kde and/or x crashes?

[infiniphunk]

I wasn't sure where to post this question, but since I think this has to do with my video card, I'll post here. I recently had kde or x11 crap out on me, bad! This shocked me a bit; I had never seen it happen.
The music stopped playing(shriek sound instead) and the screensaver was locked up. Couldn't ctrl-alt-del or anything, had to hit the restart button on the case.
This has been happening frequently. I did a reinstall of mepis and right away it was doing it again.
I did a dmesg and at one point it says:

mtrr: 0xd0000000,0x8000000 overlaps existing 0xd0000000,0x1000000
[drm] Initialized radeon 1.9.0 20020828 on minor 0
mtrr: 0xd0000000,0x8000000 overlaps existing 0xd0000000,0x1000000
[drm:radeon_cp_init] *ERROR* radeon_cp_init called without lock held
[drm:radeon_unlock] *ERROR* Process 1157 using kernel context 0
mtrr: 0xd0000000,0x8000000 overlaps existing 0xd0000000,0x1000000
mtrr: 0xd0000000,0x8000000 overlaps existing 0xd0000000,0x1000000
[drm:radeon_cp_init] *ERROR* radeon_cp_init called without lock held
[drm:radeon_unlock] *ERROR* Process 1157 using kernel context 0
mtrr: 0xd0000000,0x8000000 overlaps existing 0xd0000000,0x1000000
mtrr: 0xd0000000,0x8000000 overlaps existing 0xd0000000,0x1000000
[drm:radeon_cp_init] *ERROR* radeon_cp_init called without lock held
[drm:radeon_unlock] *ERROR* Process 1157 using kernel context 0

I think this may be or is part of the problem, but I'm not sure. A search of google only turned up others with the same problem. My worst fear is that my video-card(ATI Radeon 9000, 128RAM) may be starting to go. I hope not. It never did this to me when I used Mandrake. If you guys know how to get past this problem and have any suggestions, I'd really appreciate any advice or help.

[JohnT]

Did you recently compile a kernel?;)

[infiniphunk]

No, I have not recently compiled the kernel. This started happening after I started using mepis. So in my mind it can be one of two things:
1) mepis is not cooperating with my video-card for some reason, hence the problems. I'm going to reinstall Mandrake 10 official and see if the problems persist.
2) Something is actually wrong with the video-card, in which case it shouldn't matter what OS I'm using. If this is true then I should see problems arising when using Mandrake also.

I don't want to have to go buy a new graphics card right now, but if I must, I think I'll be shopping for an Nvidia card that works well with linux. From what I've seen ATI has poor drivers and everyone seems to complain about ATI and linux.
thanx!!

[x]

I have had a few problems like yours, they were both caused by wrong Xconfiguration.
I can't tell you exactly what to do, but only to search for options (as an example: with an nVidia-card I had to add "option" "Agpgart" "0")
Try reconfiguring, also try without 3D to see if that works.

[JohnT]

What kernel version are you using?

[infiniphunk]

I'm using kernel 2.6.5, HDD installlation from mepis live CD. I've read various log messages in var/log and I've run dmesg, but I don't understand the output of these although some of what I find there I think point at what the error is. I may just reinstall mandrake if I have to, I really don't know if this is a hardware issue or not. My sound fails as well when it happens.

[JohnT]

Let's see your results from cat /proc/mtrrDo you have the kernel source in /usr/source or is this a pre-compiled kernel?

[infiniphunk]

I installed mepis with 2.6.5 kernel from the live CD, I assume that means I have a pre-compiled kernel. I'll try cat /proc/mtrr when I get home tomorrow; right now I'll be at school until I go to work until 1 am:( .
Thanks again for you help. Muchos gracias!!

