Mitchell

Hi, I'm back again. Found the DKMS package for virtualbox, built fine under kernel 2.6.21.5-smp. Unfortunately my windows manager stuffed it again, no windows around boxes, etc. COuldn't do much. DIdn't actually try virtualbox, just assumed it was working. Anyway, rebooted from my original kernel (2.6.17.13-legacy), and the same thing happened. couldn't get my graphical interface back to normal again. Just did a system restore with Mondo (bless that wonderful program!), and everything's fine again. notice I had problems with these below: hcfpcimodem hsfmodem madwifi ndiswrapper None of them were able to be installed, they either complained of multiple versions in DKMS, or the build failed. Checked which packages I actually had in dkms, and they were there, but only one each. When I boot up the stock kernelinto verbose mode I'm told these are already installed on that kernel. Is this the case of the other kernels as well? Anyway, no idea of what to try next. This is about the 3rd time I've tried updating my kernel, and failed miserably, blocked when my graphical interface died. Any suggestions? Tried to configure my wireless card through ndiswrapper through the control centre, and was told there was no support for my wireless device. Also, would like to at least update my kernel to 2.6.17.14, there's a multimedia version that supports hyper-threading. Any advice is appreciated. Cheers! ~Mitchell

Yay! Success!!! Well, sort of... Reinstalled everything last night, except my /home, /guestos, and /backup partitions. Even added a seperate boot partition for good measure, though I hadn't used it before. Anyway, did a clean install of everything else. System is running beautifully, with no freezes. So desktop pc now works fine...until I need to use my wireless card...and until I use my laptop, which I need the wireless card for, and is still having these problems. Thanks for that. Yeah, that makes more sense. I'll give that a go once I've made a full system backup of my current configuration with mondo. At the least I'd like my current configuration to be able to be restored, if I stuff up anything after this. Anyway, will let you know how it goes with the next kernel install. The reason I was using an smp kernel is that my cpu handles hyperthreading. Would be nice to have this working. I have noticed however, that some applications I'm running seem to require a 2.6.13 kernel version, notably Virtual Box. If I install kernel-smp-2.6.21.05 properly, will virtual box still be supported? If not, then I'll need to keep the old kernel, and look at sorting out something else. (notice there's a multimedia desktop version of kernel 2.6.13, might try that.) Thanks again, will let you know how it goes.

Hi Greg2, had worked that out...now have serious issues. Used the kernel above what you suggested, 2.6.21.5 something like that. System didn't boot nicely with that kernel, much of the essentials weren't able to install, as they lacked kernel packages for them. I had hoped this would be natively included in the updated kernel (sigh). Not certain yet, but think I may have to stick to 2.6.13... Will try a few more things... there were other options in package manager for 2.6.20 Unfortunately, now my desktop environment has disabled moving windows, borders around windows, etc. etc. So....I'm reinstalling. Will keep my /home /backup and /guestos partitions (last 2 are custom made for different reasons), and reinstal the rest. The big question I have is what the heck do I do after that about my kernels? Will play around and let you know what I come up with. Thanks again.

Well, not solved yet, but as far as I'm concerned the problem is with my bcm43xx. Just had the same problem on my laptop after a fresh install, where it froze. Last log before it froze said: Aug 2 18:24:38 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Controller restarted Totally different computers, both using Belkin wireless cards. Tried using Ndiswrapper instead, wouldn't support it. (at least using MCC, deleting the interface and then trying to create a new wireless connection using ndiswrapper. Didn't like it.) So...next step? Upgrading my kernel. Scary. Will let you know how it goes...

