Ubuntu has been hanging/locking up lately. It reports CPU usage as 100% and then refuses to respond after that. It is also not task-specific; it has happened while using Firefox, playing a game, and using Dia to draw a diagram. Other users have commented on this problem and offered solutions on the Ubuntu support forums.
Edit: See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DanielHahler/Bug59695 for a description (i don’t understand it completely) and list of useful links.
Seems like there’s different variants to the problem as some solutions work while some don’t. Anyway, one thing I learnt from it is that Ctrl-Alt-Backspace is a good shortcut to use when lockups happen. Don’t follow my example of switching off the power (I didn’t know what else to do, how brilliant). Doing this screwed things up a little, to put it mildly. On the first time, an fsck was carried out and everything was fine. On the second and third times, however, things got worse until my entire home directory disappeared and Ubuntu has problems starting up.
So, for the meantime, it’s back to Windows for me. I still don’t know what caused all those problems. I’ll try my hand at Ubuntu again, once the semester is over.
Am considering installing Debian instead. At least its installer auto-detects hardware–noob-friendly!
3 Comments
April 4, 2006 at 9:53 am
You might want to check to install drivers for you video/graphic card. I remember Ubuntu used to lag when the screen saver turned on. After installing drivers the CPU could breathe a lot more (since it doesn’t have to work as much to render images on the desktop environment) About why it didn’t detect; wouldn’t fit on a CD to get them all. My ATI card came with drivers on a CD. It will still take some time before they ship a linux version on the CD. (Now ATI supports linux and has drivers to download).
Beginning a new era. Things are going to be rough, this are going to change. For the best I hope.
April 4, 2006 at 11:38 pm
Ah, thank you! I will try it out and post on how it went. But that has got to wait till my exams are over…Am sorry to say I will be using windows until I can afford to experiment with linux.
April 9, 2006 at 12:38 am
Hmm… well I’ve jsut installed Linux yesterday myself properly and got it all connected to the net etc on my secondary computer. I’ve since decided I want to try it on my main computer, and this blog is of some use to me. The page which gives more info about apt seems very useful. I’ve already found the Automatix script and it’s excellent, the Ubuntu forums are a great place for info too on all your problems.