Re: Hardware diagnostics
On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 11:37:51PM -0400, Scott Gifford wrote:
>
> I have a Debian Etch installation that's beoming increasingly
> unstable. It periodically freezes up, with nothing in the logs until
> it is rebooted. I suspect a hardware problem, and would like to
> identify it or rule it out before doing an upgrade to Lenny.
>
> Can anybody recommend a good hardware diagnostic or "burn-in" program?
> I have used memtest86 and will try that, but ideally I'd like to
> stress test more of the system than just the memory. Something that
> can run on Debian Etch while the machine is live is ideal, or
> something that can be run from a boot CD. Free is preferred (of
> course), but any suggestions are welcome.
>
> Also, if anybody has a suggestion of what might fix an Etch system
> that's freezing up periodically with nothing in the logs, those
> suggestions are welcome too. :-)
Apart from diags for specific hardware (e.g. my HP NetServer LPr
diagnostic disk), I use GRML (grml.org) 0.9 CD. I run bad blocks (or
the appropriate fs checker with badblocks read/write/verify check) on
all filesystems. grml also has memtest+ as a boot option (it can't run
properly with an OS running as well).
Have the kernel do verbose logging. Consider remote logging; if your
hard drive freezes, there's no way for the log to be written. Any
serious drive errors should be sent to the console unless you've told
the kernel to not send messages to the console; I guess you won't see
them if you are in X at the time; consider a serial console to another
box (or a real VT).
Doug.
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