Well, my Linux system has hung three more times since my original post. First
was in Netscape again. Second, I had Netscape open to a page and was trying to
configure my sound card. I had a Konsole open and was doing a:
pnpdump -c > /etc/isapnp.conf
as many posting in various newsgroups suggest isapnp as my path to
configuring my sound card on Linux. As soon as I hit enter in Konsole, total
hang. I tried changing windows, ctl-alt-del, everything. Waited for a long
time with no disk activity and shut off power.
Now, the isapnp thing has me wondering. I had NO problems with Linux-Mandrake
for the first month and a half of its existence other than the zillions of
newbie configuration difficulties everyone has. The point is, it didn't crash.
Just recently I started screwing around with this isapnp stuff in attemts to
get sound up and running. Today, suddenly, it starts to crash.
I tried the pnpdump -c > /etc/isapnp.conf again from the command line. Same
results. This time I was able to switch to other logins, but not to actually
log in. I was able to ctl-c out of the process without shutting down as well. I
looked in /etc and there is a isapnp.conf listing with nothing in it.
Absolutely empty file. There's also a isapnp.gone file with a bunch of
commented out lines.
Questions:
Does this hanging problem with pnpdump point a finger at PnP hardware as a
possible culprit for my ever-crashing machine?
I noticed when the system is booting now, one of the things it does is say:
Setting up ISA PNP Devices
which may very well be a result of my tinkerings with the isapnp stuff
according to various suggestions. Does a fresh L-M 6.1 install say this at boot
time or must I have added this post-install?
Can a flaky sound card make a system hang and cause the kind of constant daily
crashes I get in Windows (Linux is MUCH better in this regard...flawless until
today)? I only ask because Linux was rock-solid before I began tinkering
extensively with sound card setup and has been weird since.
After crashing, the times I had to interrupt power, a message appeared when the
system was checking the root filesystem. Same message each time:
Deleted inode 94213 has zero dtime FIXED
Does that mean anything? Same number and everything each time.
If I knew this was a piece of hardware and knew which one, I'd replace it in a
second. This system is really crashy under Windows, and most of its hangs there
seem to happen during screen repaints, changing to other windows and such.
Most, but not all. Sometimes it hangs when you're just typing or doing nothing
at all. This is really frustrating and all I really want is some systematic way
to rule out possibilities.
Thanks if you've made it this far! Any help much appreciated!
Gregg
