Linux system freezes when adb start-server is called

Question

The command adb start-server is freezing my system entirely, requiring a hard reset to recover.

This is a fresh install of Fedora 21 (x86_64). When the system freezes, it is immediate. The desktop stops responding, the computer no longer accepts ping requests, and nothing is logged in the system messages.

This happens whether I run adb as root or a regular user. When I run the command, it says: daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 and the freeze is immediate. It never does return that the daemon was started.

I installed strace and ran:

# strace adb start-server

and the final few lines of output were:

socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_IP) = 3
connect(3, {sa_family=AF_INET, sin_port=htons(5037), sin_addr=inet_addr("127.0.0.1")}, 16) = -1 ECONNREFUSED (Connection refused)
close(3)                                = 0
fstat64(1, {st_mode=S_IFCHR|0620, st_rdev=makedev(136, 0), ...}) = 0
mmap2(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xf75ef000
write(1, "* daemon not running. starting i"..., 53* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
) = 53
pipe([3, 4])                            = 0
readlink("/proc/1880/exe", "/home/jon/Android/Sdk/platform-t"..., 4095) = 40
clone(child_stack=0, flags=CLONE_CHILD_CLEARTID|CLONE_CHILD_SETTID|SIGCHLD, child_tidptr=0xf727c768) = 1881
close(4)                                = 0
read(3, 

This freeze happens regardless of whether I have a USB device plugged in or not. Other than this issue, the computer seems to work fine.

Is there some hardware on the computer that adb is initializing, that might be causing this freeze? I'd be grateful for pointers on how to troubleshoot this.

Answer 1

This isn't really a solution, because the freeze is realy hard to debug, but a workaround. As I suspected the problem is related to the kernel version.

I downgraded the kernel installed and adb works fine without any freeze. Go on a repository and download manually these package:

 - kernel-3.17.4-301.fc21.x86_64.rpm
 - kernel-debug-devel-3.17.4-301.fc21.x86_64.rpm  
 - kernel-modules-extra-3.17.4-301.fc21.x86_64.rpm
 - kernel-core-3.17.4-301.fc21.x86_64.rpm  
 - kernel-modules-3.17.4-301.fc21.x86_64.rpm

Install it with the command rpm -ivh --force kernel-* reboot the computer and select the new kernel when grub show.

Answer 2

I had the same problem with Acer Aspire E17, i didn't found the exact component, but it works perfect when using UEFI bios, so the problem is that they don't put too much effor making and testing the Legacy bios.

You can install Fedora in UEFI mode with some effort. You will not fix a bios fail problem.

Install Fedora UEFI