soulster
March 2nd, 2011, 06:13 PM
This morning I updated Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid) automatically. The update included the latest kernel update. When I rebooted, the computer hung while shutting down (happens every once in a while). I used the power button to manually reset. The computer started to boot, loaded the kernel choice screen, followed option 1 for the new kernel after the timer expired, showed the "Starting..." message, and then froze with a totally blank screen (monitor went to sleep for lack of signal).
Five attempts to manually reset met the same results. One attempt six, the system showed a "mutex_lock_slowpath" error.
Posts elsewhere suggested this was caused by hard drive problems (see here (http://serverfault.com/questions/238551/linux-kernel-crash-mutex-lock-slowpath-blocked-for-more-than-120-seconds-what) for example). So I unplugged a USB External HD (500GB Maxtor OneTouchPlus) and Ubuntu booted fine (tried this one first out of 3 HDs because it was easiest to get to).
If I plug the drive in now that Ubuntu is up, it mounts fine and seems to cause no issues. Will leave it plugged in for a while and see if any more issues occur.
Five attempts to manually reset met the same results. One attempt six, the system showed a "mutex_lock_slowpath" error.
Posts elsewhere suggested this was caused by hard drive problems (see here (http://serverfault.com/questions/238551/linux-kernel-crash-mutex-lock-slowpath-blocked-for-more-than-120-seconds-what) for example). So I unplugged a USB External HD (500GB Maxtor OneTouchPlus) and Ubuntu booted fine (tried this one first out of 3 HDs because it was easiest to get to).
If I plug the drive in now that Ubuntu is up, it mounts fine and seems to cause no issues. Will leave it plugged in for a while and see if any more issues occur.