hald causes periodic system freezes

[Simon Marti]

Hello

I've got a Asus EEE PC 900 on which I have installed the newest Ubuntu (8.10). To make the hardware work I had set up a few optimizations, one of these is the EEE-PC-optimized kernel by Adam.
Now to the bug:
-Description: The system produces periodic freezes every few seconds (about every 10 sec). During this freeze it completely hangs for a part of second. So if you listen to an MP3 or watch a movie there is a VERY annoying break every few seconds. Even during normal web-browsing this freeze is clearly noticeable.
-Supposed cause: After hours of searching the Internet and looking for a reason on my EEE I think I've finally found the process which causes this trouble: It's hald. The system monitor showed me this process for a really short time on the top of the list (system usage). But this was the first and (until now) the last time it could reach the top of the list (I suppose the time of height system usage of hald is mostly much to short to be even shown by a prog like top). After I've killed hald the freeze was gone, but hald's functionality unfortunately too...

Hope this description helps to find and destroy this annoying bug!

Thanks a lot in advance! You are doing great work!

Regards

Simon

[Bubblan (tobias-lyxigt)]

Hi.

I have the exact same problem.

EEE PC 900 (4Gb + 16 Gb).
EEEbuntu 2.0

[BDenis (borenko)]

And I.
In original ubuntu kernel problem exist too.
EEE PC 900 16 Gb
Ubuntu 8.10

[Christopher (chriruud)]

does this problem even affect Easy Peasy 1.0 ? All reports so far are concerning "EEEbuntu 2.0" and "Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex", although EP1.0 are based on Intrepid and array.org 2.6.27.

[Geraldo (geraldo-dalberto)]

eeepc 900 + intrepid (both adam's and stock kernel behave alike in relation to this bug)

Using the command acpi -b also makes video/audio stutter. I think the scripts invoked by acpi events make intensive use of this command (acpi) to get battery status, etc.

It makes impossible to watch video or listen to music on battery. Very annoying.

Using the kernel option noacpi eliminates the problem, but using a laptop without acpi is not a option to me.

[Bubblan (tobias-lyxigt)]

I can confirm that this problem even affect Easy Peasy 1.0, and as Geraldo said this affect all intrepid distributions with adam's and stock kernel.

[Geraldo (geraldo-dalberto)]

I've said before that running acpi -b causes the sound to freeze. But actually reading from /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0 gives the same effect.

To test, simply do a 'cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0' while on battery power playing a song.

The sound chokes.

[Geraldo (geraldo-dalberto)]

I'm using jaunty (which uses kernel 2.6.28).

The problem is gone.

(restricted modules must be installed)

[Bubblan (tobias-lyxigt)]

Hi.

Thanks I will try that. I guess that jaunty versions of eeeBuntu and
EasyPeasy will be released in may.

BR,
Tobias

2009/2/12 Geraldo <email address hidden>:
> I'm using jaunty (which uses kernel 2.6.28).
>
> The problem is gone.
>
> (restricted modules must be installed)
>
> --
> hald causes periodic system freezes
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/313573
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in Easy Peasy: Incomplete
> Status in Ubuntu EeePC-optimized Kernel: New
>
> Bug description:
> Hello
>
> I've got a Asus EEE PC 900 on which I have installed the newest Ubuntu (8.10). To make the hardware work I had set up a few optimizations, one of these is the EEE-PC-optimized kernel by Adam.
> Now to the bug:
> -Description: The system produces periodic freezes every few seconds (about every 10 sec). During this freeze it completely hangs for a part of second. So if you listen to an MP3 or watch a movie there is a VERY annoying break every few seconds. Even during normal web-browsing this freeze is clearly noticeable.
> -Supposed cause: After hours of searching the Internet and looking for a reason on my EEE I think I've finally found the process which causes this trouble: It's hald. The system monitor showed me this process for a really short time on the top of the list (system usage). But this was the first and (until now) the last time it could reach the top of the list (I suppose the time of height system usage of hald is mostly much to short to be even shown by a prog like top). After I've killed hald the freeze was gone, but hald's functionality unfortunately too...
>
> Hope this description helps to find and destroy this annoying bug!
>
> Thanks a lot in advance! You are doing great work!
>
> Regards
>
> Simon
>

[Simon Marti (marphy43-gmail)]

Hi

Yes, thanks a lot for the hints Geraldo!

Now then, we only have to wait for Jaunty (or install its alpha)...

Simon

[Sitsofe Wheeler (sitsofe)]

This sounds like http://marc.info/?l=linux-acpi&m=122233252523050&w=2 which I think was fixed in 2.6.28...

[Sitsofe Wheeler (sitsofe)]

Here's a link to the commit in git - http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=8bd108d14604d9c95000751e6c6ecbd11ea6ed40 .

[JW (jhmgoossens)]

I had the same problem on my eee 900 running easypeasy, UNTIL i tried to fix a microphone problem by uninstalling PulseAudio!

I followed http://forum.eeebuntu.org/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=999&p=4229

As mentioned there, using Synaptic I uninstalled all PulseAudio packages, then installed ESound, rebooted etc, and not only did my microphone work well, but also the periodic system freezes (induced also by cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0..) especially during video playback, where gone!

I dont think this actually solved the problem with acpi, but it certainly did remove the video & audio symptome glitches. Good enough for me in the short term..

[kalevionni (kalevionni)]

You can kill hald at login by creating a script, something like this:

#!/bin/bash
echo "password" | sudo -S /etc/init.d/hal stop

save it, and add to the autostart list at MainMenu->System->ControlCenter->Sessions

You will lose the battery meter + the usb drive autoconnect. I use scripts to mount and unmount my external drives, and place their icon onto my desktop.