Ok guys, thanks for that. Those are some better options to reinstalling, especially if this is likely to occur again. Firstly though, I'm still anewbie to Linux, and am reaching the limit of my knowledge. The next gap for me to look up has been kernels, and what they actually are. Of course I know they're the bare bones of the operating system, but past that is a blank. Mandriva 2007.1 installed with 2.6.17-13, and getting all the updates I needed to download the latest legacy meta-kernel, and source code, for kernel 2.6.17-14. When I switch to a virtual console (ctrl + Alt + F1), I'm told I'm running kernel 2.6.17-13. While Compliing from the Vanilla code source sounds like a cool idea Arctic, without more research (probably ALOT more at this point) it's going to be beyond my skill level. I"d like to give kernel 2.6.20 a try, what is the difference between this kernel and other possibilities, particularly what I have now? Also, can I just download and install it from the RPM database, or do I need to configure something once I've installed it? Also, how do I use ndiswrapper instead of bcm43xx? Lastly, other than a possible hardware issue, any ideas why this would play up now, after perhaps a month of running Mandriva without the problem of freezing? (I have made several backups in this period of my entire operating system with Mondo, and have used this to restore my system to an earlier time on several occasions. Could this be part of the problem? Restoring my system to it's earliest setting hasn't worked either....) Thanks so much to everyone who has been trying to help, it's much appreciated. ~Mitchell

Possible Hardware issues aside, there really does seem to be some problem with my wireless controller...just restarted after another freeze, and here is the last few lines up to the freeze from /var/log/messages : Aug 2 11:02:33 localhost kernel: agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:01:00.0 into 4x mode Aug 2 11:02:33 localhost kernel: [drm] Setting GART location based on new memory map Aug 2 11:02:33 localhost kernel: [drm] Loading R200 Microcode Aug 2 11:02:33 localhost kernel: [drm] writeback test succeeded in 1 usecs Aug 2 11:11:45 localhost ntpd[5566]: kernel time sync error 0001 Aug 2 11:39:36 localhost kernel: NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth1: transmit timed out Aug 2 11:39:36 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Controller RESET (TX timeout) ... Aug 2 11:39:36 localhost kernel: ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:00:07.0 disabled Aug 2 11:39:36 localhost kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:07.0[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 22 Aug 2 11:39:36 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Chip ID 0x4306, rev 0x3 Aug 2 11:39:36 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Number of cores: 5 Aug 2 11:39:36 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Core 0: ID 0x800, rev 0x4, vendor 0x4243, enabled Aug 2 11:39:36 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Core 1: ID 0x812, rev 0x5, vendor 0x4243, disabled Aug 2 11:39:36 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Core 2: ID 0x80d, rev 0x2, vendor 0x4243, enabled Aug 2 11:39:36 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Core 3: ID 0x807, rev 0x2, vendor 0x4243, disabled Aug 2 11:39:36 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Core 4: ID 0x804, rev 0x9, vendor 0x4243, enabled Aug 2 11:39:36 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: PHY connected Aug 2 11:39:36 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Detected PHY: Version: 2, Type 2, Revision 2 Aug 2 11:39:36 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Detected Radio: ID: 2205017f (Manuf: 17f Ver: 2050 Rev: 2) Aug 2 11:39:36 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Radio turned off Aug 2 11:39:36 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Radio turned off Aug 2 11:39:36 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Controller restarted Aug 2 11:39:51 localhost kernel: martian destination 0.0.0.0 from 192.168.1.1, dev eth0 Aug 2 14:57:08 localhost syslogd 1.4.1: restart. All this is very similar to the other two message logs from the last 2 feezes. What could be going on here, assumin git isn't hardware related. I'm on the brink of reinstalling everything, and leaving my wireless card without it's driver. I know with windows there are issues using both a LAN cable to the router and a wireless connection, I won't be surprised if this happens with Linux as well. Anyone else able to shed some light on this before I reinstall everything? (yes, I know 'you don't reinstall in linux', but this problem is giving me the shits.) Cheers.

