Re: Linux crashes a lot - more info
is this a new machine? or is it older and this problem just started?
either way it may be a good idea to stress test it you can at least
discount cpu/mb/cache/ram and can move from there (maybe X server, video
card ..)
theres a nifty program on freshmeat.net(may be packaged too) called
'cpuburn' it runs intensive loops on the cpu stressing it out. there is
also an intensive memory tester it comes with as well as a chipset
tester(although i dont think the chipset tester works with the athlon
chipsets), as for hdd testing, for a 128MB machine i usually run about 7
copies of seti@home at the same time, that thrashes the system very well
leave it for 2-3 days and if it's still alive without any major
problems(IDE IRQ timeouts may occur from time to time that is normal
with that much disk activity, systems are rarely useable during this
test they are under such high load) if it were my system i'd declare
that part of the h/w stable. as for the video/x server ..can't really
reccomend much for that since i have not used ATI much at all. there is
an X video benchmark program(sorry can't think of it at the moment, i
believe its standard with xfree86) if you ran that for a few hours(1 run
alone takes usually 30mins or more?) you may be able to rule out x
server/video card.
hth
nate
John Reinke wrote:
>
> I should have included some specs. I guess I was too frustrated to think of
> that...
>
> Hardware:
> 500MHz Athlon (NO overclocking, no overheating)
> 96MB RAM (appended 96M in LILO, and accounted for in 'free')
> ATI Rage Pro (8MB)
>
> Software:
> Debian 2.2 (Potato net-installation)
> 128MB Swap
> XF86_Mach64 X server (set to 1024x768 resolution)
>
> I'm able to compile a kernel without crashing. I don't know if Windows will
> run on it, because it's a dedicated Linux machine. Before I installed
> Potato, I had Corel Linux (Slink) installed. Although I was using KDE, it
> crashed just as often - usually under the same conditions, but I thought it
> was KDE.
>
> Let me know if there is other information I should provide. If it's in the
> logs, which logs should I look in? I know Linux isn't supposed to crash
> this often, but from people's reactions, there really is something wrong
> here...
>
> John
>
> >what kinda box ? i've never had this happen..never had netscape take
> >down a machine..ever. possible the machine is running out of memory ??
> >how much ram/swap u got ?
> >
> >nate
> >
> >John Reinke wrote:
> >>
> >> Yep, that's what I said. Linux crashes a lot.
> >>
> >> It commonly seems to coincide with Netscape crashing, but it almost always
> >> takes the whole system with it. I can't Ctrl-Alt-Backspace or change to
> >> another console. Occasionally I can telnet into the box and try to kill X,
> >> but it never works. I always end up having to hit the reset button, which
> >> doesn't make me happy. Twice, it has crashed while running dselect from a
> >> console.
> >>
> >> I need to use a "real" web browser, which seems to mainly be Netscape. I
> >> shouldn't be forced not to use Netscape, just so my box doesn't crash -
> >> this is Linux after all. I've tried different window managers
> >> (Enlightenment, Afterstep, Windowmaker...), but that doesn't help.
> >>
> >> I've considered compiling the magic key combination into the kernel, but
> >> it's the crashing or rebooting that I'd like to avoid in the first place.
> >>
> >> Other than not using Netscape, or disabling java or javascript (that helps,
> >> but not totally), what can/should I do to keep from crashing so often?
> >> Right now, it seems to crash about every other day.
> >>
> >> Additionally, I had something else weird happen today. I couldn't log into
> >> my box from another machine, xdm, or a console, but it was still running
> >> IPMasq services, etc. I finally had to reset it, since I couldn't get into
> >> it at all. It would never complete the validating process. The kernel logs
> >> showed the output like I see sometimes when it crashes and I'm at the
> >> console - several lines of addresses and numbers. Any suggestions to
> >> prevent this from happening again would also be helpful.
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> John
>
> --
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