Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) Random Freeze / Hang-up

[nunrgguy]

New kernel didn't fix for me but now going to try this patch. Thanks.

[edward1978]

New kernel didn't fix for me but now going to try this patch. Thanks.

Patch was a no go for me & the kernel was a letdown also.

[rodkerbs]

So glad to find that I am not the only one losing my mind on this. I have two Ubuntu 10.10 systems. One is running perfectly with no freezing. The other is driving me nuts. It freezes so randomly! I thought it was the video card, the kernel, the power supply, the memory. I have tried it all, swapped it all, updated kernels and drivers, even put a new motherboard in. I will try the suggested patch procedure and post tomorrow if it changes anything. I have a feeling that it is an IRQ kind of problem, similar to the behavior of a Windows 95 machine having IRQ troubles. Please keep posting!

[edward1978]

So glad to find that I am not the only one losing my mind on this. I have two Ubuntu 10.10 systems. One is running perfectly with no freezing. The other is driving me nuts. It freezes so randomly! I thought it was the video card, the kernel, the power supply, the memory. I have tried it all, swapped it all, updated kernels and drivers, even put a new motherboard in. I will try the suggested patch procedure and post tomorrow if it changes anything. I have a feeling that it is an IRQ kind of problem, similar to the behavior of a Windows 95 machine having IRQ troubles. Please keep posting!

HMMM, IRQ probs. don't think so, but how do I check?

[katna]

i just installed ubuntu. It just freezes after booting. I am new user. this is the first time I am trying. Can any one help oplease

[edward1978]

i just installed ubuntu. It just freezes after booting. I am new user. this is the first time I am trying. Can any one help oplease

You got Ubuntu at a bad time, this is a bug in the OS it seems & drives a lot of users nuts, it has no specified cause.

[JBAlaska]

OK, I can now say with certainty

acpi=force irqpoll

has cured my version of the pointer freeze bug on my 10.04 install (Kernel 2.6.32-25) I have not tried the -26 Kernel yet, but I have had it up for over 3 days and have restarted it several times today, while trying everything I could to get it to freeze (Play MP3's while hot-plugging a USB thumb drive and copying a 4+GB file to it), either of those seemed to trigger a freeze in the past.

I'm now using my 10.10 install with the new 2.6.35-22 kernel, playing a MP3 in the background and typing this in FF. Uptime is 9 hours so far including the kernel upgrade and subsequent reboot.

The MP3 reference pertains to my prior thought that pulse audio had something to do with the freeze, for a complete explanation of this thought and the fact that I had completely removed pulse audio is documented in my posts (Last 3 posts) in the launchpad bug report Here, Short version...Removing Pulse Audio did NOT help.

My version of the freeze bug is explained in post #1361 in this thread, and more detail on my troubleshooting steps are also in the above mentioned launchpad thread. It may help if any new posters to this thread explain their specific symptoms and system specs.

So bottom line for MY freeze version:
In 10.04- The real-time Kernel "2.6.31-11rt" works perfect, = > 2.6.32-xx freezes, adding

acpi=force irqpoll

to these Kernels fixes the freeze, Kernel 2.6.32-26 is untested by me at this point (I'll get to it next).

In 10.10- Any Kernel prior to the newest 2.6.35-22 freezes, and I am now into testing that Kernel without any Kernel Options.

[mbreman]

It has been fixed but I am not sure if the new kernel has the fix or not since I installed the patch 2 days before the new kernel came. I think it came yesterday or something.

What kernel version are you talking about here mate?

[mbreman]

It has been fixed but I am not sure if the new kernel has the fix or not since I installed the patch 2 days before the new kernel came. I think it came yesterday or something.

If you have already installed the new kernel but everything is still jerky, here's the fix.

Add this to your /etc/rc.local file (sudo gedit /etc/rc.local)
Code:
mkdir -p /dev/cgroup/cpu
mount -t cgroup cgroup /dev/cgroup/cpu -o cpu
mkdir -m 0777 /dev/cgroup/cpu/user
echo "/usr/local/sbin/cgroup_clean" > /dev/cgroup/cpu/release_agent

and make it executable
Code:
sudo chmod +x /etc/rc.local

And then add the following to your ~/.bashrc file (to open it: gedit ~/.bashrc):
Code:
if [ "$PS1" ] ; then
mkdir -p -m 0700 /dev/cgroup/cpu/user/$$ > /dev/null 2>&1
echo $$ > /dev/cgroup/cpu/user/$$/tasks
echo "1" > /dev/cgroup/cpu/user/$$/notify_on_release
fi

Run the following command:
Code:
sudo gedit /usr/local/sbin/cgroup_clean

And paste this:
Code:
#!/bin/sh
rmdir /dev/cgroup/cpu/$*

then save the file and make it executable:
Code:
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/sbin/cgroup_clean

And finally, restart the computer or manually run the /etc/rc.local file ("sudo /etc/rc.local").

This looks just like the alternative for the ~200 line kernel patch. This would just make the interface more responsive under a heavy load, and it DOES NOT fix the issue with random PERMANENT freezes right?

[hoover67]

In 10.10- Any Kernel prior to the newest 2.6.35-22 freezes, and I am now into testing that Kernel without any Kernel Options.

Sounds good, mate. I've had those mouse pointer freezes too, but I've also had uptimes in the dozens of days, as a general rule, the more gui activity there is, the shorter the uptime

Anyway, thanks for testing and keep us posted on 10.10.

My system specs are rather similar, also k800t here with an amd64x2 4200, nvidia gfx card, currently running Linux Mint 8 (but I've tried a multitude of 10.04 / 10.10 based distros with no final solution).

All the best, Uwe