ArcaOS keeps rebooting

[Rich Walsh]

Your 'popuplog.os2' confirmed that the problem does lie in the WPS process but little else. The fact that the problem is now intermittent leaves me less certain than I was before as to its cause. Given that, I'd like to eliminate the most likely suspects first. Based on the results, we can either start reenabling stuff until it goes bad again or just eliminate more things and hope that dumb luck is on our side.

The first things to go are: your Startup folder, FAT32, and all of XWP (my initial suspicion was that some widget on the XCenter was the culprit).

For the first two, open config.sys. Locate "SET RESTARTOBJECTS=STARTUPFOLDERSONLY,REBOOTONLY" and 'rem' it out, then add "SET RESTARTOBJECTS=NO". Next, find "IFS=C:\OS2\BOOT\fat32.ifs" and "call=C:\OS2\cachef32.exe" and 'rem' them out. (Note that both lines have additional parameters that I've left out to make this easier to read.) Save and close config.sys.

For XWP, we'll use brute force: rename 'C:\sys\apps\xwps' to, say, 'C:\sys\apps\xwps-hide'.

Now reboot and see what happens. If we're lucky and the system is stable, play with it for a few minutes. Be aware that your internet connection may not work, and if you've set any folders to use Xview, they won't open by dbl-clicking - you'll have to use their "Open as" menu (I have to fix that...). Since these crashes are intermittent, you may want to shut down and restart to confirm the problem has been eliminated.

Lets be optimistic and assume this worked, so the next step is reenabling things. First open your Startup folder (in the desktop Computer folder). Dbl-click on each icon and see what happens. No problem? Next, we'll reenable XWP but leave the XCenter plugins disabled. Remove the '-hide' from the xwps folder, then drill down to its plugins directory and rename 'C:\sys\apps\xwps\plugins\xcenter' to 'C:\sys\apps\xwps\plugins\xcenter-hide'. Finally, open config.sys and restore the "SET RESTARTOBJECTS=" line (but not the FAT32 stuff), then reboot.

Still OK? If so, you should have XCenter at the bottom of the screen but it will be missing the window list and time widgets. Now for the big test! Right-click on XCenter and select "Close" from it menu. Next, remove the '-hide' from 'C:\sys\apps\xwps\plugins\xcenter-hide'. Finally, open 'Programs->Utilities'. Therein you'll find an XCenter icon - dbl-click on it and hope for the best. If the system blows up, the culprit is an XCenter widget. If not, it's FAT32. If it seems to be FAT32, feel free to reenable it in config.sys to confirm the diagnosis.

Of course, if you never get this far, we'll just have to keep trying. In that case, posting your config.sys will make it easier to identify what needs to be done next.

Good luck!

[Doug Clark]

I have to ask the question: are you running SNAP or Panorama? (I am guessing you are not since you are on a laptop.)

My experience with SNAP was that it freezes during when starting the desktop - at various times, a problem I never have with Panorama. If I can get the desktop populated and not frozen the machine would run pretty well for hours. But getting past the startup was painful.

[Paolo_Ricardo]

Rich

The first things to go are: your Startup folder, FAT32, and all of XWP (my initial suspicion was that some widget on the XCenter was the culprit).

For the first two, open config.sys. Locate "SET RESTARTOBJECTS=STARTUPFOLDERSONLY,REBOOTONLY" and 'rem' it out, then add "SET RESTARTOBJECTS=NO". Next, find "IFS=C:\OS2\BOOT\fat32.ifs" and "call=C:\OS2\cachef32.exe" and 'rem' them out. (Note that both lines have additional parameters that I've left out to make this easier to read.) Save and close config.sys.

For XWP, we'll use brute force: rename 'C:\sys\apps\xwps' to, say, 'C:\sys\apps\xwps-hide'.

Did this and ArcaOS booted OK. All my apps (for which I have desktop folders) loaded. (One question - I thought I'd lose all these when I was going through the ARCHIVE procedure earlier so why are they still available?)

First open your Startup folder (in the desktop Computer folder). Dbl-click on each icon and see what happens. No problem?

