My Ubuntu 10.10 has gone screwy.

[Zen]

I have no real clue as how to properly report this, I've never had this happen while being a Ubuntu user. Today something has happened, my laptop is much slower on it's initial boot ups. Something interesting, there is some sort of strange error codes or something being displayed just before the computer launches into Ubuntu. I couldn't do a "print screen" or grab a "desktop shot" via the computer, I had to grab my little digital camera and take pictures of the screen...

Here is some of what I got, it went by to quick to grab everything....

&

These error codes and such may be contributing to my computers lack of sound! My sound icon on the upper taskbar will not come back, no matter how many "add to panels" I do and "add indicator applet" no dice, no go, no way, it won't return. Plus I noticed something else, I will show it to you....

"Dummy Sound"?

I don't ever remember "Dummy Sound" being there, I think I had something else!?!

One last thing here, I don't know if this is important, it sure looks important to me. But in my "sound preferences" I have no hardware showing, is this normal, I thought I had something in there the last I checked!?!

"see it empty in there"!

I don't know what to do, if this was Windows XP and I had error codes jumping all over the place, seconds prior to booting up, and I had no sound, I would say it might be time for a total system re-install.

"Any thoughts here folks"?

 

[Leeky]

Can you run lspci in the terminal and copy and paste the info please?

Also, you made any changes recently?

FYI, thats disk errors by the looks of things.

 

[Zen]

Can you run lspci in the terminal and copy and paste the info please?

For starters, as you asked, "have I made any recent changes"? None that I'm aware of. Pretty much the same set up as it was the first day Ubuntu touched the computer.

Here is that Terminal thing you asked for, the "copy & paste" of the information..

Sorry, but it's kind of long...

aaron@aaron-Satellite-X205:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 0c)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 PCI Express Root Port (rev 0c)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 03)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HEM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Device 01b3 (rev a3)
02:00.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Device 01b3 (rev a3)
02:01.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Device 01b3 (rev a3)
09:00.0 3D controller: nVidia Corporation G84 [GeForce 8600M GT] (rev a1)
0a:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G84 [GeForce 8600M GT] (rev a1)
0d:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 01)
0e:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN [Kedron] Network Connection (rev 61)
12:04.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller
12:04.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCIxx12 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
12:04.2 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD)
12:04.3 SD Host controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 SDA Standard Compliant SD Host Controller
aaron@aaron-Satellite-X205:~$


That was what popped up when I typed in that code, I hope this helps!

And thank you Leeky for taking time out here and assisting me!

 

[Leeky]

Can you fire up disk utility and under each disk check the smart status, and test each one please.

I'd like to confirm it isn't a physical issue with your hard disks.

Failing that, it looks very similar to this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/550559

 

[Zen]

Can you fire up disk utility and under each disk check the smart status, and test each one please.

I think this is what you were asking for, I didn't know what part of it would be important to you, so I grabbed it all. I just kept scrolling down the list, grabbing "screens shots" and am posting those now....

#1

#2

#3

That is all of the list, I hope this is what you wanted, and I hope you can get something out of the information!

"Thanks"

 

[Leeky]

We'll be needing someone with more intimate knowledge of that disk information to comment really, but the issues your experiencing could well be due to the faults on your disk as above.

 

[Zen]

Still Up Poo Poo Creek, Without A Paddle!

I don't want to be pushy or even a slight bit rude here, but I'm still up poo poo creek, without a paddle here folks! Leeky say's that he would feel more comfortable with someone more well versed in what those disk utility images I posted. Is there anyone out there, fluent and well versed in Linux that can lend a helping hand here?

I just need to know what I need to do next! Repair the system, flush the system, install a fresh copy, what?

For my computer still wont allow a "sound icon" on the upper taskbar, and the computer is without sound period!


Thanks.....

 

[Leeky]

I did recommend you visit the ubuntuforums, as there is only a few of us that can help with Linux here, and I have to say I'm not as versed up as some when it comes to disk errors.

The sound is probably another issue, but they could be related. Its entirely possible the disk errors have corrupted the packages for sound.

The sound icon is contained in add to panel > indicators applet. You need to add this to see the icon. Assuming its just missing.

So lets try that first.

EDIT: This wiki page might also prove fruitful: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingSoundProblems

 

[DelJo63]

Two issues: Sound vs I/O reliability.
The latter is far more serious!

xxx FPDMA QUEUED is a feature of SATA NCQ, intended to create performance enhancements.

a description is located here:
http://www.seagate.com/content/pdf/whitepaper/D2c_tech_paper_intc-stx_sata_ncq.pdf

I don't have either an Ubuntu nor SATA environment so I'm rumaging about via Google to find the knobs and switch for NCQ.