Wow. Thanks John. It will be a few days before I am able to test it I think, at least that thoroughly. Will the test actually end, or do I need to end it after a set time? ~Mitchell

Installed memtest86+ , had no trouble running it from the boot menu. Unsure how it works, i.e. I let it tun for 2 hours and it was still running tests... got to test 9 and I rebooted, it just seemed to be looping itself and running the same test over again. Did I miss something? Will it eventually finish, and is two hours a standard time for it to run without finishing? Am posting the log of my message file ( /var/log/messages ) where my computer has frozen the past two times, both last night and yesterday. Last night I turned off the radio for my wireless card, but I couldn't disable it. Have been playing around with Mandriva Control Centre today, and all I've managed has been to get the icon for internet connection to turn into green bars, the wireless icon. Short of pulling out my wireless card, or finding the driver for this and removing it, are there any other ways I can temporarily disable this to see if this is my problem? Have been able to untick it as an active interface under the connection icon, but am unable to actually disable it. Am unsure how to uninstall this also... Thanks. (copy of /var/log/messages, up to when I restarted my box after the last freeze) Aug 1 02:12:09 localhost kernel: SoftMAC: Open Authentication completed with 00:11:50:8c:be:58 Aug 1 02:19:48 localhost kernel: eth0: Media Link Off Aug 1 02:19:49 localhost ifplugd(eth0)[4183]: Link beat lost. Aug 1 02:19:50 localhost ifplugd(eth0)[4183]: Link beat detected. Aug 1 02:19:53 localhost kernel: eth0: Media Link On 100mbps full-duplex Aug 1 02:19:54 localhost kernel: eth0: Media Link Off Aug 1 02:19:55 localhost ifplugd(eth0)[4183]: Link beat lost. Aug 1 02:19:56 localhost ifplugd(eth0)[4183]: Link beat detected. Aug 1 02:19:59 localhost kernel: eth0: Media Link On 100mbps full-duplex Aug 1 02:33:27 localhost kernel: martian destination 0.0.0.0 from 192.168.1.1, dev eth0 Aug 1 02:54:10 localhost kernel: SoftMAC: Open Authentication completed with 00:11:50:8c:be:58 Aug 1 03:01:01 localhost crond[23467]: (root) CMD (nice -n 19 run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly) Aug 1 03:36:12 localhost kernel: SoftMAC: Open Authentication completed with 00:11:50:8c:be:58 Aug 1 09:25:56 localhost syslogd 1.4.1: restart. (prior var/log.messgaes file, freezing time before last) Jul 31 14:18:29 localhost kernel: SoftMAC: Open Authentication completed with 00:11:50:8c:be:58 Jul 31 14:26:56 localhost ntpd[6528]: synchronized to 203.82.209.217, stratum 2 Jul 31 14:37:15 localhost kernel: martian destination 0.0.0.0 from 192.168.1.1, dev eth0 Jul 31 14:50:15 localhost kernel: NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth1: transmit timed out Jul 31 14:50:15 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Controller RESET (TX timeout) ... Jul 31 14:50:15 localhost kernel: ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:00:07.0 disabled Jul 31 14:50:15 localhost kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:07.0[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 22 Jul 31 14:50:15 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Chip ID 0x4306, rev 0x3 Jul 31 14:50:15 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Number of cores: 5 Jul 31 14:50:15 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Core 0: ID 0x800, rev 0x4, vendor 0x4243, enabled Jul 31 14:50:15 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Core 1: ID 0x812, rev 0x5, vendor 0x4243, disabled Jul 31 14:50:15 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Core 2: ID 0x80d, rev 0x2, vendor 0x4243, enabled Jul 31 14:50:15 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Core 3: ID 0x807, rev 0x2, vendor 0x4243, disabled Jul 31 14:50:15 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Core 4: ID 0x804, rev 0x9, vendor 0x4243, enabled Jul 31 14:50:15 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: PHY connected Jul 31 14:50:15 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Detected PHY: Version: 2, Type 2, Revision 2 Jul 31 14:50:15 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Detected Radio: ID: 2205017f (Manuf: 17f Ver: 2050 Rev: 2) Jul 31 14:50:15 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Radio turned off Jul 31 14:50:15 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Radio turned off Jul 31 14:50:15 localhost kernel: bcm43xx: Controller restarted Jul 31 18:29:27 localhost syslogd 1.4.1: restart.

