Strange complete system freeze with no log messages

Question

After the latest pacman -Syu, I've been having problems with hard freezes which leave no error messages on any of the log files in /var/log.
I have checked /var/log/everything.log, errors.log, Xorg.0.log, dmesg.log, kernel.log, and messages.log, but none of them indicate any problems.
In the three occasions when the system has frozen, it has occurred when I press the "enter" key (twice while browsing the web, and once in gnome-terminal), but pressing the "enter" key does not always freeze the system.  In particular, it has not been a problem when logging in via GDM.
OK, the system crashed twice again after pressing enter while typing this post.  Now, I'm resorting to copying and pasting new lines.
As I've already said, log files show no errors or any messages which indicate this sort of problem.  The screen simply freezes, there is no hard-drive activity, there is no response to keyboard or mouse inputs, I cannot switch to other tty screens.  Unfortunately, my keyboard doesn't have lights for numlock, etc., so I cannot do the keyboard lights trick to check for kernel panic.
This all happened just after the most recent package upgrade, so I'll post which packages were upgraded here:
[2009-12-11 10:47] synchronizing package lists
[2009-12-11 10:47] starting full system upgrade
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded heimdal (1.2.1-7 -> 1.3.1-2)
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded libcups (1.4.2-1 -> 1.4.2-2)
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded cups (1.4.2-1 -> 1.4.2-2)
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded enchant (1.5.0-1 -> 1.5.0-2)
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded evolution-data-server (2.28.1-1 -> 2.28.1-2)
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded gen-init-cpio (2.6.17-3 -> 2.6.32-1)
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded ghostscript (8.70-2 -> 8.70-3)
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded tdb (3.4.3-3 -> 3.4.3-4)
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded smbclient (3.4.3-3 -> 3.4.3-4)
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded gnome-vfs (2.24.2-1 -> 2.24.2-2)
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded gstreamer0.10-bad (0.10.17-2 -> 0.10.17-3)
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded neon (0.28.6-1 -> 0.28.6-2)
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded gstreamer0.10-bad-plugins (0.10.17-2 -> 0.10.17-3)
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded gtk2 (2.18.3-2 -> 2.18.4-1)
[2009-12-11 10:59] >>please run /usr/sbin/cups-genppdupdate
[2009-12-11 10:59] >>and restart cups deamon
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded gutenprint (5.2.4-1 -> 5.2.4-2)
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded kbd (1.15-2 -> 1.15.1-1)
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded libburn (0.7.2.pl01-1 -> 0.7.4.pl00-1)
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded libcddb (1.3.2-1 -> 1.3.2-1.1)
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded libv4l (0.6.3-1 -> 0.6.3-2)
[2009-12-11 10:59] warning: /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist installed as /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.pacnew
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded pacman-mirrorlist (20090616-1 -> 20091206-1)
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded pm-utils (1.2.6.1-1 -> 1.2.6.1-2)
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded subversion (1.6.6-1 -> 1.6.6-2)
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded telepathy-glib (0.9.1-1 -> 0.9.2-1)
[2009-12-11 10:59] upgraded xorg-server (1.7.2-2 -> 1.7.3-1)
Any ideas?
Last edited by samjh (2009-12-11 12:41:49)

Answer 1

libmcCain wrote:
What do you mean? If you don't use GDM, you don't put it at all!
Anyway, I removed GDM from rc.conf and startx from console. So far so good, no hard freeze in one week.
Edit: Sojek you also have hard system freeze yet you don't use GDM? Does your hard freeze occurs when you hit enter?
you can also start gdm from the inittab.
# cat /etc/inittab
# /etc/inittab
#  Runlevels:
#    0    Halt
#    1(S)    Single-user
#    2    Not used
#    3    Multi-user
#    4    Not used
#    5    X11
#    6    Reboot
## Only one of the following two lines can be uncommented!
# Boot to console
#id:3:initdefault:
# Boot to X11
id:5:initdefault:
rc::sysinit:/etc/rc.sysinit
rs:S1:wait:/etc/rc.single
rm:2345:wait:/etc/rc.multi
rh:06:wait:/etc/rc.shutdown
su:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin -p
# -8 options fixes umlauts problem on login
c1:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty1 linux
c2:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty2 linux
c3:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty3 linux
c4:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty4 linux
c5:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty5 linux
c6:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty6 linux
# Hypervisor Virtual Console for Xen and KVM
#h0:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -8 38400 hvc0 linux
ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t3 -r now
# Example lines for starting a login manager
#x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/xdm -nodaemon
x:5:respawn:/usr/sbin/gdm -nodaemon
#x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/kdm -nodaemon
#x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/slim >& /dev/null
# End of file