Mailing List Archive

gentoo uninstallable on this hardware
I have had several system crashes trying a gentoo install.
These crashes involve the loss of speakup and no capability to resurrect
speakup either.
Further to that, when the system is shutdown it cannot be restarted
without use of the reset button additional to the power button.
When I take my finger off the reset button, the fan inside the computer
speeds up and the system dies again with the fan turning off.
It could be I have hardware problems over here and will have to replace
this system soon.
Most recent crash happened after opening links on the gentoo page itself.
So far, gentoo is the only flavor of linux used around here that crashes
my hardware like that. It was suggested the special glue holding the fan
to the cpu may have given out and in that case it's time for a new
computer.

In any case, this has been max frustrating.
Re: gentoo uninstallable on this hardware [ In reply to ]
On 4/17/22 11:06, Jude DaShiell wrote:
> ...
> Most recent crash happened after opening links on the gentoo page itself.
> So far, gentoo is the only flavor of linux used around here that crashes
> my hardware like that. It was suggested the special glue holding the fan
> to the cpu may have given out and in that case it's time for a new
> computer.
I don't believe that is glue, but thermal compound, which is supposed to
assist the flow of heat from the CPU to the heat sink. If that is the
problem, then your shutdowns would be due to overheating.  Depending on
the particular motherboard/CPU combination, it should be possible for
someone to remove the fan and heat sink from the CPU, clean off the old
compound, and replace the heat sink using new thermal compound.  I don't
know if there is any way for you to monitor the CPU temperature or at
least get a warning if that is the reason for the shutdown.
> In any case, this has been max frustrating.

Quite understandable.

Jack
Re: gentoo uninstallable on this hardware [ In reply to ]
What you describe may be a hardware problem, but it could also be related to
the kernel options enabled in the Live-USB media. I've had some MoBos
overheating when booting with one Live media OS, but not another. Chroot-ing
was OK, but trying to build anything thereafter ended up in overheating and a
crash. I suggest you try some other Live-USB and see if the problem persists.
You can install Gentoo from any Live-CD/DVD/USB, you don't need to restrict
yourself to the Gentoo offering. Essentially you're looking for a kernel with
more options for the CPU scheduler.

Alternatively, you could try setting a max CPU frequency in the scheduler
before you kick off with any resource intensive installation step and see if
this works for you. Check for the options to tweak under:

/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq

On Sunday, 17 April 2022 16:06:56 BST Jude DaShiell wrote:
> I have had several system crashes trying a gentoo install.
> These crashes involve the loss of speakup and no capability to resurrect
> speakup either.
> Further to that, when the system is shutdown it cannot be restarted
> without use of the reset button additional to the power button.
> When I take my finger off the reset button, the fan inside the computer
> speeds up and the system dies again with the fan turning off.
> It could be I have hardware problems over here and will have to replace
> this system soon.
> Most recent crash happened after opening links on the gentoo page itself.
> So far, gentoo is the only flavor of linux used around here that crashes
> my hardware like that. It was suggested the special glue holding the fan
> to the cpu may have given out and in that case it's time for a new
> computer.
>
> In any case, this has been max frustrating.
Re: gentoo uninstallable on this hardware [ In reply to ]
Old machine has died and gone to the recycler. It was having trouble even
starting up had to hit start button multiple times. New machine has nvme
drives on it and plenty of usb ports so older drives with other systems
can be attached. I updated grub after connecting one of these drives so
will experiment later today to see if I can boot from the second older
drive. That older machine gave good service for 8 years.


On Sun, 17 Apr 2022, Jack wrote:

> On 4/17/22 11:06, Jude DaShiell wrote:
> > ...
> > Most recent crash happened after opening links on the gentoo page itself.
> > So far, gentoo is the only flavor of linux used around here that crashes
> > my hardware like that. It was suggested the special glue holding the fan
> > to the cpu may have given out and in that case it's time for a new
> > computer.
> I don't believe that is glue, but thermal compound, which is supposed to
> assist the flow of heat from the CPU to the heat sink. If that is the problem,
> then your shutdowns would be due to overheating.  Depending on the particular
> motherboard/CPU combination, it should be possible for someone to remove the
> fan and heat sink from the CPU, clean off the old compound, and replace the
> heat sink using new thermal compound.  I don't know if there is any way for
> you to monitor the CPU temperature or at least get a warning if that is the
> reason for the shutdown.
> > In any case, this has been max frustrating.
>
> Quite understandable.
>
> Jack
>
>
>
>