Thanks everyone, still working through all this. Still freezing, though only when I haven't used the computer for a few hours. Also, when I reboot my system, my sound doesn't work. I click on the sound icon in my top panel, and all I get is a microhone. When I reboot a second time everything is fine, working, and seems really fast. Thanks for the advice about low quality hardware, I think I'm learning my lesson. I'm still hoping this is a software issue..but... ARCTIC, can I also use the Mandriva 2007.1 live cd to check RAM? (this is what I originally installed my system from) Also just looked in my messages file, under /var/log. Noticed today that it seemed to freeze right after restarting my ethernet wireless controller... Am going to disable this and leave the box on overnight. If it doesn't freeze problem solved...at least until I need to use my wireless card again...lol. I'm using a Belkin wireless Desktop card in addition to my usual ethernet connection cabled to the router. Basically I was networking my Desktop and Laptop pc's through my Belkin router in microsoft windows, and haven't sorted that out under linux yet. So I've been playing around with my connections, that might be part of the problem. Anyway, will let you know. Thanks for all the tips so far.

Hardware, what a bugger...again. Had this system built from scratch a couple years ago, and was lucky to buy the 3 year extended warranty. I'm so glad I did. A short list of what's needed to be replaced? 80 gig seagate harddrive, cd-rom drive (twice), and power supply (twice). Currently one of the usb drives has cacked it, and I've been wondering what's next. Oddly enough everything to date (save the USB) has been covered by the warranty, so apart from the hassle I haven't been that fussed. The nearest thing to an explanation from a repair technician (unassociated with the company I bought the box from) is that parts are made so fast and cheaply these days that this is the result. Can anyone confirm this? Have a feeling I may have bought cheaper parts, and had someone who didn't know that much about computer's put them together... and the store manager seemed so knowledgeable at the time! Anyway, JOHN: you said it's not a good idea to mix memory sticks. Why? I've got a single 512 mb stick of ddr2 ram, and have been thinking about buying either another 512, or 1G to go with it. Is this not a good idea? My computer in general runs quite fast, unless I'm doing something like using Virtual Box to run Windows. (which I do quite alot actually, still haven't extracted my business database from MS Windows yet.) Also, TXTHUSDEN, how do I check my RAM and processor? Is there a way I can test this and my power supply without buying anything new. The extended warranty should still cover me, but running Linux I've a feeling I'll be told all this is a software problem. Anyway to confirm all this? Thanks again for all your help. ~Mitchell

Thank you so much, I'll try all those things. I really hope you're right about the /home partition, it will be a real hassle if I ever have to reformat it. It's odd though, I can't think why when I restore the / and /usr partitions to a time when everything was working why I'm still having this problem. Thanks Arctic, will let you know how it goes. ~Mitchell

Hi people. Have been using Mandriva 2007.1 for a month now, with Windows XP installed on Virtual Box for my business database, haven't worked out how to move that over yet. Anyway, just started having problems with freezing. Had a stable install, then managed to stuff it up. I was installing lots of packages from the software list, and somewhere along the way I think I installed something that stuffed everything up. My box was freezing in the middle of using it, and it sucked. Luckily I've been making backups with Mondo, so restored everything to an earlier time. Everything was fine at first, then my system started freezing after being left idle for awhile, generally a couple hours. Each time it freezes I've had to manually reboot it, no keyboard shortcuts work. I have restored to several earlier times now, including the first Mondo backup I made, right after a clean install. I wiped both my Root "/" and usr "usr" partitions, reformated them with Mondo, and restored the system data from my first mondo backup. Left my box on all night last night to check it, and this morning it was frozen on the default Mandriva screensaver. (this has never worked properly incidentally, always has a thick orange border on both sides. Usually don't use it) I have not touched my home "home" partition, and I also have a "guestos" partition where windows is installed under Virtual Box, and a "backup" partition where Mondo has been saving my backup Iso images. None of these partitions have been changed, and I'm hoping not to have to. Having just switched to Mandriva, my wife isn't very happy, and will really hate it if I have to reinstall and she loses all of her emails. She's not very computer savvy, and I'm trying to make the shift as painless as possible for her. Anyway, the odd thing about all this is that it has been working fine up to about a week ago. Any ideas on what's wrong? Everything else is working fine, although my sound driver seems to periodically disable itself, and I need to reboot the system. I haven't tried a reinstall of the "usr" and "/" partitions, and I hope I won't have to. Still trying to get past that Microsoft mentality. Is there any chance there is some setting in my "home" partition that is causing this? What could I look for? Thanks for any help, ~Mitchell

solved it all by reiinstalling.

