Re: Debian Crash
Rob Collins wrote:
>
> On the same topic, I've recently had a crash in debian -- one that I've
> had before in Redhat 4. I've a very funky, self-built system... the crash
> is like this (and sometimes its like clockwork):
> 1. boot with xdm. Log in.
> 2. <Ctrl><Alt><F[1...6]> to switch to a different terminal.
> 3. Log in, do my stuff, log out.
> 4. <Ctrl><Alt><F[7,8]> to either return to X or look at the console log...
> it will never get to X (or the console log)... the video freezes blank and
> that's that.
>
> I doubt anyone could tell, just by description, what that problem is, so
> I'm looking for a good way to try and trace it. Trying to telnet in from
> a remote site is a good idea (it could mean the box is up, and something
> driving my screen died), I'll try. I'm fishing for other possibilities.
> (??? Please)
>
> :)
>
> --
> quiet rob
> -----------
> "Just keep telling yourself you are immortal" --Albert Hofmann
>
> On Wed, 11 Nov 1998, Rich Harran. wrote:
>
> > My Debian system just crashed. This has never happened before, which is
> > one of the things I like about Linux.
> >
> > I've got a pretty standard Hamm system, and I was running X with emacs
> > (20), xmix, and netscape, with a navigator and mail window open. I went
> > on a webpage I've visited many times before (www.tomshardware.com), and
> > everything seized up: the mouse wouldn't move, I couldn't move between
> > virtual desktops and I couldn't move between virtual teminals. I waited a
> > couple of minutes, then tried <cntl><alt><backspace>, then
> > <cntl><alt><del>, neither of which had any effect whatsoever, so I
> > pressed the big red button, and restarted that way.
> >
> > The only non-Debian software I have installed is xaudio, an X window mpeg
> > layer 3 audio player, which is off /root/mpeg (I was just trying it out).
> > My hardware is an old(ish) Cyrix 6x86 (M1) P200+ on a SuperMicro P5xtra
> > motherboard, 32mb DRAM (2simms), Matrox millenium 4mb, WD harddrive,
> > mitsumi Cd rom, soundblaster awe64 pnp, microsoft serial mouse.
> >
> > Up 'till now, everything seems to have been working fine (I've had random
> > crashes under win95, but I think that's a feature of the OS).
> >
> > My questions:
> >
> > Is there a problem with my hardware (it's quite old)?
> > Was there a problem with Linux?
> > If not, is there now?
> > If so, how do I fix it?
> > What should I do to test the components in my system individually?
> > I put it together myself (about 2 years ago), so I don't
> > mind poking around inside.
> >
> >
I've seen this freeze happen when switching *from X11* to a virtual
terminal ala F1-F6, especially if running something big in X11, like
Netscape. My uneducated guess would be the problem is with X11 or the
kernel's virtual terminal switching code. But, how do you track
something like this down?
--
Ed C.
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