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Fresh KDE Debian Etch 4.0r0 install experiencing system freezes in terminal emulators / xterms - Please help

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I have an LG LW40 laptop and I'm new to Debian (trying it out from Kubuntu) and I would love to give her a good run, but I have run into a persistant problem. With a fresh install (all software is original Etch 4.0r0 versions) if I open up a virtual terminal / terminal emulator (like konsole) and press one of the arrow keys on my keyboard (e.g., the left arrow key) my entire system will freeze solid!!!! I have to hold the power button down for 4 or 5 seconds to shut it down. The freeze is easily replicated (every single time I try).

To make this more clear, If I open up Konsole, Yakuake, Xterm, or Eterm (those were the 4 terminal emulators I tried it on) and I press the left arrow key - my entire system freezes completely!!!! The same thing happens if I press the right arrow key, or the down arrow key or the up arrow key.

To make matters weirder, if I pres ctrl+alt+F1 to enter one of the tty1 sessions (I don't even have to log in) and then press ctrl+alt+F7 to get back to the KDE desktop I can suddenly go into any of the terminal emulation programs and press the arrow keys to my hearts content, without any freezes????

I don't really know what is going on, and I am afraid that crazy freezes might happen in other programs, so I am hesitant to adopt this as my desktop. I am looking for any advice to fix this problem, or at the very least figure out how to properly file this as a bug (which section would I post it in??? what info should I include???)

Any and all feedback will be appreciated,
Thank you very much

Pat

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Fresh KDE Debian Etch 4.0r0

Submitted by pinniped on Thu, 2007-04-12 03:22.

This sounds like the sort of problem where you need to get someone to sit down at the computer. It would also be convenient to have a second computer and set up SSH so you can log in via ethernet and poke around to see what's gone wrong with the system. I suspect someone has done something naughty and connected X to a console device which they really shouldn't have connected to directly (in which case finding the problem will be a time consuming task). You can also check the X keyboard options to see if there are conflicting settings (a much easier task).

If you can connect via ssh using a second computer you can view the various log files in /var/log/ and look for clues. You can also use tools such as 'top' and 'memstat' or even poke around the /proc virtual directory.

If you can't log in via ssh then you're stuck inspecting the log files after a reboot - unfortunately that ruins the 'dmesg' log. To read the dmesg log from the previous boot you would have to boot with a Live CD (Knoppix, Ubuntu, etc), mount the partition with the var directory, and inspect the logs.

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Problem solved (I think :P)

Submitted by patprimate on Sat, 2007-04-14 23:19.

Hi Pinniped, thank you for your feedback and help :) It turned out to be the system bell which was freezing the system, and removing the pcspkr module has stopped it from happening.

thanx

Pat

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