Just checking the plugins within sound I have installed (software management, MCC), and under alsa only my alsa-utils-1.0.14 package is installed. This is because I was trying to restore my plugins to where they were originally before I started stuffing around with them to get sound through my speakers working. At one stage I had all of them installed. Found the graphical plugins for alsa pretty useless, and whenever I tried to run alsaconf all of my sound would crash... The gstreamer plugins were the other ones I altered, as when I tried to get to the GUI sound menu (located on the speaker icon in the top right default position) I was told there weren't any gstreamer plugins installed...hmmm...forget what was originally there, but I installed ALL of them from the package manager. In the MCC Hardware list, now my Logitech Headset is listed, but under unknown devices. Any ideas how I've stuffed this up? More importantly, how to get it working again? Unsure about my sound card, can't find the literature on it, but in Hardware under MCC it says I've got a 'SIS AC'97 Sound Controller'. Not sure if that helps or not... Thanks in advance for any help. Cheers!

Thank you guys so much for replying. I am using a usb device, so it plugs into the front port of my machine. Port is working fine for other devices, and I've tried the back ports as well, no change. It's frustrating and weird as I know this device works with Mandriva through browsing other postings (using Logitech USB 350 Headset), and earlier in the life of my installation it was working fine...was just the other sound that wasn't... Anyway, I can only think that I've misconfigured something, no real idea what. I'll write more a bit later when I'm in Mandriva again, I'm on my windows xp partition right now. I am soooo close to being able to switch totally to Mandriva, left on my to-do list is get my headset working again, get the softphone running (likley either Ekiga or Twinkle, though I've also downloaded x-lite for linux. Already have an account with an outside company), and find some kind of replacement for ACT2000. This last one so far has been the hardest, all the contact management systems seem to have gone web-based. Linux and Unix coding I'm able to sort through, but installing web-based programs, even to run on 'localhost' has been unusually difficult...slowly slowly. Anyway, I'm rambling, will post some more info about my setup shortly. Cheers

Hi everyone, am having trouble with my Logitech USB headset. Was working finr when I installed Mandriva spring 2007.1 a few weeks ago, and now the computer recognises when it's plugged in, but classes it under 'unknown devices'. Was having trouble with playing sound through my regular speakers, so I played around with what was installed under alsa and with my gstreamer plugins. Have tried it with all plugins installed, and it's not working...can anyone shed some light on this? The sound through my regular speakers is fine, but I can't get anything from my headset. Thanks! SOLVED

Go to: http://easylinux.info/wiki/Mandriva#General_Notes Scroll up to "9 Windows" under the contents section, and it will give you some advice about mounting partitions. Good luck with writing to your windows hard drive, I haven't been game to do that with ntfs. Mounting has worked fine though.

Go to http://easylinux.info/wiki/Mandriva#General_Notes Scroll up to "9 Windows" under the contents section, and it will give you some advice about mounting partitions. Really useful, and understandable. I didn't have any luck with "chmod", but this was of great help.