Not sure - I double clicked on all the icons in the Startup folder. CAD-Popup opens after a couple of tries.
CUPS Daemon, TCP/IP Startup and USBPRT Automonitor double clicking apparently did nothing - certainly nothing visible appeared.

Also attached CONFIG.SYS renamed to CONFIG.BAK.

Paul

[Paolo_Ricardo]

Doug

No. I am not running SNAP or Panorama. I chose the defaults suggested during installation.

Paul

[Rich Walsh]

The first things to go are: your Startup folder, FAT32, and all of XWP (my initial suspicion was that some widget on the XCenter was the culprit).

Did this and ArcaOS booted OK. All my apps (for which I have desktop folders) loaded. (One question - I thought I'd lose all these when I was going through the ARCHIVE procedure earlier so why are they still available?)

I'm glad to hear we're getting somewhere    I'd encourage you to move to the next step and reenable your Startup folder and all of XWP except the widget plugins as I described. Which reminds me... did you install any new XCenter plugins and/or did you enable the XWLan widget? If not, then finish up by reenabling the XCenter widgets since it's looking like FAT32 is the culprit (if so, there's an older version you can try).

I can't answer your archive question any too authoritatively because I've never restored one. However, I do know that any program objects or shadows that your installed apps created should be gone because they're stored in 'os2.ini' and that definitely gets replaced by the archived version. I'm not sure how physical files and folders that weren't in the archive are handled.

First open your Startup folder (in the desktop Computer folder). Dbl-click on each icon and see what happens. No problem?

Not sure - I double clicked on all the icons in the Startup folder. CAD-Popup opens after a couple of tries.
CUPS Daemon, TCP/IP Startup and USBPRT Automonitor double clicking apparently did nothing - certainly nothing visible appeared.

Most items in the Startup folder either terminate as soon as they've done whatever, or they launch background programs that you wouldn't see, so your results are to be expected.

BTW... Kudos to Doug Clark for mentioning SNAP - it should definitely be on any short-list of potential culprits. As it happens, Paul, you are running Panorama - it's the default (plus it's in the config.sys you posted).

[Paolo_Ricardo]

Rich

"SET RESTARTOBJECTS=STARTUPFOLDERSONLY,REBOOTONLY" and 'rem' it out, then add "SET RESTARTOBJECTS=NO". Next, find "IFS=C:\OS2\BOOT\fat32.ifs" and "call=C:\OS2\cachef32.exe" and 'rem' them out

I reversed the SET RESTARTOBJECTS line but left the IFS+ and CALL= lines.

Remove the '-hide' from the xwps folder, then drill down to its plugins directory and rename 'C:\sys\apps\xwps\plugins\xcenter' to 'C:\sys\apps\xwps\plugins\xcenter-hide'.

Did this, rebooted and the system froze - no mouse movement, had to pull the power plug again.

Paul

[Rich Walsh]

Remove the '-hide' from the xwps folder, then drill down to its plugins directory and rename 'C:\sys\apps\xwps\plugins\xcenter' to 'C:\sys\apps\xwps\plugins\xcenter-hide'.

Did this, rebooted and the system froze - no mouse movement, had to pull the power plug again.

That's not at all what I expected. Just to confirm: after un-hiding the 'xwps' directory, you did hide 'plugins\xcenter' before rebooting?

I can't recall anyone ever having this sort of problem with XWP exclusive of some of its questionable plugins. The kind of errors I saw in your 'popuplog.os2' strongly suggested that a device driver was the root cause - an app would be unable to trash the CPU's registers so badly. XWP itself generally doesn't try "talking" to them directly but some of the plugins do which is why I suspected them.

At this point I imagine you've hidden the XWP directory again to get your system back. You might as well reenable FAT32 if you haven't already. The only other thing I can think of right now is to disable the XWP components that support the XPager (virtual desktop) and hotkeys. To do so, you'd open 'C:\sys\apps\xwps\bin' and rename 'xwpdaemn.exe' and 'xwphook.dll'.

