Kubuntu System Hangs!

[Matthias Heiler]

Kenneth Jacker <khj at be.cs.appstate.edu> writes:

> [ kubuntu-5.10;  kernel-2.6.12-10-686-smp; x11-ubuntu-6.8.2-77 ]
> 
> As some readers of this list know, my hard drive (Debian/sarge) "died"
> last week.  Trying to find a "silver lining" in an otherwise "dark"
> incident, I decided to go ahead and install Kubuntu on a new drive
> since I'd heard good things about it (and Ubuntu).
> 
> Unfortunately, I haven't yet regained all of the functionality of the
> previous 'sarge' system.  Though future postings will elaborate on
> those remaining issues, one must be brought up now ...
> 
> PROBLEM:  my system occasionally "hangs"
> 
>     kybrd/mouse dead, alternate consoles (e.g., C-A-F1) unavailable,
>     forced restarting (e.g., C-A-<BS>) of X11 fails, 'ssh' logins are
>     "no-ops", ...  you get the idea!  :-(
> 
> 
> I have looked in /var/log (x11, messages, syslog, etc.), but can
> find no indication of what is causing this, shall we say, undesirable
> behavior. 

I experienced similar problems (seemingly random hard freezes) with
kubuntu-5.04 and relatively new Dell hardware.  It turned out that the
kernel did not properly support the SATA drives at that time.  The fix
was to use some suitable kernel parameters (namely, "pci=bios
idle=halt") and to use always the latest kernel (2.6.12 works perfect
for me).  In your case I would first check if the problem disappears
if you use a non-SMP kernel.

Good luck,

  Matthias