[Mageia-dev] Strange system stalls - neep a tip

Mon May 21 19:50:33 CEST 2012

On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 7:33 PM, AL13N <alien at rmail.be> wrote:
+> perhaps check the logs (/var/log/messages) for information regarding those
+> downtimes.
+>
+> see if the ping also delays
+>
+> perhaps try to monitor something via ssh or in tty, to see if it's only
+> the graphic card.
+>
+> also, check ntpd settings, do they make big jumps?
+>
+> etc...
+>
+>
+> in short: logging is always the key.
+>
+>> Hello All -
+>>
+>> I am experiencing a strange problem with a specific machine running
+>> Cauldron.  I am beginning to believe it is NOT a Mageia problem because
+>> when I boot into Ubuntu 12.04 the problem exists as well.  I think it
+>> may be hardware related but I can not find what is causing this issue.
+>>
+>> The machine is an Acer Aspire x3900 with a quad core ‎AMD Phenom(tm) II
+>> X4 925 Processor - 6GB memory.  GeForce GT215 (GeForce 320) card. I am
+>> running the x86_64 version of Cauldron.
+>>
+>> The problem occurs under both KDE and Gnome
+>>
+>> Basically, the system seems to freeze up (mouse moves) but nothing else
+>> - gkrellem freezes and no errors occur - it just seems to hang - but
+>> magically wake up again after some time (many seconds at a time)
+>>
+>> I have checked various logs and can not find any problems - so I am
+>> stumped how to find the source of the problem.  I leave the machine
+>> running 24x7, but don't think it is a thermal issue.
+>>
+>> When the system runs under Windows 7 (64bit) it appears to run fine.
+>>
+>> Any hints what I could check?
+>>
+
+Hello!
+
+If you want to log cpuusage to see if some process has extra high cpu
+usage during this freeze you could do something like:
+
+while true; do date >> testfilen.txt ; top -b -n1 >> testfilen.txt ;
+sleep 1; done
+
+Then you will get top-output every second (sleep 1) or whatever time
+you specify for sleep. I think there is a way to do this with top
+only, without the delay but not sure which flags to use then (possibly
+top -d 1 -b)
+
+The file testfilen.txt will of course grow quite large after a while,
+so you can't keep this running 24/7 maybe, but maybe you could clear
+out the file regularly until you get the error situation again and
+then based on the date output you should be able to find cpu usage
+around the time of the problem.
+
+Regards,
+
+David
+