identifying failed processes

[Richard Lyons <richard@the-place.net>]

Once in a while, something causes Xwindows to freeze.  My simple-minded 
response is to ctl-alt-F2, ps -e, then guess which process might have done it 
and kill pid, ps -e again to see if it died, kill -9 if not, then alt-F7 to 
see if the problem is cured.  Then do it all again until problem solved.  
After a few iterations, I am usually killing whole families of processes, and 
eventually everything from xinit onward.  This is an ignorant mess, I'm the 
first to admit.

Is there a way to identify which process was running at the point of failure, 
so as to cull the guilty and spare the innocent?

TIA

-- 
richard