EASY OS 0.6.4 - Crashes when you try to set your time-zone..

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Grogster · #1 Post by **Grogster** » Fri 22 Dec 2017, 04:02

Hi there.

This happens every time I try to scroll down the huge list of time zones to set New Zealand time. It always hangs at roughly half way down the list.

Mouse dead, keyboard dead - have to force a restart.
I will leave it as Africa time for now.

EDIT: Same thing if I try to play with ANY of the time-zone settings. I note that this window does tell you what to do with a dead mouse, but that does not work either, as the keyboard is also dead, and the highlighter can't be moved.

The tinkering continues....

EDIT: Just tried a little test. Booted up, got to desktop, but selected nothing. Moved mouse pointer around the screen, but selected nothing. Crashes after about 15 seconds on the desktop, and mouse and keyboard both totally dead. If I can be of any further help with this, let me know.

I realise that this is probably still considered an Alpha.....

mostly_lurking · #2 Post by **mostly_lurking** » Fri 22 Dec 2017, 19:56

I've never used Easy OS, so I'm just tossing around some uneducated guesses here...

Could it be running out of memory, if your computer has too little RAM? (Posting your computer's specs might be useful, maybe Easy dosn't like some of your hardware.) Or it crashes upon probing some hardware or starting a background program (desktop/taskbar application, network connection, whatever)?. Does it always crash after ~15 seconds, no matter whether you open programs or do nothing, not even moving the mouse? Does it also crash when you boot it up without starting the X server, or when you change the graphics driver, if Easy OS has such options? Are the lights on the keyboard flashing after the crash? In that case, it's probably a kernel panic. I wonder if 15 seconds is enough time to set up some kind of system monitor to check what's happening just before the crash...

Maybe these ideas can help with the tinkering, if you enjoy this kind of thing, and maybe the results can give you or someone else a hint to what's wrong; and if not - there are lots of Puppies here waiting to be "adopted".

BarryK · #3 Post by **BarryK** » Sat 23 Dec 2017, 23:22

It is best to post to the Easy OS feedback thread, here:

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... &start=345

I won't necessarily see it if posted elsewhere.

Crashing asfter 15 seconds... does seem like some program running amuck and using up all the resources.

1.
The first thought that comes to mind, is video. What kind of video hardware do you have?
In a pup that works, if you have the "report-video" utility, run that in a terminal.
Or, Hardinfo (usually in System menu), "PCI devices" section, will tell you what video hardware.

2.
Running Easy, at bootup, as quickly as possible, select menu "System -> Top view running processes"
and watch it, see if something is hogging the CPU.

3.
Another thing to try, is bootup to the commandline, no X. Bootup from USB-drive, there is a menu option for that.
Play with the commandline, do stuff like "ls" and "cd ...", see if it keeps going beyond 15 seconds. If so, that narrows the problem down to something X related.

Grogster · #4 Post by **Grogster** » Wed 27 Dec 2017, 07:47

@ mostly_lurking: Great idea to post specs - should have done that right away.

They are:

ASrock UEFI N3700-ITX P1.50
Pentium N3700 @ 1.6GHz
2MB Cache
16GB RAM Dual-Channel Memory arrangement (2x 8GB DDR3 1600)
EASY OS on 8GB USB3 Flash Drive.
SATA DVD-drive
SATA 128GB SSD System Drive
SATA 2TB WD Green Data drive, but I have that disconnected for the moment.

@ Barry: I will try your suggestions and post back.

Grogster · #5 Post by **Grogster** » Wed 27 Dec 2017, 08:04

@ Barry - I was able to get the process running before the crash. The GUI was nice and responsive up until the point it dies....

https://www.dropbox.com/s/95riir16wbm2v ... 5.JPG?dl=0

EDIT: Image link did not work, so hopefully the URL link will....

Sorry this is a little fuzzy....

I might just try another computer. Perhaps it is as simple as Easy OS does not like this one.

BarryK · #6 Post by **BarryK** » Thu 28 Dec 2017, 09:39

Grogster wrote:@ Barry - I was able to get the process running before the crash. The GUI was nice and responsive up until the point it dies....

https://www.dropbox.com/s/95riir16wbm2v ... 5.JPG?dl=0

EDIT: Image link did not work, so hopefully the URL link will....

