Need help debugging a freezing Debian 9 PC

[mef]

I've recently installed Debian 9 (Gnome) as my main desktop OS. Before that I've used it on a laptop, where it works great. But on my desktop installation it sometimes all of a sudden freezes. It can happen twice a day, or not occur for several days. I'm new to *nix, so when it freezes I try pressing Ctrl-Alt-F2 (or F3, F4...) hoping to see the console, but it doesn't work. I have to reset manually.
What logs should I view in this situation? How to identify the problem? I guess, it must be my firewire soundcard, but I need to be sure if I'm going to replace it.

[kopper]

Dmesg output would give a hint. What sound card are you using?

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sudo dmesg

Most surefire thing to do to ensure whether it's the sound card is to detach it and see if the problem persists. During crash, have you tried these to recover functionality?
https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debi ... _sysrq_key

[mef]

I'm using M-Audio Profire610, which is connected via a Texas Instruments PCIe 1394 adapter card. I don't expect it to work well on Debian, so I'm ready to switch it to something more conventional and proven to work.
dmesg gives me 800+ lines, what exactly should I look for?
And thanks for the link, I'll study it and gonna try it out.

[dasein]

dmesg gives me 800+ lines, what exactly should I look for?

An error message. More detail would require clairvoyant knowledge of the error.

(Pedantic aside: dmesg does not require root privileges)

[mef]

These are the lines containing "error" or "fail" in dmesg output:

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[    1.469955] ACPI Error: [DSSP] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20160831/psargs-359)
[    1.470169] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_SB.PCI0.SAT0.SPT0._GTF] (Node ffff959c7e0d7050), AE_NOT_FOUND (20160831/psparse-543)
[    1.470481] ACPI Error: [DSSP] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20160831/psargs-359)
[    1.470688] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_SB.PCI0.SAT0.SPT1._GTF] (Node ffff959c7e0d7078), AE_NOT_FOUND (20160831/psparse-543)

[    1.471418] ACPI Error: [DSSP] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20160831/psargs-359)
[    1.471622] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_SB.PCI0.SAT0.SPT0._GTF] (Node ffff959c7e0d7050), AE_NOT_FOUND (20160831/psparse-543)


[    1.472231] ACPI Error: [DSSP] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND
[    1.472441] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_SB.PCI0.SAT0.SPT1._GTF] (Node ffff959c7e0d7078), AE_NOT_FOUND (20160831/psparse-543)

[    2.328089] EXT4-fs (sda2): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro

[    3.170978] firewire_core 0000:03:00.0: BM lock failed (timeout), making local node (ffc0) root
[    3.170992] firewire_core 0000:03:00.0: phy config: new root=ffc0, gap_count=5

[pendrachken]

An error message. More detail would require clairvoyant knowledge of the error.

(Pedantic aside: dmesg does not require root privileges)

By default yes it does. This changed at least a few months to a year ago:

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xxxxxx@debianvm:~$ dmesg
dmesg: read kernel buffer failed: Operation not permitted

[stevepusser]

dmesg gives me 800+ lines, what exactly should I look for?

An error message. More detail would require clairvoyant knowledge of the error.

(Pedantic aside: dmesg does not require root privileges)

I thought that the newer Debian kernel now requires that for dmesg, for better security. http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=130372

[mef]

Guys, can you look at the messages that I provided?

[kopper]

Guys, can you look at the messages that I provided?

Two last lines in your dmesg show that kernel module firewire_core times out and doesn't seem to discover your device. You could post

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dmesg | grep firewire_core

to verify whether it's really left unidentified, now only errors are shown (like asked).

You could also answer following questions:
- What OS you use on your laptop where the sound card "just works"? You don't even seem to mention if you use Debian or something else, let alone which OS version.
- What kernel are you using on your laptop? Is it different from your desktop? Tip:

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uname -a

Texas Instruments PCIe 1394 adapter card.

This seems to be supported for Debian 9, although you don't specify the exact model name. I however doubt that this is the problem.

[mef]

I've said in the first post, that I use Debian 9 both on my laptop and desktop PC. I've used the soundcard only with my desktop. Maybe I was ambiguous about that. What I wanted to say is that the only presumably problematic hardware is my firewire soundcard, because the laptop works fine (without it, but with the same OS), and the desktop freezes, and the sound card doesn't work as it should (I have sound, but with a slight pause every time before I start playing music). I know this is not the proper way to identify the problem, but these are my suspicions.
As for the model of the PCIe firewire adapter, it is Texas Instruments XIO2200A IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller

sudo dmesg | grep firewire_core gives me this:

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[    1.667695] firewire_core 0000:03:00.0: created device fw0: GUID 00000000000000eb, S400
[    1.723742] firewire_core 0000:03:00.0: created device fw1: GUID 000d6c0404400002, S400
[    3.171483] firewire_core 0000:03:00.0: BM lock failed (timeout), making local node (ffc0) root
[    3.171485] firewire_core 0000:03:00.0: phy config: new root=ffc0, gap_count=5

and uname -a:

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Linux debb 4.9.0-3-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.9.30-2+deb9u2 (2017-06-26) x86_64 GNU/Linux

[kopper]

I've said in the first post, that I use Debian 9 both on my laptop and desktop PC. I've used the sound card only with my desktop. Maybe I was ambiguous about that.

Yes it was ambiguous. Two different machines, especially desktop and laptop, have totally different hardware and you cannot make any hardware-related conclusions about the desktop based on something you're able to achieve with your laptop. Bringing up the laptop while presenting your sound card theory made me instantly think that surely there is some relevance here, while there was actually none. While you might be correct blaming the external sound card for freezes, the assumptions you make don't make much sense. It might be as well that sound card's not working well since it's not supported for Linux (according to manufacturers documentation) and freezing is due to something completely different.

Have you tried my suggestion from my first reply? It's now even more relevant since the evidence for sound card theory has suffered minor loss of credibility. Meanwhile, you can use your motherboard's sound card. I suggest you try this before anything else.

Most surefire thing to do to ensure whether it's the sound card is to detach it and see if the problem persists.

[mef]

Sorry, I was under impression that my motherboard doesn't have any onboard audio. My bad. And because I need audio for my everyday work, I could not possibly switch the firewire sound card off completely without replacing it. Now I can see indeed that I just needed to enable onboard audio controller in BIOS. It works, so I'll test it for several days or a week. Thank you for your guidance and for pointing out the faults in my logic)