[SOLVED] 8.10 randomly freezing caps lock blinking flashing

[nhasian]

I upgraded from Ubuntu 8.04 to 8.10 using the alternate ISO, then using the update manager to get all the latest updates. I never had 8.04 lock up on me and have been very please thus far. since installing 8.10 my HP9500 notebook has been crashing very frequently. Is anyone else experiencing this problem? What can I do to troubleshoot it?

I dont have much installed as far as software:

firefox, thunderbird, virtualbox, screenlets, ushare, hellanzb, wine, nvidia restricted drivers, and flash 10. I think thats about all the software i have installed.

i am always running firefox so i thought that may be the culprit. So on a cold restart as soon as Gnome finished loading i went to the Synaptic package manager to add Opera. I never got that far because it crashed again already.

i know there are log files, but i wouldnt know what to look for. Is this because i upgraded from 8.04 instead of a fresh install? Or is there some problem with 8.10 that's causing it to crash? I've seen some other threads about crashing too.

PS when the caps light blinks and everything becomes unresponsive, that means everythings locked up right?

[asmoore82]

The blinking CAPS lock light is a sign of a kernel panic.
I would say a kernel panic on a production distro is almost always a sign
of failing hardware;
but the recent upgrade/overhaul leaves room for interesting things to go wrong ...

maybe the newer linux kernel that ships with 8.10 has a known hang up with that model of HP - HP has been notorious for power management bugs lately;
or maybe some old module for 8.04 is still getting loaded into the kernel for 8.10 ??

I would boot a liveCD after a crash and mount the drive and try to read the logs.

P.S. the most proper way to power off the system in this situation is by
using the magic sysrq keys ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key

SysRq is the same as the Print Screen button on most keyboards and
to power off the system you could send a Sync and Off :

[Alt]+[SysRq]+s
[Alt]+[SysRq]+o

[dhbabey]

I'm seeing this exact same problem on a lenovoa thinkpad t61p...

looks like for many people its been going on since 8.04, however I never experienced this problem until I upgraded to intrepid 8.10

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IntrepidRele...965%20wireless
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/276990

also
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=832383&page=17
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ux/+bug/291044

[jpoRS]

I have the same problem on a next to new (2 months old) System76, since upgrading to 8.10. So I mean it isn't impossible, but that more or less rules out hardware, right?

jim

[nhasian]

dhbabey, I would click the "Thanks" button 10 times for you if I could. I cant believe i didnt read the release notes. I read release notes for every version of software i update. It didnt occur to me that the Operating System would have release notes.

I have the Intel Wireless 4965 network adapter and the driver in the kernel is what was causing the problem. I enabled the linux-backports-modules-intrepid and no more lockups.

System lock-ups with Intel 4965 wireless

The version of the iwlagn wireless driver for Intel 4965 wireless chipsets included in Linux kernel version 2.6.27 causes kernel panics when used with 802.11n or 802.11g networks. Users affected by this issue can install the linux-backports-modules-intrepid package, to install a newer version of this driver that corrects the bug. (Because the known fix requires a new version of the driver, it is not expected to be possible to include this fix in the main kernel package.)

[Sequences]

thanks, i just did that, hope this fixes the problem because i have been suffering from freezes as well.

[jpoRS]

I will try that, and If my computer is still here in the morning, then I guess it worked!

Thanks!
jim

[Supermattt]

dhbabey, I would click the "Thanks" button 10 times for you if I could. I cant believe i didnt read the release notes. I read release notes for every version of software i update. It didnt occur to me that the Operating System would have release notes.

I have the Intel Wireless 4965 network adapter and the driver in the kernel is what was causing the problem. I enabled the linux-backports-modules-intrepid and no more lockups.

Thanks pal ! That rocks !!!

[trampas]

I installed the backports and my laptop was stable for about 2 days but just kernel panic. I am a newbie thus I am not sure how to get the logs. However the kernel panic happened while working in 8.10. Thus I am tired of problems in 8.10 and will format and install 8.04 in the morning.

Trampas

[Squonk07]

I'm seeing this exact same problem on a lenovoa thinkpad t61p...

looks like for many people its been going on since 8.04, however I never experienced this problem until I upgraded to intrepid 8.10

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IntrepidRele...965%20wireless
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/276990

also
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=832383&page=17
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ux/+bug/291044

I gave this solution a spin. Sadly, I have only an 802.11b network here at home, so next week when I return to my university (where I have been suffering almost continuous lockups) I'll evaluate the situation and report back.

I admit it was kind of dumb of me not to read the Release Notes. *bangs head repeatedly against wall* I won't make that mistake again.