PCLinuxOS Openbox Bonsai 2011 for test

[djohnston]

And what the heck is "bfs" anyway?!

I'm afraid the polite way of saying it is "brain fart scheduler", if you get my drift.

[melodie]

And what the heck is "bfs" anyway?!

See at Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_Fuck_Scheduler

It is meant to make things faster in our machines. You can try bfs, and after if you feel it can be useful, you can try non bfs. Usually bfs is the version chosen for all the final.

I guess I'd better get a Kde Minime and update it, so I can do a diff between the packages... I would get a better or easier result with a diff in a Zen Gnome, as it is yet smaller...

Last year I used this method to add some missing packages to fix a problem, while we were building the bonsai version with the help of the testers.

See you soon !

[LKJ]

just wanted to mention I have no issues with shutdown, reboot, etc. but I am running Bonsai in VirtualBox. using the 2.6.38.8 kernel.

[MrBill]

Thanks for the info on bfs -- whew. . .such language!

I installed Bonsai to hard drive with the intention of changing the kernel to see if that would fix the shutdown problem (it did fix the problem with my hard drive install of openbox full test).  After first boot I verified that it did restart instead of shutdown.  Yes the problem was there.  Tried again -- still problem.

Before starting to download the other kernel I wanted to set up my firewall.  So I installed shorewall and midori (could not figure out how to use jumanji), rebooted once or twice during all that (using "shutdown" in the menu but still getting a reboot) , checked my firewall on the web with shieldsup, and then decided to shutdown again before starting the kernel download.  Lo and behold when I clicked "shutdown" that time the machine actually did shutdown!

So I see no reason to switch kernels now.  Does anyone have an idea how we can determine how the problem got fixed?

Shutting down now for some sleep!

[MrBill]

Oops.  One more post.  When I shutdown after my previous post the problem returned.  Rebooted instead of shutting down.  Sorry.

A few more tries. . . .sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  Back to the drawing board.

[melodie]

Hi MrBill, what about non bfs kernel and about previous kernel ?

[Taco.22]

OK, I'm obviously a sucker for punishment, and if there is anything left of my Blackcat remaster after all of this I will be amazed!  Just tried reinstalling the 2.6.38.8-pclos1 and Synaptic has hung at "Applying Changes".  It didn't install last time, and it won't install now.  Again, I draw your attention to the thread I mentioned a little while back - http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,93138.0.html.  I have exactly the same error message, and the kernel does not present itself for boot.  Whatever the issue, I will be staying with the 2.6.37 kernel for the time being.       

[melodie]

Hi,

I have installed KDE 4 test 3 on the machine where I get the problem and it did a perfect shutdown, without a reboot. I have to think of something for another approach...

Maybe install the version which has been provided in 2010 11, update it, do a simple cleaning without changing anything else and remaster it as is.

Let me know if you think it could be a good idea, or if you have another better idea ? Thanks.

[MrBill]

After some sleep, I tried some more boot cycles with Bonsai and kernal 38.8-bfs.  Maybe half the time it works as it should and half the time it reboots.  Tried to determine if I'm doing something different during the successful cycles but can't isolate a reason.

Installed kernel 2.6.37.4-pclos1.bfs.  No problem with install.  No problem with shutdown after 4 cycles.  I think the 33.7-bfs from last year's Bonsai as well as this 37.4-bfs will have no problems reguarding shutdown/reboot.  I want to keep this kernel for a day or two for more testing.  Then, if you think it will help, I will try the 38.8-non-bfs (it did not work reliably in my OB full test install).

Just some info about installing this kernal, as I said I had no problems this time and I had no problems yesterday installing different kernel to my OB full.  During the synaptic install it did get to a point where it stopped for maybe 1 minute, but then it continued without problems.  Today after this 37.4 install I have different grub entries from what I got yesterday installing the 38.8.  (Maybe there are different install scripts in each kernel package?)  Anyway, now I have my original grub entry, which points to /boot/initrd.img, which is a symlink to the last installed kernel.  And I also have two new grub entries, each pointing directly to it's respective initrd file in /boot.  So I guess I can now boot whichever kernal I want.

