Re: Installed for the first time, strange problems
On Thu, 1970-01-01 at 04:59, Sam wrote:
> >>>> I just installed Debian for the first time on my Power Mac 6500.
> >>>> I put on a few packages, including the 2.4.28-powerpc woody kernel image.
> >>>> But now the strangest things are happening.
> >>>> Sometimes when I am in enlightenment it will just freeze up. Moving the
> >>>> mouse and pressing keys does nothing. The transmit light on the ethernet
> >>>> card flashes every so often, but pinging the machine from the other one
> >>>> (two machine ethernet using crossover cable) does not work.
> >>>> And other times I get an "Oops" message for no apparent reason. This
> >>>> happens often during the shutdown process.
> >>>> Upon occasion after I type my login and password into xdm, the little
> >>>> "opening session for user storm" will appear on the xconsole, and then
> >>>> one of two strange things will happen. Sometimes it will almost
> >>>> instantly print the closing session for user storm message. Other times
> >>>> it won't seem to do anything. The really strange part is that the "xdm"
> >>>> processes owned by storm refuse to die, even with kill -9 from a root
> >>>> login on tty1. Even with a "shutdown now" and then hitting control-D to
> >>>> start things up again.
> >>>> And, most recently, I started up, logged in, opened an Eterm, and tried
> >>>> to use netcat. It died with an illegal instruction. Then I tried ssh.
> >>>> Same. Neither seemed to do anything before printing "Illegal
> >>>> Instruction".
> >>>> What's going on? What can I do?
>
> >>> Sounds like either a kernel or a hardware problem. The fact that most
> >>> other people don't seem to experience the same problems with the same
> >>> kernel points towards the hardware I'm afraid - might be faulty RAM or
> >>> something. Anything interesting in the kernel output?
>
> [snippy snippy]
>
> >> [as I said, I have 96MB of memory, and it just happens to be a 64MB
> >> module and a 32MB module, ...]
>
> > So can you try running with one module at a time and see if the problems
> > persist?
>
> Today I tried taking out the 32MB, and everything was fine for a while,
> but then I got an "Oops" message during shutdown.
> Then I tried putting the 32MB back in and taking out the 64MB, and
> everything was fine (other than really slow) for a while, but then I got
> an "Oops" message.
> The really strange problems are rare, so it probably doesn't mean much
> that they didn't happen during the brief periods I was running with only
> one module.
>
> Can assume it is not the RAM and move on to investigating other causes?
I guess so.
> Have we gotten to the point where I should copy all the "Oops" messages
> from the logs and paste them into an email?
That might be interesting, but only after piping them through ksymoops.
--
Earthling Michel Dänzer \ Debian (powerpc), XFree86 and DRI developer
Software libre enthusiast \ http://svcs.affero.net/rm.php?r=daenzer
Reply to: