years old, and every thing is in working order.  Knoppix works fine on the laptop.  It doesn't stop at just one error message, but it usually stops when it tries to detect the periphials (usb 1394 etc.)  When it freezes, it just freezes and doesn't go any farther in the boot process or give me any error messages, it just freezes.  But what i do not understand is how can it boot fine half of the time without any problems, and the other half of the time it freezes?  And if the start up scripts are the culprit, where can i find out how to edit them?  Thanks.

[Stryker]

you might have a usb printer or something, it might not detect it... but do its best to try... which might take up a bit of time. try unplugging all usb devices. usb printers (in my experience) tend to slow down the bootup process for up to 4 minutes. but, it wont usually see it if the device's power is off. so if you had the power off and it boots up fast, but power on and boots up slow... there ya go. if it passes the kernel's wait, it might freeze at kudzu too. which is why it's more than once. why dont you try turning them off, and if it still fails send us a copy of the boot log and point out where it froze.

[Calum]

do this:

Code: [Select]

this will create a file in the current directory called dmesg-example.txt (or whatever you decided to call it in the command above), you can now read this using:
[code]less ./dmesg-example.txt[/less]
or by opening it up using yr favourite gui text thing.

this is the messages from your last bootup. what you could do is post the contents of this file here and see if anybody can spot what's wrong and tell you what to do about it.

[TheCruelOne]

here is the output, its pretty long sorry
Linux version 2.4.20-4GB ([email protected]) (gcc version 3.3 20030226 (prerelease) (SuSE Linux)) #1 Wed Aug 6 18:26:21 UTC 2003
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
 BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f800 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 000000000009f800 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000000ea000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000000fff0000 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 000000000fff0000 - 000000000ffffc00 (ACPI data)
 BIOS-e820: 000000000ffffc00 - 0000000010000000 (ACPI NVS)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000fff80000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
Scanning bios EBDA for MXT signature
0MB HIGHMEM available.
255MB LOWMEM available.
ACPI: have wakeup address 0xc0001000
On node 0 totalpages: 65520
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 61424 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
ACPI disabled because your bios is from 2000 and too old
You can enable it with acpi=force
Dell Inspiron with broken BIOS detected. Refusing to enable the local APIC.
Building zonelist for node : 0
Kernel command line: root=/dev/hda2 vga=0x317  splash=silent splash=silent
bootsplash: silent mode.
bootsplash: silent mode.
Initializing CPU#0
Detected 466.681 MHz processor.
Console: colour dummy device 80x25
Calibrating delay loop... 930.61 BogoMIPS
Memory: 255248k/262080k available (1571k kernel code, 6444k reserved, 574k data, 160k init, 0k highmem)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer-cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
CPU: L1 I cache: 16K, L1 D cache: 16K
CPU: L2 cache: 128K
Intel machine check architecture supported.
Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
CPU:     After generic, caps: 0183f9ff 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU:             Common caps: 0183f9ff 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: Intel Celeron (Mendocino) stepping 0a
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
mtrr: v1.40 (20010327) Richard Gooch ([email protected])
mtrr: detected mtrr type: Intel
ACPI: Subsystem revision 20030228
ACPI: Disabled via command line (acpi=off)
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfd9ae, last bus=1
PCI: Using configuration type 1
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
PCI: ACPI tables contain no PCI IRQ routing entries
PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
PCI: Using IRQ router PIIX [8086/7110] at 00:07.0
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:04.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:04.1
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 01:00.0
PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 4 of device 00:07.1
Limiting direct PCI/PCI transfers.
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
Initializing RT netlink socket
apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x03 (Driver version 1.16)
mxt_scan_bios: enter
Starting kswapd
bigpage subsystem: allocated 0 bigpages (=0MB).
kinoded started
VFS: Disk quotas vdquot_6.5.1
aio_setup: num_physpages = 16380
aio_setup: sizeof(struct page) = 48
vesafb: framebuffer at 0xfd000000, mapped to 0xd080d000, size 4096k
vesafb: mode is 1024x768x16, linelength=2048, pages=1
vesafb: protected mode interface info at c000:506a
vesafb: scrolling: redraw
vesafb: directcolor: size=0:5:6:5, shift=0:11:5:0
Looking for splash picture.... silenjpeg size 30311 bytes, found (1024x768, 23130 bytes, v3).
Got silent jpeg.
Got silent jpeg.
Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 118x38
fb0: VESA VGA frame buffer device
pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with HUB-6 MANY_PORTS MULTIPORT SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI enabled
ttyS00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
ttyS01 at 0x02f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
Real Time Clock Driver v1.10e
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 64000K size 1024 blocksize
loop: loaded (max 16 devices)
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta-2.4
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
PIIX4: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:07.1
PIIX4: chipset revision 1
PIIX4: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
    ide0: BM-DMA at 0x10d0-0x10d7, BIOS settings: hda MA, hdb io
    ide1: BM-DMA at 0x10d8-0x10df, BIOS settings: hdc MA, hdd io
hda: FUJITSU MHM2100AT, ATA DISK drive
blk: queue c03ac500, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
hdc: TOSHIBA CD-ROM XM-1902B, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hda: attached ide-disk driver.
hda: host protected area => 1
hda: 19640880 sectors (10056 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=1299/240/63, UDMA(33)
ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
Partition check:
 hda: hda1 hda2
ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k scsi_hostadapter, errno = 2
md: md driver 0.90.0 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27
md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
md: autorun ...
md: ... autorun DONE.
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
IP: routing cache hash table of 2048 buckets, 16Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 16384 bind 32768)
Linux IP multicast router 0.06 plus PIM-SM
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
Freeing initrd memory: 481k freed
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
reiserfs: found format "3.6" with standard journal
reiserfs: enabling write barrier flush mode
reiserfs: using ordered data mode
reiserfs: checking transaction log (ide0(3,2)) for (ide0(3,2))
Warning, log replay starting on readonly filesystem
reiserfs: replayed 89 transactions in 18 seconds
Using r5 hash to sort names
VFS: Mounted root (reiserfs filesystem) readonly.
Trying to move old root to /initrd ... failed
Unmounting old root
Trying to free ramdisk memory ... okay
Freeing unused kernel memory: 160k freed
md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
md: autorun ...
md: ... autorun DONE.
Adding Swap: 514040k swap-space (priority 42)
Removing [55007 73560 0x0 SD]..done
Removing [55007 73552 0x0 SD]..done
There were 2 uncompleted unlinks/truncates. Completed
Intel(R) PRO/100 Network Driver - version 2.1.29-k3
Copyright (c) 2002 Intel Corporation

PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:0d.0
e100: selftest OK.
e100: eth0: Intel(R) 8255x-based Ethernet Adapter
  Hardware receive checksums enabled
  cpu cycle saver enabled

e100: eth0 NIC Link is Up 100 Mbps Full duplex
raw1394: /dev/raw1394 device initialized
usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
usb.c: registered new driver hub
usb-uhci.c: $Revision: 1.275 $ time 19:02:24 Aug  6 2003
usb-uhci.c: High bandwidth mode enabled
PCI: Found IRQ 5 for device 00:07.2
PCI: Sharing IRQ 5 with 00:08.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 5 with 00:10.0
usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x1060, IRQ 5
usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
usb-uhci.c: v1.275:USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver
uhci.c: USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v1.1
hub.c: new USB device 00:07.2-1, assigned address 2
usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x1241/0x1111) is not claimed by any active driver.
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
usb.c: registered new driver hiddev
usb.c: registered new driver hid
input0: USB HID v1.00 Mouse [1241:1111] on usb1:2.0
hid-core.c: v1.8.1 Andreas Gal, Vojtech Pavlik <[email protected]>
hid-core.c: USB HID support drivers
Linux Kernel Card Services 3.1.22
  options:  [pci] [cardbus] [pm]
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:04.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:04.1
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 01:00.0
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:04.1
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:04.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 01:00.0
Yenta IRQ list 0698, PCI irq11
Socket status: 30000006
Yenta IRQ list 0698, PCI irq11
Socket status: 30000006
cs: IO port probe 0x0c00-0x0cff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x0820-0x08ff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x0800-0x080f: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x03e0-0x04ff: excluding 0x4d0-0x4d7
cs: IO port probe 0x0100-0x03af: excluding 0x378-0x37f
cs: IO port probe 0x0a00-0x0aff: clean.
PCI: Found IRQ 5 for device 00:08.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 5 with 00:07.2
PCI: Sharing IRQ 5 with 00:10.0
es1968: clocking to 48000
IPv6 v0.8 for NET4.0
IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling driver
isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778) [PCSPP,TRISTATE]
parport0: irq 7 detected
lp0: using parport0 (polling).
eth0: no IPv6 routers present
usb.c: registered new driver serial
usbserial.c: USB Serial support registered for Generic
usbserial.c: USB Serial Driver core v1.4
Linux video capture interface: v1.00
ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
hdc: attached ide-cdrom driver.
hdc: ATAPI 24X CD-ROM drive, 128kB Cache
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12
hdc: packet command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hdc: packet command error: error=0x50
ATAPI device hdc:
  Error: Illegal request -- (Sense key=0x05)
  Invalid field in command packet -- (asc=0x24, ascq=0x00)
  The failed "Start/Stop Unit" packet command was:
  "1b 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 "
  Error in command packet byte 4 bit 0
cdrom: open failed.
hdc: packet command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hdc: packet command error: error=0x50
ATAPI device hdc:
  Error: Illegal request -- (Sense key=0x05)
  Invalid field in command packet -- (asc=0x24, ascq=0x00)
  The failed "Start/Stop Unit" packet command was:
  "1b 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 "
  Error in command packet byte 4 bit 0
cdrom: open failed.
hdc: packet command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hdc: packet command error: error=0x50
ATAPI device hdc:
  Error: Illegal request -- (Sense key=0x05)
  Invalid field in command packet -- (asc=0x24, ascq=0x00)
  The failed "Start/Stop Unit" packet command was:
  "1b 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 "
  Error in command packet byte 4 bit 0
cdrom: open failed.
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:00 (floppy), sector 0
end_request: I/O error, dev 02:00 (floppy), sector 0

