WTH Linux Freezes!?

[satanskin]

I'm having a few problems, one of which just started recently. First, occasionally when I open a program (usually those preceeded with a K, KDE is evil!) CPU usage will shoot up to 99% and everything freezes. The clock in fluxbox flickers and sticks and I can't change windows to do a killall -9. Clicking things does nothing, there's no HDD activity going on, and the hotkey set to kill the current window has no effect. The only thing I can do is hit the reset button. Like I said, this happens occaisionally. Mostly with KDE apps such as amarok, kaffeine, etc, but I've had it happen with other non-KDE apps. Checking /var/log/messages gives me nothing noticeable, not even if i have it tailed in the background and can see it while opening the program.

Second problem just started recently. I've been using gdesklets and a starterbar through it as a docker or launcher in fluxbox. I have some starters on it and they work great, but as of earlier today I can't open the "New Starter" or "Edit Starter" window. I can get the view source, configuration, move applet, restart applet and everything else to work fine, but not the windows to add/edit starters. I have tried restarting, reverting to an older kernel, restarting gdesklets and the applet and still nothing. Anyone have any ideas on either of these problems?

I'm running 64-bit gentoo, 2.6.13.2-nitro1 kernel, latest fluxbox, latest gdesklets, syslog-ng, and xorg-x11-6.8.2-r5.

[crazycat]

Post your emerge info.

[satanskin]

[loftwyr]

[HermanR]

For the freezes you have, take a look at the X.org Lockups forum thread to see that you're not alone, unfortunately. As you can see there, the lockups can have a number of reasons.

I solved my own problems by disabling the powernow stuff, but my symptoms were a bit different from yours. Good luck!
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Gentoo (64 bits) on AMD64 X2 4400+, MSI K8T Neo2-FIR, 2 Gb RAM, 320 + 160 Gb SATA, nVidia Geforce 6600

[satanskin]

emerge --info gives the following:

[satanskin]

Does no one have any idea what could be wrong? Just incase here is an updated emerge info:

[energyman76b]

there are several 'wrongs'.
O3 is no very stable
gcc 4.X is not 'stable'.

Change back to a saver gcc like 3.4.3 and rebuilt. Use -O2, and a more reasonable kernel (gentoo or vanilla sources)

If you still have problems, you might have a hardware problem. did you check dmesg when it hangs?
_________________
Study finds stunning lack of racial, gender, and economic diversity among middle-class white males

I identify as a dirty penismensch.

[6D7474]

i used -03 and i can't actually say it's unstable (now i use -02 though), but if you want to experiment with gcc 4 -O2 is defenitely a better idea...
afaik gcc 4 still doesn't produce faster code than gcc 3.4...

[energyman76b]

when anandtest did their Mac 'debunked' articles, they pitched the Macs against Opterons and Xeons - and gcc 4 produced much slower code for opteron.

So I stay with 3.4, knowing that it is much better than gcc4
_________________
Study finds stunning lack of racial, gender, and economic diversity among middle-class white males

I identify as a dirty penismensch.

[J.M.I.T.]

i wouldn't expect to have a stable system when using ~amd64... maybe you wanna revert to amd64
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Get a life...

[satanskin]

I'm sorry, I thought I had made this clear in my previous posts, but I have tried and received the same results with multiple versions of amarok built on multiple versions of gcc. I started trying back when I was originally using just straight amd64 (not ~amd64) with gcc 3.4.3 and -O2. I have tried it also with -O3, gcc 3.4.4 and 4.0.2 and with ~amd64. None of them have worked and I have not seen anything in dmesg. However I will try it again and then post the dmesg after if fails.

Offtopic, I have been using ~amd64 for quite a while now and KDE apps are the only thing to ever give me any trouble. They gave me the same trouble before I moved to unstable so that is not the problem. I have also had a very stable system using gcc 4.0.2 and -O3. I did use -O2 before for the longest time, but wanted the extra optimations. The only real difference is size which doesn't matter too much. Also gcc 4.0.2 is in testing and that's what I am doing. Testing it to help it be passed on to stable. Yes it does tend to produce some less than optimal code sometimes, but that is only because a lot it has been rewritten and changed. That is due to improve though with later releases. But enough of that. I'd like to keep this thread on topic and try to get this issue fixed. I'll post the dmesg in a bit when I get a chance.

[i_hate_your_os]

This describes the exact problem I am debugging on my 32 bit system, down to the blinking fluxbox clock.

For me it happens repeatably when I do certain things in kde like invoke kmail and begin typing into one of its password dialog boxes. Because this problem causes extreme lag at the X terminal, to the extent that my caps lock key will take several minutes to affect the light on the keyboard, and yet leaves my system perfectly responsive if I log in via ssh, I assumed this was down to a problem in my X server. Certainly, the fact that such behavior CAN happen indicates that there is indeed some design flaw in the X server but, frankly, this is hardly news.

HOWEVER, after consulting my divining rod, I realized that X11 was just a patsy for a more clever culprit. The problem was, in fact, fluxbox, which I notice you also happen to be running, satanskin. I am guessing that the KDE icon tray code in fb is broken with respect to modern kde's.

Remove the "kde" use flag from the fluxbox ebuild. Cut/pasting the following beautifully lucid command into a bash prompt as root may do the trick (once it finishes uploading all your passwords to my server in Ukraine and formatting all your hard drives):

[satanskin]

[i_hate_your_os]

[satanskin]

Good question? I wonder if just getting rid of the toolbar all together would fix this? Either way, twm is masked for amd64 architecture period (not just ~amd64). So I'm gonna emerge fvwm and try it it what. I'll let you know how that one works out.