Ir would be a shame if you lost access to some of XWP's many conveniences. If you're interested, once your system is stable, I can walk you thru uninstalling the AN version and installing the full-featured version which gives you greater control over which of its many components are enabled.

Let us know how it goes.

[Paolo_Ricardo]

Rich

you did hide 'plugins\xcenter' before rebooting?

I've just gone through this procedure twice - UNHIDE-ing x-center. It appears that with all the HIDEs removed (from xwps, plugins, x-center) the system is loading normally - sorry if I misled you, I must have got confused as to what I was and wasn't hiding 

So I have desktop and full mouse function. What I haven't got is the XWP - there is nothing in the bottom left hand corner of the screen.

Paul

[Paolo_Ricardo]

Just to clarify - I rebooted with x-center-hide and then with out -hide.  There are now no -hides on the xwps/plugins/x-center folders

Paul

[Paolo_Ricardo]

Rich

OK, I've recreated my steps

With x-center-hide the desktop freezes - power plug out

With everything UNHIDDEN (xwps/plugins/x-center) I get the desktop and XWP but the desktop freezes - power plug out

I renamed xwpdaemn.exe and xwphook.dll and rebooted - that got me to the desktop as before but the system froze again - power plug out

I have now hidden xwps - no problem, boots OK
... and am now going to restore FAT32 - no problem boots OK.

So where to from here?

Paul

[Paolo_Ricardo]

Rich

I have decided to reinstall ArcaOS. Apart from the issues around xwps I am finding other things which are not right like programs which do not load when I double-click on their icons or icons on the desktop which don't retain their position between reboots. So I'll see if a completely fresh install helps.

I know I'll lose all my previously installed applications but I'll just have to go through the process of reinstallation with them as well.

I appreciate your efforts on my behalf but maybe a restart might be better.  I'll give ArcaOS one more try - if that doesn't work I'll have to regretfully depart the ArcaOS fraternity.

Paul

[Greggory Shaw]

Rich

I have decided to reinstall ArcaOS. Apart from the issues around xwps I am finding other things which are not right like programs which do not load when I double-click on their icons or icons on the desktop which don't retain their position between reboots. So I'll see if a completely fresh install helps.

I know I'll lose all my previously installed applications but I'll just have to go through the process of reinstallation with them as well.

I appreciate your efforts on my behalf but maybe a restart might be better.  I'll give ArcaOS one more try - if that doesn't work I'll have to regretfully depart the ArcaOS fraternity.

Paul

Use the advanced install option, maybe SNAP this time and zip(backup) the new install as soon as it completes the install.

[Rich Walsh]

I have decided to reinstall ArcaOS.

On the whole, I think that's a very good idea. As I mentioned previously, I've never heard of XWP causing the kind of problems you've encountered, so something in the installation must be really messed up. Since I'm the one who would probably have to fix whatever might actually be wrong with XWP, I have a vested interest in you having a successful install 

Just two bits of advice if you haven't reinstalled already:

* if you choose the Advanced option which lets you choose what will be installed and where, avoid using the "Back" button. I installed AOS many times and the only failed installations I encountered were those where I paged back and forth. Indeed, I'd suggest going all the way through, paging back and forth as much as you want to get a good idea of your choices, then cancelling the whole thing on the last page. Do this a couple of times if need be. By the third time thru you'll know exactly what's available and which options you want and will be able make your choices without hesitation - and without going back. The install will almost certainly be successful.

* I have to strongly disagree with Greggory as to choice of video. Unless you have a fairly ancient video chipset that it supports, SNAP is semi-useless: it's far slower than Panorama and in many cases is unable to support resolutions that weren't common 10+ years ago.

Let us know how the new install works for you.

[Lars]

This is an interesting discussion:
I have sudden system reboots every now and then as soon as XCenter bar has completely built up. I don't have AN installed but I do have the latest XWP installed.
I have now removed the Window list widget. Let's see if that helps. Possibly need to remove additional widgets.

[xynixme]

I don't have AN installed but I do have the latest XWP installed.

For the record: which version? There are two versions per release. Which version is AN's?