[djohnston]

Anyway, now I have my original grub entry, which points to /boot/initrd.img, which is a symlink to the last installed kernel.  And I also have two new grub entries, each pointing directly to it's respective initrd file in /boot.  So I guess I can now boot whichever kernal I want.

That's correct. You can pick any installed kernel from the boot menu. If you decide to keep the 2.6.37.4-pclos1.bfs kernel and not use the others, you can uninstall the others using Synaptic. The GRUB menu will be updated, reflecting the changes.

[melodie]

Hi MrBill,

I have asked for feedbacks from logs a few posts ago. That could be useful. Do you think you can try to bring back logs, after you can observe a non voluntary reboot ?

Forgot : to all who test the shutdown issue, could you take note of the shutdown time, and once rebooted look at the logs, from the time you did the shutdown ?

logs are : /var/log/dmesg, /var/log/kernel/*, /var/log/messages

you can paste them to pastebin.com, and bring the links here.

Thanks.

Tomorrow I will try to take some time to compare the packages installed in KDE4 testing and thoses in PCLinuxOS Education. I'll use a few command lines to get a file that will allow me to compare more easily. The same method used with bonsai and zen last year had been of great help. Too bad there is not yet a Zen mini 2011 to test around ?

Good night and more,
Mélodie

[jlf001]

Hi All,

I've got six fully installed and updated machines all running kernel 2.6.38.8-pclos1 (4 with KDE, 1 with the last officially released version of OpenBox Bonsai and 1 with the full test version of OpenBox).  Whether it's BFS, PAE or BFS PAE, or just the straight kernel, I've had no shutdown / reboot problems.  The only time this happened was with the live Bonsai testCD.  I've got a busy weekend coming up, however, I'll try to install the Bonsai testCD to another machine I have and see what happens.

Jeff

P.S. Good night Mélodie

[melodie]

Hi All,

I've got six fully installed and updated machines all running kernel 2.6.38.8-pclos1 (4 with KDE, 1 with the last officially released version of OpenBox Bonsai and 1 with the full test version of OpenBox).  Whether it's BFS, PAE or BFS PAE, or just the straight kernel, I've had no shutdown / reboot problems.  The only time this happened was with the live Bonsai testCD.  I've got a busy weekend coming up, however, I'll try to install the Bonsai testCD to another machine I have and see what happens.

Jeff

P.S. Good night Mélodie

Thank you very much. On my side I will also take a look at what services are activated in the installed KDE and compare with thoses installed in the faulty PCLinuxOS Education I have. Maybe this could lead somewhere.

[MrBill]

melodie:  I have logs but I'm not sure I can figure out how to link them here.  Can I email them to you?

[melodie]

Hi,

You go to http://pastebin.com/

You open each of theses logs with a text editor : as user in console, ie:

$ geany /var/log/dmesg

Select and copy all the text, paste it to pastebin, submit, bring back the link. Same for the other logs. If you need more details, it's possible.

PS: that works for dmesg but not for messages. Therefore add "gksu" at the beginning of the command line and you will be prompted for the root password.

PS2 : think about getting the shutdown time, and try to get the last messages from each... about 100 of the last lines might be enough. You can see a dmesg always starts with lines such as theses, just after a boot or a reboot:

Linux version 2.6.38.8-pclos1.bfs (root@localhost.localdomain) (gcc version 4.5.2 (GCC) ) #1 SMP PREEMPT Sat Jun 4 04:13:21 CDT 2011
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
 BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f800 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 000000000009f800 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000000dc000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000003f670000 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 000000003f670000 - 000000003f700000 (ACPI NVS)
 BIOS-e820: 000000003f700000 - 0000000040000000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000e0000000 - 00000000f0000000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 00000000fec10000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000fed00000 - 00000000fed00400 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000fed14000 - 00000000fed1a000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000fed1c000 - 00000000fed90000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000fee00000 - 00000000fee01000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000ff000000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
ACPI: Shall use APIC/MADT table 2
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