Opening Arch since Updates last weekend is...sketchy

Question

Since the last Arch update last weekend, opening my ThinkPad T60 laptop have been very sketchy.  Problems included kernel panics when loading modules, frozen login manager, corrupt graphics, or more recently, keyboard not being detected.  The problem is, these problems seems to occur at random.  At times, I can log into the system and use it fine; other times, it fails miserably before or on login screen.
I use LXDE and Openbox as my desktop environment and window manager.  I use SLiM for the login screen.  Finally, here's what my rc.conf looks like:
# /etc/rc.conf - Main Configuration for Arch Linux
# LOCALIZATION
# LOCALE: available languages can be listed with the 'locale -a' command
# HARDWARECLOCK: set to "UTC" or "localtime", any other value will result
# in the hardware clock being left untouched (useful for virtualization)
# TIMEZONE: timezones are found in /usr/share/zoneinfo
# KEYMAP: keymaps are found in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps
# CONSOLEFONT: found in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts (only needed for non-US)
# CONSOLEMAP: found in /usr/share/kbd/consoletrans
# USECOLOR: use ANSI color sequences in startup messages
LOCALE="en_US.UTF-8"
HARDWARECLOCK="localtime"
TIMEZONE="America/New_York"
KEYMAP="us"
CONSOLEFONT=
CONSOLEMAP=
USECOLOR="yes"
# HARDWARE
# MOD_AUTOLOAD: Allow autoloading of modules at boot and when needed
# MOD_BLACKLIST: Prevent udev from loading these modules
# MODULES: Modules to load at boot-up. Prefix with a ! to blacklist.
# NOTE: Use of 'MOD_BLACKLIST' is deprecated. Please use ! in the MODULES array.
MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes"
#MOD_BLACKLIST=() #deprecated
MODULES=(fuse iwl3945 vboxdrv vboxnetadp acpi-cpufreq cpufreq_ondemand cpufreq_powersave)
# Scan for LVM volume groups at startup, required if you use LVM
USELVM="no"
# NETWORKING
# HOSTNAME: Hostname of machine. Should also be put in /etc/hosts
HOSTNAME="arch-laptop"
# Use 'ifconfig -a' or 'ls /sys/class/net/' to see all available interfaces.
# Interfaces to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each interface then list in INTERFACES
# - prefix an entry in INTERFACES with a ! to disable it
# - no hyphens in your interface names - Bash doesn't like it
# DHCP: Set your interface to "dhcp" (eth0="dhcp")
# Wireless: See network profiles below
#Static IP example
#eth0="eth0 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255"
eth0="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(!eth0)
# Routes to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each route then list in ROUTES
# - prefix an entry in ROUTES with a ! to disable it
gateway="default gw 192.168.0.1"
ROUTES=(!gateway)
# Enable these network profiles at boot-up. These are only useful
# if you happen to need multiple network configurations (ie, laptop users)
# - set to 'menu' to present a menu during boot-up (dialog package required)
# - prefix an entry with a ! to disable it
# Network profiles are found in /etc/network.d
# This now requires the netcfg package
#NETWORKS=(main)
# DAEMONS
# Daemons to start at boot-up (in this order)
# - prefix a daemon with a ! to disable it
# - prefix a daemon with a @ to start it up in the background
DAEMONS=(@syslog-ng hal !network networkmanager @openntpd @netfs alsa !acpid laptop-mode !cpufreq @crond uinput slim)
If you can tell me which log files to look into, I can post those up as well.

Answer 1

japtar10101 wrote:
empthollow wrote:This sounds like random unrelated problems which leads me to think to try an fsck on the drive.  I have had similar types of random problems when boot partition is nearly full.  If you want to find out if it's related to the update you can always use the Arch Rollback Machine to see if the problem goes away after you backdate your system.  Hope that helps.
From what I understand, fsck checks and possibly re-writes the harddrive, no?
You're probably right about the main drive filling up and the distro crashing.  I'm getting dangerously close to filling up the / drive.  If you can enlighten me more on how to use fsck safely (ha!), that'll be great.
I'd be extremely surprised if fsck actually hurt your drive I've never had a problem with it
Last edited by itsbrad212 (2010-04-22 01:51:39)