Whole computer freezes when trying to connect

Information on your laptop and wireless card may be helpful here

Thanks
Joe

--- On Fri, 2/18/11, Sean Hayes <email address hidden> wrote:

> From: Sean Hayes <email address hidden>
> Subject: [Bug 721570] Re: Whole computer freezes when trying to connect
> To: <email address hidden>
> Date: Friday, February 18, 2011, 6:05 PM
> ** Attachment added:
> "/var/log/wicd/wicd.log"
>    https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/721570/+attachment/1858848/+files/wicd.log
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are
> subscribed to wicd.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/721570
>
> Title:
>   Whole computer freezes when trying to connect
>
> Status in wicd:
>   New
>
> Bug description:
>   Wicd 1.7.0
>   Ubuntu 10.10 x64
>   Acer Aspire 5542-5547
>
>   For the past few weeks I've been having problems
> with my laptop
>   freezing while starting up. It doesn't happen when I
> disable wireless
>   while booting (using the button on my laptop), but
> does happen
>   sometimes when I re-enable it and try to connect to
> my router. The
>   freezing occurs while the Wicd status bar says it's
> authenticating.
>
>   I also posted this problem on ubuntuforums.org:
>   http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10428572
>
>   I'm not sure if this is a problem with Wicd or one
> of the libraries it
>   uses, but it's almost certainly related to
> connecting to the Internet.
>

Here's the lspci -vv output for my card:

09:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
 Subsystem: Device 1a32:0306
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 18
 Region 0: Memory at f0400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: ath9k
 Kernel modules: ath9k

Thanks

I'm looking at a similar issue.

Different card. So its another data point in my investigation

I don't suspect at this point that its wicd.

Thanks
Joe

--- On Fri, 2/18/11, Sean Hayes <email address hidden> wrote:

> From: Sean Hayes <email address hidden>
> Subject: [Bug 721570] Re: Whole computer freezes when trying to connect
> To: <email address hidden>
> Date: Friday, February 18, 2011, 8:01 PM
> Here's the lspci -vv output for my
> card:
>
> 09:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc.
> AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
>     Subsystem: Device 1a32:0306
>     Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle-
> MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
> DisINTx-
>     Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B-
> ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort-
> >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
>     Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
>     Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 18
>     Region 0: Memory at f0400000 (64-bit,
> non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
>     Capabilities: <access denied>
>     Kernel driver in use: ath9k
>     Kernel modules: ath9k
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are
> subscribed to wicd.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/721570
>
> Title:
>   Whole computer freezes when trying to connect
>
> Status in wicd:
>   New
>
> Bug description:
>   Wicd 1.7.0
>   Ubuntu 10.10 x64
>   Acer Aspire 5542-5547
>
>   For the past few weeks I've been having problems
> with my laptop
>   freezing while starting up. It doesn't happen when I
> disable wireless
>   while booting (using the button on my laptop), but
> does happen
>   sometimes when I re-enable it and try to connect to
> my router. The
>   freezing occurs while the Wicd status bar says it's
> authenticating.
>
>   I also posted this problem on ubuntuforums.org:
>   http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10428572
>
>   I'm not sure if this is a problem with Wicd or one
> of the libraries it
>   uses, but it's almost certainly related to
> connecting to the Internet.
>

I think this stared mid to late January for me. I've attached my apt log for January so you can get an idea of what packages I updated and when.

And, during that time, there has no upgrade to wicd.

Makes wicd an unlikely candidate.

Thanks
Joe

--- On Sat, 2/19/11, Sean Hayes <email address hidden> wrote:

> From: Sean Hayes <email address hidden>
> Subject: [Bug 721570] Re: Whole computer freezes when trying to connect
> To: <email address hidden>
> Date: Saturday, February 19, 2011, 4:08 AM
> I think this stared mid to late
> January for me. I've attached my apt log
> for January so you can get an idea of what packages I
> updated and when.
>
> ** Attachment added: "/var/log/apt/history.log.1"
>    https://bugs.launchpad.net/wicd/+bug/721570/+attachment/1859367/+files/history.log.1
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are
> subscribed to wicd.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/721570
>
> Title:
>   Whole computer freezes when trying to connect
>
> Status in wicd:
>   New
>
> Bug description:
>   Wicd 1.7.0
>   Ubuntu 10.10 x64
>   Acer Aspire 5542-5547
>
>   For the past few weeks I've been having problems
> with my laptop
>   freezing while starting up. It doesn't happen when I
> disable wireless
>   while booting (using the button on my laptop), but
> does happen
>   sometimes when I re-enable it and try to connect to
> my router. The
>   freezing occurs while the Wicd status bar says it's
> authenticating.
>
>   I also posted this problem on ubuntuforums.org:
>   http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10428572
>
>   I'm not sure if this is a problem with Wicd or one
> of the libraries it
>   uses, but it's almost certainly related to
> connecting to the Internet.
>

Have you searched your logs (messages/syslog) for messages from that time?

Thanks
Joe

--- On Fri, 2/18/11, Sean Hayes <email address hidden> wrote:

> From: Sean Hayes <email address hidden>
> Subject: [Bug 721570] Re: Whole computer freezes when trying to connect
> To: <email address hidden>
> Date: Friday, February 18, 2011, 8:01 PM
> Here's the lspci -vv output for my
> card:
>
> 09:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc.
> AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
>     Subsystem: Device 1a32:0306
>     Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle-
> MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
> DisINTx-
>     Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B-
> ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort-
> >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
>     Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
>     Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 18
>     Region 0: Memory at f0400000 (64-bit,
> non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
>     Capabilities: <access denied>
>     Kernel driver in use: ath9k
>     Kernel modules: ath9k
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are
> subscribed to wicd.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/721570
>
> Title:
>   Whole computer freezes when trying to connect
>
> Status in wicd:
>   New
>
> Bug description:
>   Wicd 1.7.0
>   Ubuntu 10.10 x64
>   Acer Aspire 5542-5547
>
>   For the past few weeks I've been having problems
> with my laptop
>   freezing while starting up. It doesn't happen when I
> disable wireless
>   while booting (using the button on my laptop), but
> does happen
>   sometimes when I re-enable it and try to connect to
> my router. The
>   freezing occurs while the Wicd status bar says it's
> authenticating.
>
>   I also posted this problem on ubuntuforums.org:
>   http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10428572
>
>   I'm not sure if this is a problem with Wicd or one
> of the libraries it
>   uses, but it's almost certainly related to
> connecting to the Internet.
>

I figured the apt log would help you narrow down which dependency is causing the problem.

My syslog doesn't go back that far, so I just reproduced the error and have attached the recent output. My system last froze at approximately 12:30AM.

Here's my /var/log/messages for the past hour.

ok. the wicd log does not seem to indicate any real problem.

The updates didn't update wicd ( or its main dependency) in the time frame.

The messages file doesn't have a message from a kernel module.

those things together tell us its unlikely that wicd is directly involved.

the above indicates that its likely to be either a hardware issue, or the kernel that was updated the end of January.

Can't think of much more than to run memtest to see if your ram is still ok. Then back-port your kernel if that succeeds.
sorry

It was the kernel. I went back to 2.6.35-24-generic and everything is fine.

Thanks for the update.

I'm looking into issues there now.