[infiniphunk]

Checked to see if I could do something this morning; system no longer boots at all. ex-pee still boots fine, however, yuck. So its back to Mandrake for this n00b until further notice. Hopefully that will work. I'm gonna miss apt-get though, RPM's are a pain in the derriere. If anyone can still shed any light on this situation or offer some possible hints, it would be greatly appreciated. :D

[infiniphunk]

Haven't formatted yet, and I did manage to boot mepis today.
ok, the result of
cat /proc/mtrr is...
reg00: base=0x00000000 ( 0MB), size= 512MB: write-back, count=1
reg01: base=0xe0000000 (3584MB), size= 64MB: write-combining, count=1
reg02: base=0xd0000000 (3328MB), size= 16MB: write-combining, count=1
Is this something in my BIOS?
also, there's this:
Sep 21 21:22:29 mepis1 kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] enabled at IRQ 11
Sep 21 21:22:29 mepis1 kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] enabled at IRQ 5
Sep 21 21:22:29 mepis1 kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKE] enabled at IRQ 5
Sep 21 21:22:29 mepis1 kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKF] enabled at IRQ 10
Sep 21 21:22:29 mepis1 kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKG] enabled at IRQ 11
Sep 21 21:22:29 mepis1 kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKH] enabled at IRQ 9
Sep 21 21:22:29 mepis1 kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] enabled at IRQ 10
Sep 21 21:22:29 mepis1 kernel: PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
Sep 21 21:22:29 mepis1 kernel: PCI: if you experience problems, try using option 'pci=noacpi' or even 'acpi=off'
????

what is this?

[JohnT]

Have you even searched for either of those terms....onsite or google/linux?

try using option 'pci=noacpi' or even 'acpi=off' Try one or the other in your boot manger lineup.

[infiniphunk]

I have tried to disable acpi in my BIOS, there was no option that simply stated "acpi=off" but I changed some settings and I think its working a bit better now. It seems to be booting again everytime, but its still crashing.
I did cat /var/log/syslog and get this:
...
ep 24 01:34:11 mepis1 kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] enabled at IRQ 11
Sep 24 01:34:11 mepis1 kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] enabled at IRQ 5
Sep 24 01:34:11 mepis1 kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKE] enabled at IRQ 5
Sep 24 01:34:11 mepis1 kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKF] enabled at IRQ 10
Sep 24 01:34:11 mepis1 kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKG] enabled at IRQ 11
Sep 24 01:34:11 mepis1 kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKH] enabled at IRQ 9
Sep 24 01:34:11 mepis1 kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] enabled at IRQ 10
Sep 24 01:34:11 mepis1 kernel: PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
Sep 24 01:34:11 mepis1 kernel: PCI: if you experience problems, try using option 'pci=noacpi' or even 'acpi=off'
Sep 24 01:34:11 mepis1 kernel: PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 4 of device 0000:00:02.1

Again, I'm not sure if this is something I change in the BIOS or in the kernel.
Thanks a ton for pointing me in the right direction!!

[x]

I'm using the option "acpi=off" since acpi sometimes makes installation fail.
I suggest you try it, that is a boot-option (lilo or grub)

[infiniphunk]

Thank-you for your speedy reply! In my /boot/config-2.6.5 I see:
# ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) Support
#
CONFIG_ACPI=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BOOT=y
CONFIG_ACPI_INTERPRETER=y
CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP=y
CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP_PROC_FS=y
CONFIG_ACPI_AC=m
CONFIG_ACPI_BATTERY=m
CONFIG_ACPI_BUTTON=m
CONFIG_ACPI_FAN=m
CONFIG_ACPI_PROCESSOR=m
CONFIG_ACPI_THERMAL=m
CONFIG_ACPI_ASUS=m
CONFIG_ACPI_TOSHIBA=m
# CONFIG_ACPI_DEBUG is not set
CONFIG_ACPI_BUS=y
CONFIG_ACPI_EC=y
CONFIG_ACPI_POWER=y
CONFIG_ACPI_PCI=y
CONFIG_ACPI_SYSTEM=y
# CONFIG_X86_PM_TIMER is not set

#
# APM (Advanced Power Management) BIOS Support
#
CONFIG_APM=m
# CONFIG_APM_IGNORE_USER_SUSPEND is not set
# CONFIG_APM_DO_ENABLE is not set
# CONFIG_APM_CPU_IDLE is not set
# CONFIG_APM_DISPLAY_BLANK is not set
# CONFIG_APM_RTC_IS_GMT is not set
CONFIG_APM_ALLOW_INTS=y
# CONFIG_APM_REAL_MODE_POWER_OFF is not set

Where do I change it to acpi=off? sorry, I don't know this.

