Random System Freeze

Z

Zircon

Been having random system freezes since I built the system in May. It will run fine for a few days then just freeze with no mention of anything I can use in /var/log/messages or var/crash. It'll reboot fine, then throw itself into a long fsck. The fsck will find and fix things as the partitions were forcibly un-mounted. Then the system runs great.

Hardware components are off-the-shelf and new this year.

uname-a reads as follows:
Code: 
8.0-RELEASE FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE #0: Sat Nov 21 15:02:08 UTC 2009     root@mason.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  amd64

I am using this rig as a personal workstation. Gnome is installed @ v2.30 and I have GNOME_ENABLE="YES" in /etc/rc.conf. Whether I leave the system logged into Gnome or just at the login screen, the problem exists.

I had been getting:
Code: 
kernel: calcru: runtime went backwards from 1327 usec to 1308 usec for pid 1437 (getty)

-type of errors, and thought those were the problem. I got rid of them with the help of DutchDaemon's post in this thread:

http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=2805&highlight=calcru%3A+runtime+backwards

by disabling CPU EIST function in BIOS. That cleared up the 'calcru: runtime went backwards' errors, but still the freezing occurs.

Some more system info:
Code: 
$ dmesg | grep Timecounter
Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0
Timecounter "ACPI-fast" frequency 3579545 Hz quality 1000
Timecounter "HPET" frequency 14318180 Hz quality 900
Timecounters tick every 1.000 msec

$ sysctl kern.timecounter.hardware
kern.timecounter.hardware: ACPI-fast

So I am thinking that there is a problem with time on this computer. The computer keeps accurate time, but maybe there is a system-level mis-communication between the BIOS and the OS. Any help greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
 
I think I solved my problem. Through looking around this great forum, especially here http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=10562 (thanks people!) and off-site, http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=47 I learned that there are issues with my GPU, an EVGA/NVidia GeForce GT 240, and the current ported NVidia Driver for FreeBSD, 195.36.15. So I went 'out of bounds' to NVidia directly, http://www.nvidia.com/object/freebsd-x64-256.53-driver.html, downloaded version 256.53 for my platform, read the README and installed it as per the README.

I didn't feel comfortable going outside the ports collection, but I had no other options. The install worked (installed it with Gnome and X.org NOT running) and my problem seems to have vanished. So definitely "Thanks All" as I figured this out. I have to offer a huge 'YMMV' on this and can only recommend this solution if all normal ports installation options just do not work out AND you have the GT 240.

Thanks again,
Z [Solved]
 
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