Hello!
Had quite well set up and nicely working 2008.0 system on my box, but due to need to repartition HD decided also to upgrade to Spring few weeks ago.
Bad idea - having used Mandrake/driva since 9.0 I haven't had a box hanging on a daily basis - and this one dies couple of times a day.

Hanging happens gradually and starts from the mouse (ordinary Logitech wheel mouse). In the only occasion when I waited until complete lockup imwheel was eating up most of the CPU, with X using what was left to it, so I guess mouse might be the source of the problems.
In fact, because I work a lot on a keyboard I do not notice always when it starts, just in one moment mouse pointer still moves, but clicking produces no result. Then usually window decorations get lost and while I am not completely sure of that, some keyboard shortcuts go with them. CPU usage is high, but not 100%.
At that point I usually restart X which solves the problem for a while.

Hardware
‎Dual Core Intel® Pentium® D CPU 2.8
Graphics GeForce 7300 GT
ImExPS/2 Logitech Wheel Mouse

It sounds like a symptom of Memory.

Try shutting down and removing the memory sticks.
Use some Methylated spirits or white spirit (pure alcohol) to clean the memory stick contacts.
Then firmly reinsert the memory sticks making sure that they securely lock in place.

If this doesn't work then run MEMTEST and let it run overnight or at least 10 to 12 hours and see what comes up.

I don't think your problem has anything to do with 2008-Spring.

I think my first suggestion is the most likely.

Cheers. John.

Mandriva 2006 and using Gnome used to eat up all my memory and hang my computer/X session whereas no other distro with Gnome did. I'd suggest removing imwheel if you have no real need for it and then see if you get the same symptoms when using the mouse etc.

AussieJohn - hardware problem crossed my mind. This computer is only one year old, though, so I am reluctant to accept the idea. Letting the box run overnight probably would not work. I have needed like 2 restarts a day so it will most probably freeze hard overnight. Can I run it as I work? Never needed this before...
ianw - what this imwheel actually does? It seems its needed for mousewheel and I would not want to give up that functionality.

imwheel is needed if you want more than 3 mouse buttons out of applications that don't support more natively. Honnestly, I think you can disable imwheel, given that the most used applications are mostly modern ones; those do support the wheel natively.

Yves.

memtest you can't run whilst you work as you normally boot this from grub/lilo just for memtest to work on it's own.

The fact that your computer is only a year old does not mean a single thing.
I had four brand new 1Gb sticks 3 weeks ago and one failed within a half an hour.
Two years ago I had 2 sticks that ran great for 6 months and then kept having problems for a couple of weeks then the computer refused to boot up at all . Found trouble was one of the two sticks but when sent back twice to be replaced but returned each time saying they were OK. I eventually found that if I made the bios settings for a slower memory speed than the manufacturers recommended that it worked AOK and has done ever since. It is in another box with its mate as a spare machine.

My first suggestion is simple and easy, have you tried it before dismissing it ???. I really don't know much about electronic servicing, I was only a qualified electronics Technician for most of my working life.

Cheers. John.

Guess I have been WAY luckier with computer hardware than you. No significant failures in 7-8 years despite bying only price (and mentally accepting possible consequences). The more ironic would be failure now that I have bought more or less quality hardware.
Your first suggestion is not OK as the box still has warranty and I would not open it.
Memtest ran all night and reported zero failures so I think there will be no need, too.
I removed imwheel and will come back later today and let you know how this worked.

Meanwhile I came to a great idea to check logs
This is what I found in kernel error.log for every start:


Maybe this will give us some clue?
Oh, btw, for some reason time is also wrong here. Machine was started 7.55.

W

Time might not be wrong here. Board time runs GMT here as far as I know, and as I'm GMT+1 I posted this at 09.00 but it was 08.00 in terms of time on the board.

Let us know if removing imwheel helped since this seemed to be causing the resource problem.

I start another thread on that - this is not the only small annoyance I have with my current setup. In fact, number of those "small annoyances" is getting little beyond my tolerance.
But not before this current serious problem gets solved properly - one issue at a time.

W

Just to close the issue:
I have not had any problems with that box since my previous posting.
Obviously "urpme imwheel" was the magic formula this time.

Wahur

Glad you got it sorted

Quick mental note that I should never install imwheel