X session crases; reboot woes

[Beomoss]

#include <std_i'm_new_so_please_bear_with_me.h>

Hi everyone,

After experimenting with FC3 on an old laptop, I decided I was ready to make the switch on my main desktop machine. I've gotten everything more or less setup, but I'm still having problems running X, as follows:

My system freezes occasionally, when I do things like log out of a Gnome or KDE session, exit Tux Racer, or try to switch from the graphical terminal, to a TTY login, like with Ctrl-Alt-Fn. The system doesn't always do this, but it happens much more frequently than I'd think is normal. When it freezes, I lose all control of the system (i.e., can't Ctrl-Alt-Fn to a text-only environment, power button on the machine doesn't work), and I'm forced to pull the plug. On rebooting, the problem gets a bit more interesting.

I start to boot, and after the hardware initialization part of the startup process, I get stuck at a white screen, where I'm again forced to yank the plug. I start up again, and I make it all the way to the graphical startup, with the little computer image, and the progress bar and all. The graphical startup then cuts out to the 'Your system has been shut down uncleanly' thing, after which the system again freezes. This time, rather than a white screen, it's black, but I'm still unable to do anything. Third time seems to be the charm; when I pull the plug and start back up, and I'm able to log in and go about my computing, until the next time the system crashes, and I have to repeat the whole process.

Other than this issue (issues?), the system seems to be running quite well, but I'd really like not to have so many crashes, or to have to reboot three times before I can log back in. Can anyone point me in the right direction on figuring out what's wrong and how to right it? Thanks!

[imdeemvp]

Can you post desktop's specs? perhaps you have problems with video card.

[Beomoss]

Sure; I'm running on a 2.4GHz P4, with 1.5G of RAM, and an nVidia GeForce 6600 GT video card. Would it help if I posted the X.org.conf file, or the logfile? Also, I was thinking that maybe disabling the graphical startup stuff might help the reboot issues? Thanks!

[GiLuX]

i suspect ram problems...

try running memtest

[Beomoss]

Okay, problem solved! The issue was not memory, as speculated above. I ran memtest, but everything there checked out. I had been running a 2.6.9 kernel which I updated to a 2.6.10 series kernel. A quick recompile of the nVidia driver interface, and I was up and running! I've been using the new kernel all day, and I haven't been able to crash X, despite my best efforts. No word yet on whether this solved the post-crash reboot issues, though hopefully it'll be a long time before I have to find out. For the record, and anyone who may have similar problems in the future, I was running into trouble with the 2.6.9 kernel, and upgrading to 2.6.10 seems to have cured me. Also, it is probably worth noting that the new kernel in question is from PlanetCCRMA, designed for low-latency audio stuff.