Sorry this is a little fuzzy....

I might just try another computer. Perhaps it is as simple as Easy OS does not like this one.

"Top" is not showing anything hogging the cpu, at least at the point in time when you took the snapshot.

It would be good if we could identify what is causing this problem.

At bootup, there is a menu, for a few seconds, and you can choose to boot to the commandline, no graphical desktop.

If the commandline works beyond 15 seconds, that will tell us a lot.

One thing you can do on the commnandline is type "xorgwizard" and choose one of the unaccelerated Xorg drivers, "modesetting" or "vesa". if they work, then that will narrow it down even more.

Note, xorgwizard has bugs, that I have fixed, but you have the slightly buggy version. With luck, you won't hit the bugs.

BarryK · #7 Post by **BarryK** » Fri 29 Dec 2017, 10:01

Oh, I should have explained something....

When booting from a usb drive on a uefi-pc, there is an initial menu, but you have to hit a hot-key to get the sub-menu.

So, with the "Easy Pyro64 0.6.4" entry highlighted, tap F2 key, and the sub-menu will appear, then you will see the option to bootup to commandline only, no X.

It does state that at the bottom of the screen, but it is not obvious and easily overlooked.

Grogster · #8 Post by **Grogster** » Sun 31 Dec 2017, 01:26

Hi Barry.

Your website seems to be down?
Can't access it, just keeps coming up blank, and the address bar says something about 'Contact support.' - just thought I would report it.

Anyhoo, Easy OS crashes at the command-prompt too.

I can easily boot to the command prompt by selecting it from the boot choices, and it loads everything including kernel modules and reports that it is making the filesystem usable - all that works.

ls and help commands worked, but after about the same 15 seconds or so, completely locked up and can't do anything - even at the command prompt. The blinking cursor even stops blinking, so it has really hit something it does not like.

Anything else you want me to try?

BarryK · #9 Post by **BarryK** » Tue 02 Jan 2018, 03:46

Try version 0.6.6, just out:

http://bkhome.org/news/201801/easyos-py ... eased.html

Grogster · #10 Post by **Grogster** » Tue 02 Jan 2018, 08:16

Sorry.....

Same crash after about 15 seconds even on 0.6.6

Would you like me to try different hardware?
I am thinking perhaps this ASrock board simply does not like Easy OS.

BTW - absouletly LOVE the green colour theme of Easy OS.
But then, green is my favourite colour, so I guess I should!

BarryK · #11 Post by **BarryK** » Tue 02 Jan 2018, 10:05

I am very curious about what is causing this problem!

I would like to know more about the hardware.

Try and do this within the 15 seconds before it hangs;

1. Click the "console" icon on the desktop.

2. Run this:

# hardinfo -r -f html > hw-report.html
# sync

Hopefully you will have enough time to type that "sync" before it hangs. The "sync" ensures that the file is flushed to the drive.

If you bootup another Linux, that does work, afterward plug in the EasyOS 0.6.6 USB-stick, and you will find that report file in the second partition, at, for example if the drive is sdb:

/mnt/sdb2/home/hw-report.html

...post it to this forum.

Appreciate that you are sticking with trying to sort this out. Easy is great, when it works!

Grogster · #12 Post by **Grogster** » Thu 04 Jan 2018, 07:16

Not enough time. I almost get the first line typed in, but by then, it has locked up. I will keep trying to improve my typing time.

EDIT: I took the exact same 8GB USB3 flash-drive, and plonked it into my Acer Aspire 1ES notebook, and Easy OS booted up flawlessly. Can still move mouse around and no lockups at all after 15 seconds or so.

Have set time-zone no problems, and am playing around in Easy OS now.

Very nice.

I think we can then confirm, that the ASrock board simply does not like Easy OS for reasons perhaps we shall never know. I can still run more tests on that machine if you want.

BarryK · #13 Post by **BarryK** » Thu 04 Jan 2018, 10:00

Don't give up yet!