I've already found Ubuntu 10.x has known issues with this feature

Given the opportunity (ie: finding the means to disable w/o loss of data)
I would disable NCQ and revert to a more simple I/O archirtecture (ie: serialized blocking I/O).

"go into the bios and where the drive type is, change it to ahci. this turns on ncq"
when all the required components are available.
Changing to IDE will disable NCQ, but then I fear you will need to reinstall - - caveat emptor - - I'm just not sure on this.

• How do I enable NCQ?
  
  Native Command Queuing is enabled at the firmware level of the hard drive and cannot be altered by the end user, which means you have support as long as all the other requirements are met. If all requirements are not met, NCQ will not be utilized.
  
• Can I use my NCQ supported hard drive with a non NCQ supported controller or motherboard?
  
  Yes. The NCQ supported hard drives will work just fine with non-NCQ supported controllers or motherboards. However you will not be able to take advantage of the NCQ features.
  
• What Seagate model numbers support NCQ?
  
  Since late 2004, most new SATA drive families have supported NCQ. The following Seagate model numbers drive families support NCQ:
  
  * Barracuda 7200.8, 7200.9, 7200.10, 7200.11 (SATA), 7200.12 and later
  * Barracuda NL35, NL35.2, ES, ES+, ES.2 (SATA) and later
  * Momentus 5400.2, 5400.3 (SATA) and later
  * Momentus 7200.1, 7200.2 (SATA) and later
  * Momentus 5400 PSD and later
  * Momentus 5400 FDE.2 and later

Here's a thread that is related to WINDOWS (not Ubuntu )
http://forums.storagereview.com/index.php/topic/23677-best-way-to-disable-ncq/

I managed to fix freezing by disable 'common queuing' at NVIDIA nForce Sata controller ( Control Panel>Device Manager).

My HP laptop with NVIDIA nForce Sata controller only.​

An article that will make your head spin (at least mind did [TMI] )
http://www.lostcircuits.com/mambo//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=50&Itemid=46

 

[Zen]

Computer Takes A Dump!

Well thank you one and all for your valued assistance here, in regards to my problem! But I think we can just "stand down" for the moment, for late last night my laptop computer took a nose dive and went ka-put! I suspect the hard drive blew itself up, for even the BIOS doesn't even see a hard drive connected anymore, it just gives "floppy" & "CD Drive" but no "hard drive", it's gone! So now I'm going to shop for an inexpensive replacement. So now I'm "land locked" to either my server and or desktop computers, so bye bye "take it anywhere" convenience!

So again thanks, just going to get a new hard drive and install Ubuntu 11.04 the next time, just to be on the safe side.

 

[Zen]

Back In The Saddle Again!

Well, after about 3-4 hours I'm back in the saddle again! I went to Best Buy and purchased two matching Seagate 300 Gig SATA laptop hard drives, they were on sale!

Now the only issue I have is do I run them both at the same time inside my laptop, or do I just use one for now and save the other new drive as a spare, I'll figure it out!

So here we are, back at to the beginning.....

No thrills, no frills, no eye candy, just your basic Ubuntu 10.10 adoring my laptop one more time.

Thanks for everyone's input here, it all might have worked out if my old hard drive wasn't set on taking a dump on me. But we got new ones, should last for a while! I hope! :suspiciou

 

[Leeky]

Your hard disk was the issue dude. :haha:

IF you have two identical drives, and your laptop can run two at once, you could RAID them in Linux. Thats assuming Linux is the only OS.

 

[Zen]

Your hard disk was the issue dude. :haha:

IF you have two identical drives, and your laptop can run two at once, you could RAID them in Linux. Thats assuming Linux is the only OS.

I'm going to have to look that stuff up, see how to do it, RAID them, I've done a little bit of that with Windows XP and Windows 2000 Pro, but never Linux. And yes, my Toshiba supports two hard drives being in it at the same time. And also I'm a "one O.S. at a time" kind of guy, I've got nothing else going on, just Ubuntu!

Now you got me curious!

 

[Zen]

I guess I will close this thing out by posting one last image, pertaining to this topic area. Now I'm "100% back in the saddle again"! Got most of my old wallpapers back, the Ubuntu custom cursor package is back and the total package of the Bisigi themes for Ubuntu, like 40 of them is one package, that was nice. This time I'm going with the "less is more" thing, last time I think I had to much junk in the trunk, going to keep things clean and simple this time.

Here it is, all pretty'd up again!

Feels so good to be totally back up and running!

Again, thanks folks for your assistance!