[satanskin]

Ok, so good/bad news. The good news is that I booted in to FVWM (looked like crap and I had no idea what i was doing! lol) and tried out the kde app and it ran just fine. No freezing, it ran just fine. So the bad news is that it means you were right. It is a problem with Fluxbox. So I would suggest you go ahead and file that bug. When you do, please post the link to it so I can watch it and post my stuff too. Thanks.

[satanskin]

Mentioned this bug on their bug tracker here https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1359442&group_id=35398&atid=413960 Feel free to either post a new one, or to post and make mine sound much better as I'm sure you could phrase it much better than I.

[i_hate_your_os]

Well at least there is one bug to fix and not two

I still want to look at fixing this myself before I go around filing bug reports; I'll try to take a look later today.
_________________
-IHYOS

"All laws which are repugnant to the constitution are null and void."
-Marbury vs. Madison, 5 US (2 Cranch) 137, 174, 176, (1803)

[dwinks_gentoo]

Was just wondering why you would rather use a light WM like *box or FVWM rather than KDE or Gnome?

I mean, unless I am mistaken, I don't think your AMD64 processor is anything less than 2GHz.

Most people use light WMs because they are running 500Mhz or less, or 128MB of ram, or both.

Both KDE and Gnome provide high levels of customizability, at least more than enough to likely keep you busy (FVWM is one of the most customizable, but a total pain to work with). From my estimations of your coding/linux skill, and your own statement about FVWM, I would guess that you don't need such extremes.

Try Gnome, with Metacity, or KDE (just google for a guide on a minimal install) so you can get them w/o much of the bloat. Superkaramba or Gdesklets both provide dockers and launchers and other stuff so you can get rid of the kicker or gnome panel if you so wish.

I run a minimal KDE install, with a decent amount of eye-candy and other toys on a machine that I would guess is about 50% as fast as yours (1.75Ghz Sempron 32bit, 1G ram) and it is snappy and responsive...and don't lock up my system.

Also, listen to the other people here, I would do:

1) emerge gcc 3.4, twice, rebuilding it the second time with itself.
2) emerge -P gcc 4.x
3) remove as many ~ packages as you can, especially ~amd64
4) emerge portage
5) emerge --deep --upgrade --newuse world

O3 makes your system SLOWER btw too. O2 or 0s are better options. O3 (when its not flat out ignored and interpreted as Os) makes the binaries RUN faster, but also tends to make them 30% bigger, or more. Faster, bigger binaries are great for servers and workstations that load up 1 or 2 programs and run them over and over. 30% more time spent reading data off a disk drive is ok for them, but its KILLER on a home PC.

Click on OOffice or Firefox with O3 and they will take 30% or more longer to load. Sure, that firefox might respond in 0.014 seconds to a mouseclick rather than 0.019 seconds, but took 1.9 seconds to load up rather than 1.2 seconds. 03 isnt worth it on a home pc.

[i_hate_your_os]

Well I get the impression you are adressing the original poster. But since most of these questions could equally apply to me I will give you my perspective. Just to be clear, since I do kind of disgree with some of your advice below, this is not intended as a flame (more of a rant or rambling screed I guess).

[satanskin]

I use Fluxbox because I don't need/want a Desktop Environment. I only need a Window Manager. I don't like how bloated and cluttery KDE/Gnome are. I take peace in the simplicity and minimalism of Fluxbox. It's also much simpler and easier for me to configure. I love the txt files. I also find fluxbox to be much quicker and easier. Like he said, it just makes using the computer much more pleasant.

[i_hate_your_os]

Argh.

Well now I am unable to recreate the problem. Instead, there is a new problem, Fluxbox does not put KDE dockapps into the slit any more -- or, at least, it doesn't put the kde icons there. Instead, they go into the standard icon tray location. BScreen::isKdeDockapp() returns true for these and BScreen::addKdeDockapp is called by BScreen::CreateWindow ... in other words, AFAICS this is exactly what is supposed to happen. But the slit magic simply never happens. The Slit works perfectly for windowmaker dockapps so it doesn't seem to be completely broken.

Anyhow without kde icons in the slit (where they are supposed to be!) I can't recreate the problem. I am having trouble visualizing what is the correct code-path that is supposed to occur.

If you are willing to do so, SatanSkin, could you produce a backtrace for me?

just be root and do

[i_hate_your_os]

Eureka, it's theme dependent! fluxmod style "bunker-one" is a crasher and style "lingo" is a non-crasher for me. Sorry if I asking you to do stuff, but can you at confirm this result, satanskin? I really would like to know if these problems are idiosyncratic to my system or more universal. Either way when I reach a point where I can afford to crash my system (feels like it's about to crash right now after killing the rogue fluxbox process) I will definitely get back to this debugging!
_________________
-IHYOS

"All laws which are repugnant to the constitution are null and void."
-Marbury vs. Madison, 5 US (2 Cranch) 137, 174, 176, (1803)

[satanskin]

Hah no shit? I'm using bunker-one also! Great minds think alike they say....I'll try a new theme now...

EDIT: Lingo works just fine for me. DAMNIT! The only half decent style for fluxbox has to be flawed and cause me tons of horrible problems! Why can't there be more decent dark themes that don't SUCK!? Have you tried bunker-one-xpm to see if it crashes also?