[flap]

It's something to do with it not liking your cd/floppy drives. I have no idea what you can do about it though.

[TheCruelOne]

Would an OS reinstall help?  I really like SuSE and would not consider going back to windows.

[Fett101]

Tried installing Windows?  

[TheCruelOne]

quote:Originally posted by Fett101:
Tried installing Windows?      

NEVER!!!  :mad:    :mad:    :mad:  

I get enough of that reinstalling windows on my friends comp every 3 months.
 

[Faust]

Check to see if your CD rom is supported and if so all the ide cables are in right.  Are you using ide-scsi or straight ide drivers for it?  (If you can get in then do "lsmod" as root and paste the output here, that will give some info.)

edit: ah hdc, so ide drivers.  is that a writable?

Also check the cables are tight, there is no dust in near the CD drive and no heat being generated in there.  Dust and heat make me paranoid.      

Does anyone know if you can cat /proc/ide and /proc/scsi?  Would it help in this case?

edit:
 

quote:here is the output, its pretty long sorry

Always better to include the full output than include the "relevant" bits.  Thanks.  

[ September 02, 2003: Message edited by: Faust ]

[TheCruelOne]

here is lsmod:
Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
nls_cp437               4316   3  (autoclean)
nls_iso8859-1           2812   3  (autoclean)
smbfs                  36400   3  (autoclean)
snd-pcm-oss            45888   0  (autoclean)
snd-mixer-oss          13560   0  (autoclean) [snd-pcm-oss]
videodev                5600   0  (autoclean)
usbserial              18460   0  (autoclean) (unused)
parport_pc             25800   1  (autoclean)
lp                      6240   0  (autoclean)
parport                22440   1  (autoclean) [parport_pc lp]
isa-pnp                29672   0  (unused)
ipv6                  134516  -1  (autoclean)
snd-seq-midi            4448   0  (unused)
snd-seq-midi-event      2984   0  [snd-seq-midi]
snd-seq                39184   0  [snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event]
snd-es1968             15492   0
snd-pcm                62912   0  [snd-pcm-oss snd-es1968]
snd-timer              11904   0  [snd-seq snd-pcm]
snd-ac97-codec         31152   0  [snd-es1968]
snd-mpu401-uart         3360   0  [snd-es1968]
snd-rawmidi            13824   0  [snd-seq-midi snd-mpu401-uart]
snd-seq-device          4000   0  [snd-seq-midi snd-seq snd-rawmidi]
snd                    35940   0  [snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event snd-seq snd-es1968 snd-pcm snd-timer snd-ac97-codec snd-mpu401-uart snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device]
soundcore               3396   0  [snd]
ds                      6604   2
yenta_socket            9760   2
pcmcia_core            41824   0  [ds yenta_socket]
keybdev                 1996   0  (unused)
hid                    18308   0  (unused)
mousedev                4148   1
joydev                  5632   0  (unused)
evdev                   4032   0  (unused)
input                   3104   0  [keybdev hid mousedev joydev evdev]
usb-uhci               22096   0  (unused)
usbcore                57836   1  [usbserial hid usb-uhci]
raw1394                14516   0  (unused)
ieee1394               32880   0  [raw1394]
af_packet              12392   1  (autoclean)
e100                   49992   1
reiserfs              200532   1
all the cables are tight, and last time i checked this laptop was supported, as it is a generic laptop cd rom.