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Post subject: Black Screen of Death
 Posted: Jun 05, 2007 - 11:02 PM
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Joined: Dec 04, 2006
Posts: 1506
Location: England
Status: Offline
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I have a problem occasionally when booting sidux.
Once the grub menu comes up and I select sidux, the screen normally goes black for a second then the boot text starts up, or splashy if enabled.
Well every few boots, after selecting sidux at the grub menu the screen goes black and stays like that.
I have left it up to half an hour and nothing else happens, just a black screen.
I don't know if sidux is actually loading up or not but nothing I do gets rid of it.
I've tried Ctrl>Alt>F1 etc. I've also tried Ctrl>Alt>Backspace to restart X and that does nothing and I've tried doing the Alt>Sysrq thing and that does nothing either.
The only thing I can do when this happens is to hard reset the computer.
I'm not sure what to do. Like I said, it doesn't happen all the time, maybe one in 4 to 5 boots.
When it does boot up normally, there are no error messages at all to point to me anything that could be causing it.
This ONLY happens with sidux64. It has never happened with any other distro, including sidux32.
I have recently done a clean install (to do away with my previous complicated setup) and this happened with the old install as well as this one.
I first assumed it was another splashy issue but after removing it and all it's config files I still get the problem, in fact I haven't installed splashy at all this time round. |
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sidux 32 & 64 | Debian Lenny | Debian Etch | PCLinuxOS | Mandriva Cooker
repository of shame - compiz fusion repo for sidux/debian | 32-bit | 64-bit
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Post subject: RE: Black Screen of Death
Posted: Jun 05, 2007 - 11:06 PM
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Joined: Dec 02, 2006
Posts: 306
Location: Muppet Theater
Status: Offline
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Have you checked your RAM with memtest? Maybe it's got a bad sector that you find every so often....
Choose it from the boot menu of the live CD and let it run overnight. |
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Watch it!! I'm the beautiful assistant!
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Post subject:
Posted: Jun 05, 2007 - 11:12 PM
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Joined: Dec 04, 2006
Posts: 1506
Location: England
Status: Offline
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| Well it's a relatively new comp and this was only happening with sidux64 when I was mostly using sidux32 and only booting into 64 occasionally. But I'll give a go tonight. |
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sidux 32 & 64 | Debian Lenny | Debian Etch | PCLinuxOS | Mandriva Cooker
repository of shame - compiz fusion repo for sidux/debian | 32-bit | 64-bit
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Post subject:
Posted: Jun 05, 2007 - 11:31 PM
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Team Member
Joined: Nov 27, 2006
Posts: 1941
Location: underworld
Status: Offline
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remove --purge splashy
Does it still happen ? |
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sidux uses high compression technology > special care is needed when burning the iso > please burn in DAO-mode, DAO or DIE. NEVER EVER do a apt-get upgrade or use adept, synaptic or aptitude
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Post subject:
Posted: Jun 05, 2007 - 11:36 PM
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Joined: Dec 04, 2006
Posts: 1506
Location: England
Status: Offline
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| No, as splashy isn't installed this time round. |
_________________
sidux 32 & 64 | Debian Lenny | Debian Etch | PCLinuxOS | Mandriva Cooker
repository of shame - compiz fusion repo for sidux/debian | 32-bit | 64-bit
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Post subject: BSOD here, too
Posted: Jun 06, 2007 - 04:28 PM
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Joined: Dec 08, 2006
Posts: 75
Status: Offline
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Hi, Shame,
My Acer Travelmate laptop started doing this, too. Same symptoms, although when it happens to me, the Caps-Lock indicator led flashes on and off intermittently. No response to anything other than a complete power-button reset.
I wiped my old install and reinstalled using Tartaros, but the same thing happens. I also tried running only in runlevel 3 for a while, but it still happened.
The only thing I was suspecting was an overheated system. It happens most often when I am doing something intensive on the computer, such as rdiff-backupof the system.
I have recently moved to a slightly warmer place, although I think my home office has much better circulation and possibly lower temperatures than my old school office did (and I ran sidux for at least two years on the same laptop with no problems).
Anyway, I'm in the same boat. I'll certainly post any fixes I might run across.
P.S. Mine is a 32-bit system, not a 64-bit one! |
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Post subject:
Posted: Jun 06, 2007 - 05:30 PM
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Joined: Dec 04, 2006
Posts: 1506
Location: England
Status: Offline
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Well there was nothing to report regarding the memtest, no problem at all and the fact it only happens with sidux64 (and with 2 different kernels) tends to make me think it isn't a hardware issue.