I think I know what's going on for you, only as I've just been grappling with it myself, and now have succesfully mounted my windows partition. Firstly I'm using Gnome, not KDE, but I don't think that will matter. Oddly enough there IS a manual which describes this, but it's not obvious. WHen I installed Mandriva 2007.1 there is a link under the tool bar to Mandriva, with a blue "I" icon in front of it. It will take you to this page: http://easylinux.info/wiki/Mandriva#General_Notes Scroll up to "9 Windows" under the contents section, and it will give you some advice about mounting partitions. Also see below: Open a console. $ su password: (enter password) # umount /dev/sda1 # mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/win_c -t ntfs -o nls=utf8,umask=0222 # exit $ Now navigate to /mnt and list the contents of that directory: $ cd / $ cd mnt $ ls You should see win_c as a sub-directory. Enter win_c $ cd win_c You should have access now to your windows partition. You can navigate graphically through nautilus through filesystems>mnt>win_c as well. Using the mount command above this can be done as any user. "mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/win_c -t ntfs -o nls=utf8,umask=0222" Lets you mount your windows partition automatically on boot for any user. "nls=utf8" is the command for it to automatically boot on mount, and "umask=0222" lets any user view the partition. If you want to have a link to your desktop, open a console again: $ cd / $ cd /home/"username" $ su # ln -s /mnt/win_c win_c # exit $ This will put a shortcut to your win_c partition in your user home directory. Simply navigate to home using nautilus, then drag the win_c folder to your desktop. When you reboot (not that you need to now) you will find your win_c folder on your desktop, and should be able to access your Vista partition. Enjoy!

Some days later now, and sound is all go. Think the original problem was that my monitor was probably muted...odd, as when I booted up Microsoft Windows it was fine...anyway. The other problem was using (I think) "alsaconf" . I noticed in Mcc's list of software packages that this is not installed by default, apparently as Mandriva usually detects and configures the sound card for you. For some reason running this totally stuffed up my system. To get sound back I uninstalled all the Alsa packages, then reinstalled all of them again, with all the gstreamer packages I found (this was because my error messages ketp saying "gstremer plugin or device doesn't exist" (something like that anyway). Then I restored my computer to a backup some weeks earlier, and rebooted. Lost all my current email messages (no worry, as they were still on the server anyway), but my sound is back again!!! Overkill, I know, but I've no clue which plugins I needed and which I don't. The only package at this point I'm uninstalling is alsaconf. Few other applications aren't working though (from the packages I installed through Alsa) AlsaMixerGUI , Alsa Player, Alsa Patch Bay, and Alsa Jack Bay. Not sure what most of those do anyway, except for AlsaMixerGUI. AlsaMixerGUI is a graphical user interface for AlsaMixer. What's the point, really, as typing alsamixer in the command line bring up a graphical interface anyway. So, I hope all this information helps someone I won't keep tabs on this topic anymore, but if anyone wants to contact me your welcome. Cheers! ~Mitchell

Still don know what the problem was with csv?, except I was trying to import .CSV files from windows, not .csv I don think Linux liked this... Anyway, problem solved. I simply restored my computer to a backup I did about a week ago...no idea what I would have done without it. Uninstalled evolution perhaps? drastic. Anyway, problem solved. Evolution working at normal speed again.

This is becoming unfortunately comic. I had it all working just 10 minutes ago! Restored my system to a backup from a few days ago, stopped and started alsa service, and then I was able to use the volume icon to add all the playback features I was missing. Just to be sure I added all of them...perhaps I went overboard. Anyway, had all the playback sorted, still no sound...realized I needed to unmute my monitor (simple hardware issue, used buttons on screen). Then I had sound! Beautiful, glorious, sound! Volume icon still had red cross on it, removed it from panel, then added another one. Perfect! Sound, Icon was fine, if in another place on the panel...then my whole system crashed. Couldn´t use any shortcut keys to do anything...couldn´t even use them to reboot the system...(sigh) restarted computer as a last resort, and now every sound program I use crashes. Think this is because there are no playback features listed now...again...only the microphone. (this is using both alsamixer in the command line and using the volume icon, and going to preferences, etc.) Anyone have an idea of what is going on? So close, and yet so very, very far away...

Thanks for that. Think this thread is solved for me. I understanding I likely could have used i686 architecture, but it? not needed. Thanks for that!

done that, goes through the configuration, but no luck. Says I'm ready to go, but sound icon still with red x, and when I run alsamixer I have no playback features.

Thanks for that. What does i686 mean, and when is it used?