[x]

That's a booting-option.
If you use grub, put it in /boot/grub/menu.lst
If you use lilo, it's in /etc/lilo.conf then you have to run '/sbin/lilo'
I'm not sure about the syntax for lilo, you will have to check that.

[JohnT]

Where do I change it to acpi=off? sorry, I don't know this. Thats your kernel configs....Yes its enabled in the kernel, so you have to tell the bootmanager (Grub/Lilo)not to enable it at start-up which in effect turns it off.

[infiniphunk]

Alright, I changed /boot/grub/menu.lst to look like this:

default saved
timeout 15
color cyan/blue white/blue
foreground ffffff
background 2f5178
splashimage /boot/grub/mepis.xpm.gz

title MEPIS at hda3, kernel 2.4.26
kernel (hd0,2)/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.26 root=/dev/hda3 acpi=off nomce vga=788 hdc=ide-scsi hdd=ide-scsi
savedefault

title MEPIS at hda3, kernel 2.6.5
kernel (hd0,2)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.5 root=/dev/hda3 acpi=off nomce psmouse.proto=imps vga=788
savedefault

But during startup its still saying "apm daemon overidden by ACPI"
did I edit it wrong?
Its still crashing.

[x]

You edited quite right.
Sorry, I have no further ideas. I would say your video-card is faulty, but if it works in XP then hardware is ok.
Does it crash with both kernels?

[hard candy]

I think you could switch generic drivers and see if that would allow x to start up. I would try "failsafe" first and see if it works.
Then maybe, "xdrvr=vesa". If you can get that booted, maybe try installing/reinstalling a recent ATI driver.

[infiniphunk]

Thanks for your replies!!! x does start up fine now, except its still freezing after about 20-30 mins of use every time. Now I have edited my menu.lst as shown above; I've also tried adding in apm=off as well. Now that I've done this, when I go to shut it down, the system powers down(can hear it doing it in the case) but the screen stays on with all the text! so its like the system shut down but it didn't. Now I edited menu.lst again, this time removing apm=off, but its still doing it. I will try setting the BIOS to failsafe as suggested by hard candy, and see how that goes. From what I understand of this, the kernel is competing with the BIOS for control of power management. I confess I really don't understand how this works, I'm just searching around on google for info, plus the advice you guys give is a huge help. Without your help I would not know where to start. This is part of what makes open-source great; I truly appreciate all the feedback.
Just got to keep trying different things until it works, of course. Thankx!!!!!!

[infiniphunk]

Alright, here's the scoop: I boot into windows and it does the exact same thing! Picture freezes and I have to hit the reset button on the case to restart the computer. So it has to be a hardware issue. Now I don't know if its something wrong in my BIOS, or if its the video-card, or what. The sound also fails when this happens; if music is playing, it starts skipping like an audio CD skipping. I don't mind if I have to get a new video card, but I hope its nothing wrong with the mobo or something like that. If it is the video card I'm getting Nvidia for sure, after reading some of the other threads in this forum. DAMN!!!!:mad:

[JohnT]

Pull your cards and try your video, by itself only, in another slot. No other cards inserted if possible. Restart in windows.

[infiniphunk]

I opened up the case and wow! there was a lot of dust on the video card. I pulled it out and used an air duster to clean it. Put the video card back in and tried it, still the same problem. What do you mean put the video card in another slot, there's only one slot on the mobo where it can go. I may just wimp out and get a comp hardware shop look at it.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by infiniphunk
What do you mean put the video card in another slot, Just what I said.....move it to another slot.

Originally posted by infiniphunk there's only one slot on the mobo where it can go.If you con't have another slot you can't move it . Run the command in Linux "lspci -v". Lets see the results.

[infiniphunk]

My friend came over today and brought his fully functioning Nvidia 128 MgB video-card and we plugged it in. Although the system did seem to stay stable for a bit longer it still crashes both windows and linux. I've tried a few changes in the BIOS and sometimes that seems to make it boot more easily. I did manage to run lspci -v but everytime I try to post the output from that in this thread the system just crashes again. I'm pretty sure its a hardware problem; at this point I'm just hoping it wont cost too much to fix. What a nightmare.:(