Need help sorting AMD R9 270 & OpenSuse LEAP 42.1 Linux issue

[AbortRetry]

I don't know how much Linux help is available in this forum, but on the off chance someone here can help, since ultimately it *is* a hardware issue...
(but I've also posted in the Suse forums, just covering all the bases )
Since installing OpenSuse LEAP 42.1 (actually the only OS I've *installed* on this box, however, Puppy Linux runs flawlessly in RAM) been having random crashes, "mostly" while running *any* web browser, that is, browser just exits. Also system freezes up, sometimes with eg a multimedia player, but it's frozen with seemingly random software too, to the extent that key combos are useless, and the only way out of the crash is to cut power and re-boot the system. The only browser I've been able to run with any degree of reliability is Links, since there's basically no multimedia or java-script happening it's all kinds of stable.

I built this box not too long ago, ran into a few issues which I got sorted, but this one's kicking my butt, don't mind a re-install, but done several with no luck, don't want to downgrade or change distros (honestly don't even know if that will solve anything anyway) I'll try to provide adequate info, and anyone with Linux experience who wants to help me troubleshoot it can ask for whatever else is needed...

System info is as follows:

MB: MSI 990FXA Gaming
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 4x8GB DDR3 @ 2400MHz (actually I think it's closer to 2133)

Video card: MSI Computer Corp. Video Graphics Card R9 270 GAMING 2G

(is this just completely incompatible? Pretty sure I can still send it back, that is, I'm reasonably sure it's a graphics card issue, but the last box I built was 16 years ago, so I'm a little out of my depth hardware-wise)

Chipset: AMD Radeon R9 270
Video Memory: 2GB GDDR5
Memory Clock: 5600 MHz
Memory Interface: 256-bit
Max. Resolution: 2560 x 1600

using this driver: radeon-crimson-15.30.1025

OS: OpenSuse LEAP 42.1
DE: KDE Plasma Version: 5.5.5
QT Version: 5.5.1
Kernel: 4.1.27-27-default
OS: 64 bit

BTW, Plasma crashes completely when I ask KInfoCenter for OpenGL information, or the info center simply exits. Started from a terminal it gives this:

KCrash: Application 'kinfocenter' crashing...
KCrash: Attempting to start /usr/lib64/libexec/drkonqi from kdeinit
sock_file=/run/user/1000/kdeinit5__0

[1]+ Stopped kinfocenter


lspci output:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (external gfx0 port B) (rev 02)
00:00.2 IOMMU: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RD990 I/O Memory Management Unit (IOMMU)
00:02.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (PCI express gpp port B)
00:04.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RD890 PCI to PCI bridge (PCI express gpp port D)
00:11.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 40)
00:12.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:12.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
00:13.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:13.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
00:14.0 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 42)
00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 LPC host controller (rev 40)
00:14.4 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge (rev 40)
00:14.5 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI2 Controller
00:15.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB700/SB800/SB900 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 0)
00:15.3 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB900 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 3)
00:16.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:16.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 0
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 1
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 2
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 3
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 4
00:18.5 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h Processor Function 5
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Curacao PRO [Radeon R7 370 / R9 270/370 OEM]
01:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Cape Verde/Pitcairn HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 7700/7800 Series]
02:00.0 USB controller: ASMedia Technology Inc. Device 1343
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Qualcomm Atheros Killer E220x Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 13)
05:00.0 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VL805 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 01)
--------------------

...hopefully this is enough info for someone with maybe a better understanding than my own to at least help me get started sorting this out, it really is driving me bonkers, so any help at all would be greatly appreciated! In the interest of brevity I haven't added my Xorg.conf or the latest Xorg logs, but can if need be...

Thanks in advance

 

[skittle]

Most likely a software issue. impossible to tell without any logs or debugging info pertaining to the crash. Only suggesting is to use latest Ubuntu 16.04LTS and see if the issue is present there as well and to also check if the issue persists with the open source drivers not just with proprietary AMD driver

 

[AbortRetry]

Most likely a software issue. impossible to tell without any logs or debugging info pertaining to the crash. Only suggesting is to use latest Ubuntu 16.04LTS and see if the issue is present there as well and to also check if the issue persists with the open source drivers not just with proprietary AMD driver

Completely forgot I posted up here, yeah, that was kind of the problem ie, nothing was showing up in the logs. Anyhow, problem solved, I had the thought early on, to test RAM (had downloaded a copy of Memtest, and simply hadn't run it...) and just wasn't trusting my gut, unfortunately I should have. Within 5 minutes of booting into Memtest, I got the big red 'bad memory' screen. Guess I was thinking "what could go wrong?" since it was a brand new 32GiB set, needless to say, I found a sympathetic rep at Fry's, who let me go slightly over the 30 day policy on returns, swapped all 4 sticks for a new set, and not one crash since, you live, you learn...

For the record, what pushed me into thinking about Memtest again, was that in frustration I'd pulled a 500GiB SATA drive out of an old lappy, added it to this box, to try some different 'nixes, and installed Mageia on it, same issue, tried Mint, same issue, it was even crashing with Puppy Linux Slacko64 in a live boot, and that NEVER happens, curiouser and curiouser. Couldn't be the distro then, chances were it wasn't the drive, because LEAP is installed on a 250 GiB SSD (well, the 'system is, 'home' is on a regular 2TiB drive), but the other was just a regular SATA drive, oddly, nothing was kicking out any log info! Weird, when I pulled the RAM out to test it 1 stick at a time I got a new issue, no video signal...(which was why I just returned it as a set, was the way I bought it anyway) yikes!

Put in the new RAM and STILL the black screen, and would you believe Fry's had no board speakers? The guy was like "wull geez, we haven't had any for a few months now..." -unbelievable-, I said "are we not using those anymore?" lol (it HAS been a while since I built one out, so maybe I missed a memo?... ;-) ) anyhow, I tried using a jumper to clear the CMOS and bingo, everything's been awesome since. Ordered a speaker off Amazon, glad I didn't have to wait for it because it took a while to arrive (despite paying for "two day shipping") so I have beeps now, at least I can diagnose it if any board issues crop up. Thanks for the reply, though not *technally* the solution reached, process of elimination got me there, and with any luck at all, the red text about testing RAM will catch someone's attention...

Faith in OpenSuse and KDE restored, would have hated to move to one of the 'buntus kind of for the same reason I stopped using Windows, in Canonical's attempt to BE Windows, they've made themselves an 'attack vector' and the "junk-ware™" developers seem to have acted accordingly....
Anyway, cheers, and thanks again for the reply.