Re: how do I find out what's hanging me up?

Is there any way to fix this uninteruptable sleep state?

Mark Peveto
Registered Linux user number 600552
Sent from F123 Visual using alpine 2.20.13


On Mon, 4 Jul 2016, John G. Heim wrote:

> If you can configure a serial console, you would be able to read those
> messages. But I still say it's a process in an uninterrruptable sleep which
> means the kernel can't kill it during a normal shutdown. That, in turn,
> implies that it is a kernel bug in a device driver. In fact, I will wager it's
> the driver for your sound card and the process that is in an uninterruptable
> sleep is pulse. That's just a guess though.
> If the machine is kind of old, it is very likely to have a serial port. Then
> you need another computer and a null modem cable to configure a serial
> console.  There is a really good serial console howto on the web. No point in
> me reiterating all that. If you have never configured a serial console before,
> you are not likely to have a null modem cable lying around. But setting up a
> serial console is a valuable skill for a blind linux sysadmin to have. You can
> even do a serial console install of VMware ESXI.
>
> PS: Thanks for the tip on tap tap see. I'd never heard of it before. I am
> going to try it today. When I need to have a screen read to me by my phone, I
> have been using the knfbReader app.
>
> On 07/03/2016 01:08 PM, Mark Peveto wrote:
> > I've been working on this more today, pulling out all the tools I've got.
> > To the point i'm using tap tap see to try and get an idea of what's on my
> > screen when reboot hangs.  The most i can
> > get  is a message about bus socket display, and a command prompt.
> > Not real helpful, but I guess it's a start.
> >
> > Mark Peveto
> > Registered Linux user number 600552
> > Sent from sonar using alpine 2.20.13
> >
> >
> > On Sat, 2 Jul 2016, Tony Baechler wrote:
> >
> > > On 7/2/2016 1:54 AM, Mark Peveto wrote:
> > > > The short version of a long story.  I've just installed sonar on a dell
> > > > pc.
> > > > I've also got it installed on a compaq/hp machine, where the followig
> > > > problem doesn't exist.  On the dell, sudo reboot seems to hang.  Sudo
> > > > shutdown works fine.  I've tried sudo shutdown -r now, sudo systemctl
> > > > reboot, and
> > > > other options.  How, without sighted help, can I find out what's causing
> > > > this machine to hang when I reboot.  What's strange is this...why does
> > > > it
> > > > shut
> > > > down just fine, but not reboot?
> > > I'm not familiar with Sonar, so consider these random guesses. First, have
> > > you
> > > looked in /var/log/syslog and kern.log? There might be a process not
> > > shutting
> > > down properly. If you halt the system, all processes are killed and all
> > > filesystems are unmounted. A reboot only resets the system, so I suppose
> > > it's
> > > possible that a process is behaving badly or the kernel can't unmount a
> > > filesystem. I see this sometimes with slow USB devices, like if I copy a
> > > ton
> > > of files to my SD card. A more likely explanation is an ACPI or power
> > > management issue. You didn't say how old the machines are, but it could be
> > > a
> > > BIOS bug. Recent kernels should work around this. Without knowing the age
> > > of
> > > the machine and the kernel version, I can only guess.
> > >
> > > Also, the machine isn't a laptop, right? Laptops usually have power
> > > management
> > > issues. On Debian, there is a package called acpi-tools. Try installing it
> > > if
> > > it isn't there or purging it if it's there. I have better luck without it
> > > installed. I would bet syslog and kern.log would have clues to your
> > > problem. I
> > > would check those first. Make note of the time you reboot the machine and
> > > look
> > > at those files with less. You could try booting a live CD to avoid adding
> > > all
> > > of the boot messages to the logs. You didn't say if that happens on a live
> > > CD,
> > > booting from the hard drive, other distros, etc. I''ve noticed most live
> > > CDs
> > > have strange shutdown problems. You might have to pass a parameter on the
> > > kernel command line. Both HP and Dell have issues with Linux.
> > >
> > > --
> > > Tony Baechler, founder, Baechler Access Technology Services
> > > Putting accessibility at the forefront of technology
> > > mailto:[email protected]
> > > Phone: 1-619-746-8310  SMS text: 1-619-375-2545
> > >
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