4.3.1 started crashing after 2+ years

[Mitchellray]

Hello,
I have had a full install of 4.3.1 on one partition of my hard drive.
I boot with Lilo which was packaged with Slackware on another partition.

The Puppy 4.3.1 has operated for over two years with few problems.
But now it started crashing regularly and often quickly after boot.

I have always utilized xorg with no apparent problems.
Now the screen freezes and the keyboard seems to go dead.
The mouse cursor continues to work, but not the buttons.

When I switch to xvesa, there has not been a crash.

What should I be looking for?
Or, is there an easy way to clean up or replace xorg thus eliminating an acquired bug?
M

[Doglover]

Maybe feed the gerbils, or the wheel needs grease.

[disciple]

Interesting. I presume there is no obvious pattern about what you are doing when it freezes?

Have you run a filesystem check? With liveCD/frugal install you would do this by booting with the option pfix=fsck... I'm not sure if that works with a full install.

It might be worth just reinstalling Puppy (over the top of the existing install), unless you've installed things that overwrite files that came in Puppy.

[Sylvander]

1. Things to do:
(a) Use an unaffected OS->program to scan&fix the partition_file_system of the partition holding the Puppy 4.3.1
e.g. Boot a "live" Puppy CD, and use Gparted to "check" the partition.
Then, if that doesn't produce a fix...

(b) Restore your latest backup copy of the folder/file contents of the partition, made when all was working to your satisfaction.
I use Xfe->[backup & restore] and/or snap2->[backup only: Xfe for restore] for this work.
Now you're probably going to say that YOU HAVEN'T MADE ANY BACKUPS!
OUCH!

Or....
(c) Instead of (a) and (b) above....
Restore a recently made [sector for sector] Image Backup of the partition.
This will restore both the partition_file_system, and the folder/file contents.
----------------------------------------------------
I use "Acronis True Image"...
Or the FREE version = "Seagate Disk Wizard"...
To use it on non-Seagate HDD's, at the error screen, Hold Alt key, then type t then o, then click OK
[The t, o is for "Tech Over-ride"].
---------------------------------------------------

2. What you should do in the future, if you don't do it now:
(a) Make backups at suitable points in time, when all [software] is working to your satisfaction.
(b) When you so much as suspect a problem with the software, restore a backup.
This should undo whatever software problem has been introduced.
(c) Your software should be once again working as it did previously [when the backup was made].

[Aitch]

Mitchellray

Try booting using puppy pfix=purge at the boot stage - When you boot, hit F2 key when you see Puppy boot screen.

purge is a radical file cleanup/repair, apparently

http://puppylinux.org/wikka/BootParameters

various e2fs utilities for 4.3.1 here

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 469#367469

similar problem recommendation

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 229#609229

Aitch

[disciple]

pfix=purge is a last resort which should be tried after things like pfx=fsck and pfix=clean.

[Mitchellray]

Hello,
Thank you all for the suggestions.
I finally resorted to 'pfix=purge'.

It did not solve the problem as once I reran xorgwizard after booting, the screen froze after about five minutes.

I switched back to xvesa and there has not been any crash.

It seems odd that the keyboard ceases to function, even Caps and Number Locks, and the mouse buttons won't work, but the cursor continues to function.

Ctrl-Alt-Esc, Ctrl-Alt-Del, Ctrl-Alt-Backspace have no effect - probably because the keyboard seems to go dead with the screen freezing.
M

[Aitch]

Unless you downloaded and installed any different version libs....?...I suspect an error in xorg.conf - keyboard malfunctions may indicate

Try booting puppy pfix=ram, and set up your graphics/xorg afresh, then mount your hard drive and save /etc/X11/xorg.conf [provided it works OK]
When you boot back into your saved setup puppy rename the current xorg.conf to .old or something and copy the previously saved version in its place, then reboot

If it works...make a backup!

Aitch

[Mitchellray]

Hello Aitch,
Thank for the suggestions.

I renamed xorg.conf to xorg.conf.old after booting from a cd. Then, rebooted and reran xorgwizard.
The keyboard, screen and mouse buttons, but not cursor, froze after about five minutes.

Then, I installed a copy of Wary onto another drive partition.
During initial boot, xorgwizard ran.
I figured all was good after saving to the drive partition.

However, the same problem happened in Wary.

I am guessing now that there has developed a problem with my hardware which is causing this.

In xvesa it does not happen.
M

[greengeek]

Does your hardware have a replaceable graphics board? If so do you have access to a replacement? Or if your graphics chip is "on-board" is there a way to disable it in Bios and fit another board?

Just might be worth a try. Also, is there accumulated dust inside the case? Sometimes such symptoms might be related to heat buildup.

[rjbrewer]

I only use full installs on hard drives.
If I run into a serious problem, I just rerun the full
install with the original cd.
I choose "upgrade" instead of "wipe".
No need to rerun grub.

Of course, this can't fix hardware problems.

[Mitchellray]

Hello,
I examined the cards and there was a lot of dust.
I tidied up.
However, I booted into wary and left it alone for about an hour.
Then I launched Firefox and after a couple of minutes, it the system crashed.
Same symptoms where the mouse cursor works, but no buttons and no keyboard
Since Wary is a new install on its own extended partition and Puppy is on another of the non-extended partitions and both are failing with xorg, doesn't this sound hardware related?
M

[Aitch]

It sounds like it

I would check that all cooling fans are running properly, as it seems task/heat related
Check the thermal paste for your processor, as drying causes similar symptoms, also check videocard, or memory failures, for heat related problems, also

Isolation is the key - change pieces of hardware and test
One change/test at a time

Aitch

[whoguy]

Hey OP,

Check for dust on your ram and video cards..... this can cause all sorts of dramas....

Goodluck