Having said that, I have noticed it happens more when the computer has been switched off for long periods, such as overnight.
On 2 occasions, after the BSOD, it happened the next time I booted but normally it boots normally the second time. |
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sidux 32 & 64 | Debian Lenny | Debian Etch | PCLinuxOS | Mandriva Cooker
repository of shame - compiz fusion repo for sidux/debian | 32-bit | 64-bit
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Post subject:
Posted: Jun 06, 2007 - 05:41 PM
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Joined: Dec 05, 2006
Posts: 476
Location: Venezuela
Status: Offline
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I had a similar problem.
Changing the power supply fixed memory,
hard disk and random error problems.
Software doesn't really rot; hardware and
other software changes around it.  |
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Nyx; 2.6.26-1.slh.4-sidux-686; Xfce, krusader
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Post subject:
Posted: Jun 06, 2007 - 11:19 PM
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Joined: Dec 01, 2006
Posts: 724
Status: Offline
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| Its especially not your hard drive, a bad hard drive would make other random problems, not just one specific. I'm guessing, like Richard said, a bad power supply, motherboard, or a dying cpu or overheating cpu. Some piece of hardware is overheating or is just dying. |
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"Cool was never cool until the cool guys at Cool industries developed a cool new product: Cool."
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Post subject:
Posted: Jun 06, 2007 - 11:42 PM
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Joined: Dec 04, 2006
Posts: 1506
Location: England
Status: Offline
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| But why is it only dying when running 2 different sidux64 installs and not when running sidux32, PCLinuxOS or ubuntu64? |
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sidux 32 & 64 | Debian Lenny | Debian Etch | PCLinuxOS | Mandriva Cooker
repository of shame - compiz fusion repo for sidux/debian | 32-bit | 64-bit
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Post subject:
Posted: Jun 07, 2007 - 08:01 AM
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Joined: Dec 02, 2006
Posts: 970
Location: East Coast
Status: Offline
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| and this also happens if you use different kernels? I'm wondering if your initrd.img is fine |
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Post subject:
Posted: Jun 15, 2007 - 05:51 AM
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Joined: Dec 08, 2006
Posts: 75
Status: Offline
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| Any more news on this front? I just tried running a mondoarchive backup of my system. About 4% in, the system barfed and all I could do was a hard-reset. I'm still suspecting an overheating processor (have the computer in the open window now, venting), but am not sure that's what's causing it. |
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Post subject: Same problem - could it be the network router ?
Posted: Jun 15, 2007 - 08:02 AM
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Joined: Dec 12, 2006
Posts: 133
Location: switzerland
Status: Offline
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I have the same problem from time to time (with the 32 system). I solve it by switching off the router (from the mains) and switching off the Pc (from the mains), wait 30 seconds and restart the router and the PC. Everything works.
I do not know why but it works!
hoogewoud |
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Post subject:
Posted: Jun 15, 2007 - 08:44 AM
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Joined: Dec 08, 2006
Posts: 75
Status: Offline
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@ hoogewoud: Well, I guess I could try that, too, though I've no idea why it would work!
I've just got it to happen again (again doing a mondoarchive) from runlevel 3. I put some bags of ice on the wrist-rest area over the processor to keep it a bit cooler, but no go. This time there's a huge amount of glorp which gets spewed to the screen before it locks up (and flashes the caps-lock light). Among other things, it says
"Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000000", then an
"Oops: 0000 [#4]"
"PREEMPT SMP"
and lots of other stuff, with a "Kernel panic -- not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt" at the very end.
Perhaps I'm just making the system hit bits it doesn't normally hit during these intensive backup sessions?
Anyway, I'll try the partial lobotomy mentioned (turn the power off and on) and see what happens! |
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Post subject:
Posted: Jun 15, 2007 - 10:50 AM
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Joined: Dec 04, 2006
Posts: 1506
Location: England
Status: Offline
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Since I originally posted this problem it has only happened 3 times and 2 of those times happened back to back (started up the comp and it happened, did a hard reset and it happened again).
I normally have my pc turned off when not in use and the router is usually left on during the day and switched off at night.
The BSOD has happened with the router plugged in and without it plugged in.
I t has also happened when the computer has been switched off all night and after a reboot when it has been running a while.
There is no pattern at all that I can find.
At the moment I'm just putting up with it since I can't find the answer.
It doesn't happen often, it's just a pain when it does. |
_________________
sidux 32 & 64 | Debian Lenny | Debian Etch | PCLinuxOS | Mandriva Cooker
repository of shame - compiz fusion repo for sidux/debian | 32-bit | 64-bit
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