Look at my blog, in about 5 minutes after I type this, I am about to announce 0.6.8:

http://bkhome.org/news/

EDIT:
Here is the announcement:

http://bkhome.org/news/201801/easyos-xe ... eased.html

If hanging still occurs, then my guess would be the Linux kernel configuration. Some configuration option when the kernel was compiled.

In 0.6.8, I am using kernel 4.14.11, 06.6 has kernel 4.14.7, but they are configured the same.

Grogster · #14 Post by **Grogster** » Thu 04 Jan 2018, 21:48

No, I won't give up if you are still interested in chasing this.

I will download and try the new image later, and post results.

don570 · #15 Post by **don570** » Fri 05 Jan 2018, 00:59

Not enough time. I almost get the first line typed in, but by then, it has locked up. I will keep trying to improve my typing time.

If typing time is a problem --->
Shorten the file name

Code: Select all

# hardinfo -r -f html > htm
# sync

BarryK · #16 Post by **BarryK** » Fri 05 Jan 2018, 01:40

I wonder if your Asrock board has an Intel Cherry Trail CPU?

I should have asked that earlier, as it has known freezing issues with the the Linux kernel.

This is the case with my Asus E200HA baby laptop:

http://bkhome.org/news/201701/linux-on- ... notes.html

I had forgotten all about that. I use my baby laptop sometimes, and it mostly works. The freezing issue was solved by the kernel boot parameter:

Code: Select all

intel_idle.max_cstate=1

...if you edit syslinux.cfg and EFI/BOOT/refind.conf (in the boot partition), and append to the boot options, for example:

Code: Select all

menuentry "Easy OS 0.6.8" {
 loader /vmlinuz
 initrd /initrd.q
 ostype linux
 options rw intel_idle.max_cstate=1

...it might magically fix your problem!

I had that problem awhile back, but I suppose shouldn't be too surprised if it is still an issue with latest kernel, as Intel bypassed proper support for the Cherry Trail series.

Grogster · #17 Post by **Grogster** » Sat 06 Jan 2018, 04:45

No joy I'm afraid....

Same lock-up after 15 seconds or so.

I much preferred the green theme of the previous versions.

I am happy to keep playing if you want to, but as far as I'm concerned, this board just does not like Easy OS. I will see if it can boot a Puppy Linux distro.

EDIT: I will try modifying as in your post above, and let you know.

EDIT: Made changes and tried again. GUI locks up after about five seconds with the new config changes. Does that tell you anything?

BarryK · #18 Post by **BarryK** » Mon 08 Jan 2018, 00:11

Yeah, I guess try another Puppy distro.

Grogster · #19 Post by **Grogster** » Mon 08 Jan 2018, 01:04

I tried with Slacko-64, and the standard boot-up dies when it tries to start X. It drops back to the command prompt with a 'Fatal xorg error.' and leaves me at the hash-prompt. System DOES NOT lock-up though.

Xorg Wizard is trying to use an Intel driver(needs EAK), and that fails.
Trying to select one of the unaccelerated VESA modes asks me to save the config to USB etc(so I did), and reboot. Having done that, the boot-up finds the sfs file on the USB, loads that, tries to start X, and dies at the command prompt again.

I have never seen this much trouble before. Puppy runs on just about anything, but this ASrock board just seems to intently dislike attempts to run Linux.

I am going to grab another machine and go back to testing Easy OS on that and see how I get on. If you want me to run any other tests on this problem-child box, I am happy to do so, but you must be getting sick of this by now.....

Oh, and PLEASE go back to the lovely green theme you had on earlier Easy OS alphas.

Or make it easy to change back to that later. Love that theme.....

Grogster · #20 Post by **Grogster** » Thu 08 Feb 2018, 23:19

Just a little update for this thread, and this will be my final post on this topic, but I thought Barry and others might like to know that when I tried EasyOS on another motherboard, there were NONE of those problems I had been having. So, there was something the Asrock motherboard did not like about EasyOS. Probably cos those boards were made to be strictly compatible with Windoze. Anyhoo, on different hardware that problem totally vanished. Topic closed.

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EASY OS 0.6.4 - Crashes when you try to set your time-zone..

EASY OS 0.6.4 - Crashes when you try to set your time-zone..