newbie question

Hi
If you could come back with some information about your system and the particular Linux? I assume trisquel it might help folks.

They won't need a lot of hardware information but mainly things like are the keyboard and or mouse USB? (you may have unmounted them with an inadvertent command).

Is it a very small system with very little memory that you could be overloading with a command of some kind? And, again, it may be that aptosid has such a small footprint that the memory etc is not a problem but it might help in thinking about the situation.

janus

Sure! Yes, I'm using Trisquel 4.01 with an Acer Aspire 5734Z with a 64 bit Pentium(R) Dual-Core processor T4500, 2.30GHz, 3GB RAM.
The thing is I don't think it is a crash or something, I thing I type a/some key/s that block the current window because after I type AltGr + PetSis + R it came back to the normal state. Is that possible?
It's notebook and I'm not using any external keyboard. I don't thing is overloading, the computer is working pretty well.

Well, I think I have found my problem. I'm not sure yet though. I have enabled (unaware of course) a keyboard shortcut to block screen... Probably I pressed it without noticing and caused that, but not sure, as I said.
I disabled it now, I hope that's it... I'll come back otherwise.

It still happening... :S it makes me insane

I have quite a few questions for you:

* Are you running any programs like compiz?
* Are there any messages or anything that appear on screen?
* Can you reliably reproduce this?
* What is Altgr + PetSis + R? I have never heard of these keys.
* How often does this happen?
* Can you post a screenshot of what happens?

LOL! hahaha it made me laugh... that's how you see I'm newbie! You see, when I was searching for solutions in Internet (in Spanish), they called this key Impr Pant or Pet Sis. Don't ask me why, but I thought you wouldn't understand Impr Pant (which is Print Screen in Spanish) and I thought maybe Pet Sis was international (uuuu LOL). hahaha So, Pet Sis must be another name of PrintScr in the Spanish keyboard. AltGr is the right Alt Key, the one to the right of the space key. In the Spanish keyboard it is called Alt Gr. The combination of keys unblocked the system didn't work with the Alt key, only with the AltGr Key.

To SirGrant:

*nop, no compiz and no messagges appearing
*what do you mean if I can reliably reproduce this? the blocking? if it's so, not yet, I haven't found out what I'm doing!!
*Alt (the right one) + PrintScreen + R :) I must say however, last time the screen was blocked, I couldn't unblock the system with the AltGr but using the (left) Alt (weird!!).
*One or two times each day...
*I'll try to make a screenshot next time it happens.

I got a message saying it could be I'm using the Magic SysRq key. He says "The 'R' one "switches the keyboard from raw mode, the mode used by programs such as X11 and svgalib, to XLATE mode". I guess X has problems with your keyboards" and that I should check the /var/log/Xorg.*.log after it blocks.
I have checked them, but don't understand any of it... do you want me to post them somewhere?

So... here are the file logs, if anyone wants to see them... http://cruzdelsurtrisquel.blogspot.com/

This is really odd. I have never heard of a problem like this. I'll look into it.

*Also have you tried reinstalling?
*Did you verify the integrity of the file (md5 sum) before you installed it?

When I say can you reliably reproduce this means can you cause it to happen on purpose. If you know what you are doing when it happens that helps us. For example the next time it happens pay attention to what you were doing the second before and let us know. Did you hit a weird combination of keys? Anything like that. See if you can cause it to happen on purpose.

... and here I thought this would be a very silly and easy to solve question... LOL you never know! haha

SirGrant,
Last time it happened I thought I realised what I have typed (I was changing between windows with Alt+Tab and I thought I pressed some other key.... so I tried different combinations of keys close to them but nothing blocked it again! so, I still don't know.
Yes, I tried reinstalling and it didn't solved it. But I didn't check the md5 sum because I couldn't find it in the web page. Where is it?

I received this mail from Magic Banana:

The only error message in your Xorg.0.log is: "(EE) Logitech USB Receiver: failed to initialize for relative axes."
It seems to relate to your keyboard, hence looks interesting. If you search the Web for this message, you discover this Debian problem: http://lists.debian.org/debian-x/2009/10/msg00359.html
It looks very similar to yours (he mentions the fact that it "occurs only once and always simultaneous with a keyboard input.").
Some SUSE user seem to say that the error message is, in fact, related to a wireless mouse. Unplugging and replugging the receiver solves his problem: http://readlist.com/lists/suse.com/suse-linux-e/38/190928.html
He believes the bug is the following: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/345119
... and, there, the issue is analyzed as an Intel problem. The fix would be to update the kernel.

Well, I do not know if that helps you! If you believe you can find more help on this forum, we would need some information on the possible hardware culprits (keyboard, mouse and video card).

It's nice to know that someone else had had the same problem. I do have a wireless mouse. I'll try un/replugging it. But still, the solution should be updating the kernel, right? and how do I do that?

Thanks guys!!

Well I have never heard or anything like this.

Here is what I would do in your situation. If you are using a wireless mouse and keyboard see if you can get a regular wired keyboard and mouse. Try that for a day or 2 and see if you crash / lockup (because you said it happens a few times a day). If you DON'T lock up well then it is probably a hardware problem. At that point what you want to do is just plug in one of your normal devices at a time. So plug in your wireless mouse while keeping the regular wired keyboard. Then try that for a day and see if you lock up. If that doesn't lock up switch. Use a regular wired mouse and your wireless keyboard (if you have one).

That way you can possibly find out if it is a specific piece of hardware causing it. I would do this before compiling a new kernel. Compiling a new kernel for yourself is kinda a pain and a big process if you are a self-confessed new GNU/Linux user. This should only be a last resort for you. Because if Magic banana is right and this is a hardware problem lets find out what piece of hardware is causing it and then go from there. Gives us a place to start.

I know it is worth it! But definitely don't have the skills to diagnose it... hahaha... maybe with more time, but it's not the case right now! Thanks!

AndrewT, do you have a 32bit or a 64 bit system?

I think, just my idea, that the problem can be with 64 bit systems (like mine). But since there are not available kernel repositories for this system yet I cannot upgrade it. Could be that... who knows...

Perhaps you could try using a wireless mouse with an earlier version of Trisquel? If it works, maybe it is a kernel-related problem.

mmm it too much time consuming. I think I can live with this issue. It freaked me up before, because I thought I was doing something wrong and I didn't know how to fix it. Now I know how to fix it and more or less why it happens, so I'll keep this Trisquel version and the wireless mouse. I'll be patient. Anyways, it doesn't happen so often. Thanks!