Linux woes

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 5:51 pm

My newly installed 64 bit OpenSUSE 10.1 Linux freezes when doing certain things (like pressing the pause key) with an optimized compile of D2X-XL. Seems to be a problem in SDL. I have to hard reset the machine. I never ever managed to freeze WinXP with D2X-XL/SDL.
Half of the time, my Audigy 2 soundcard doesn't work, and I have to reboot to make it work.
Occasionally, the OS doesn't boot, and I have to hard reset the machine to get this going ...
I have to start YaST from a terminal, or it won't open ...

Everytime I touch this OS, I am making really negative experiences, and I am really trying to give it a chance.

Too bad my WinXP machine is still broken (gfx card kaputt). It's just not fun to work with such an OS.

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 6:41 pm

You're the second person I've heard to have had trouble with the new SUSE 10.1

I'd say kill it and go back to something earlier. It's has many problems. A couple that you described, I've heard.

Genghis · Post by **Genghis** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 6:45 pm

Well since MS is now vested in Novell, we can start blaming MS for SUSE problems!

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 2:19 am

Duper,

installing Linux takes ages. I installed Linux 3 times on my 64 bit machine (not the fault of Linux, the gfx card was broken, and I didn't realize it). It took about 3 hours until the OS was installed and patched. WinXP takes an hour or less.

In between, I had tried Ubuntu (6.x) - the installer crashed when trying to start the X server (probably also due to the broken gfx card), but it had crashed earlier on some different hardware too, so that finally was a no go for me.

Nah, I'll stick with OpenSUSE 10.1. Office stuff works alright, and I need a working machine for internet and e-mail access.

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 2:34 am

you can install Debian in less than an hour, using a network install. Its simply a matter of finding a fast mirror - your base system is less than 200 megs to download.

Distributions like SUSE, Redhat, and Mandrake just love to install lots of crap at once, most of it stuff you don't need.

Jeff250 · Post by **Jeff250** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 3:06 am

Yeah, the Ubuntu network install is what I always use. It's like an 8MB ISO, which is useful for me because all of my rewritable CD's are fairly crapped up these days. You also don't have to deal with booting into the live OS, which can be neat, but I really don't need it, and it sounds like you're having trouble with it, so you might as well not deal with it. I also want to say that when installing from a network installer your install will be fully updated too, but I can't remember 100% from the past.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 3:50 am

I need most of the 'crap' OpenSUSE 10.1 installs. Actually I even need a lot of 'crap' it doesn't install by default. I wrote that the 64 bit Ubuntu installer (not the live OS) crashed on two different of my Hardware setups.

Jeff250 · Post by **Jeff250** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 4:08 am

Right, the normal Ubuntu installer boots up the Live CD, where the installer is a desktop icon, so the two aren't mutually exclusive. Unless you made a conscious effort to use the \"alternate\" i.e. text-based installer, that is probably what you were using.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 9:13 am

I don't get a Linux desktop with an icon with my Ubuntu installer. What I get is a boot menu where I can chose whether to install or run the Live OS. When I chose the installer, it loads kernel, drivers, etc. and then ... crashes.

Jeff250 · Post by **Jeff250** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 11:30 pm

Yeah, that's the live installer. You should probably try a text or network install if you're still interested in getting Ubuntu running.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 3:56 am

I am not. Just a minute before, my Linux machine crashed while I was browsing and refused to reboot until I unplugged it and plugged the power chord back in. Once more thing like that, and I am back to Windows. The more I work with LinSux, the more I start to appreciate what Microsoft has accomplished with Windows XP. F*ck Linux!

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 4:54 am

Diedel wrote:I am not. Just a minute before, my Linux machine crashed while I was browsing and refused to reboot until I unplugged it and plugged the power chord back in. Once more thing like that, and I am back to Windows. The more I work with LinSux, the more I start to appreciate what Microsoft has accomplished with Windows XP. F*ck Linux!

that sounds more like hardware issues than linux.

FunkyStickman · Post by **FunkyStickman** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 12:04 pm

I'm gonna have to go with fliptw on this one... Deidel, honestly, I've only seen Linux on my machines hard-lock once, and that was when I was trying to access a CD that I manually ejected. You're running Suse 10.1 for AMD_64? Could be something with Flash not liking the 64-bitness if it happened when you were browsing. I don't know... but I'm pretty sure it's not the actual OS. What package manager are you using to update everything?

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 1:18 pm

[snip]...refused to reboot until I unplugged it and plugged the power chord back in...[/snip] -Diedel

One of my Windows XP systems did that quite often up till recently, for no reason what so ever it would hard lock, once in a while it would make it back to BIOS but it would stop at detecting the IDE channels. I would have to totally power it down and back up to get it to boot again every time. I finally fixed it by replacing the motherboard, now it works perfectly fine.

You may have some defective component in your computer that is causing the problem, I'd look at the motherboard or video card first, it probably isn't the memory but you can check it just to be sure. Odds are Windows will start to show the same symptoms eventually. It could be something as simple as dust on the board, I've seen dust render a system unable to POST before, but a can of compressed air fixed it in no time. Grab an office duster and some other non-static cleaners and clean off the whole system, see if it helps any.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 1:58 pm

I just built that system, stuff is clean. Could be the video card - it's brand new, but it's already a replacement for another brand new card of the same type and from the same manufacturer that broke after a week or two (Powercolor Radeon 9800 pro). And the sales guy at the computer store told me that they had a lot of problems with Powercolor hardware.

On the other side did I play D2X-XL for hours yesterday w/o problems.

I was browsing the Descentbb.net when the crash occured. I was scrolling up quickly - bang.

I am using YaST to launch the updater, but I don't know what tool does the actual updating.

Interestingly enough I can completely freeze my Linux box by launching a fully compiler-optimized (-O2 or -O3) version of D2X-XL and simply quitting it right away after the main menu has appeared. It will crash in some SDL shutdown code (very likely video related stuff). Mouse will still move, but I cannot switch windows or enable the text console (not a terminal) by pressing Shift+Ctrl+F1 or Shift+Ctrl+BkSp or soft reboot. I have to press the reset button. If I have the compiler add debug info (even if still using -O2), everything works. This does not look like a hardware problem.

OpenSUSE 10.1 for AMD 64.

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 3:16 pm

if you have access to another computer, leave SSH running on your linux computer - the next time it hard locks, you might be able to use SSH to log-in into the machine and kill X, or at least restart it.

but yeah, take that card back, and get another brand, powercolor blows.

sapphire, thats where its at.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 2:50 am

I know. :/

DCrazy · Post by **DCrazy** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 3:05 pm

Diedel wrote:Interestingly enough I can completely freeze my Linux box by launching a fully compiler-optimized (-O2 or -O3) version of D2X-XL and simply quitting it right away after the main menu has appeared. It will crash in some SDL shutdown code (very likely video related stuff). Mouse will still move, but I cannot switch windows or enable the text console (not a terminal) by pressing Shift+Ctrl+F1 or Shift+Ctrl+BkSp or soft reboot. I have to press the reset button. If I have the compiler add debug info (even if still using -O2), everything works. This does not look like a hardware problem.

No, it actually probably is. Windows 98SE used to do the same thing ages ago; it's the hardware-accelerated cursor drawing that's allowing the cursor to move.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 5:39 pm

I am pretty sure it is not a hardware problem as this crash does not occur if I globally define '_DEBUG', which enables some alternate code at some places in the program (program is still fully optimized with -O3).

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 10:49 am

you have any profiling to justify the use of -O3?

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Thu Nov 16, 2006 2:41 pm

Hm. Isn't O3 just enabling global optimizations?