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Adrian Midgley wrote: > If I boot this machine with the current SMP kernel it runs for a while, > longer if GNome is not logged in, I think, and then freezes completely. > > With the single processor -486- version of the kernel it works fine. > > I've tried googling, tried noapic and acpi=off but I don't understand it. > > Previously it was stable under SMP with Sarge, plus a load of Etch > packages, until it ate the drive this was on - hence reinstall... > > > Advice? My laptop as well. The Kernel got an ACPI subsystem revamp between 2.6.8-2 and 2.6.10 (I think it was introduced at 2.6.10). Basically any desktop type system, laptop, or anything using power management or other "introspection of its own hardware", that goes wobbly over this upgrade, it is worth trying the kernel option to switch ACPI off (hint you edit the grub menu.lst, or for testing just edit the line at boot). My experiences of discovering all this here; http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=333831 Seems that Microsoft, Intel and friends were very slack at checking return codes from this, where as Linux checked them and believed the results (bad move trusting your firmware). If it makes you feel better this is one of the things Vista had to revisit, and I suspect Microsoft knocks a few heads together since then. But yes, PC power management still sucks, although now mostly it is just the software that is using the wrong sized return codes<sic>, rather than the actual hardware, so you can disassemble it, fix the assembler, recompile, and create a custom kernel to load up your fixed version (alternatively if switching ACPI off works, you can leave it off, which seems a tad simpler if not as elegant). Now if the manufacturers all made the source code open, it would be a lot easier to fix these problems, and distribute the fixes within Debian. As it is they are blackbox fixes of assembler, which Debian are unlikely to redistribute (even if they were legally allows to by the manufacturers). Then again it could be the hardware -- anything logged, anything displayed on the console -- any way to reproduce (mind took a dislike to the CD player). -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html