[vox-tech] not sure what to call it

[Samuel Merritt]

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On Sat, Apr 13, 2002 at 10:49:32AM -0400, Patrick Stockton wrote:
> I've got a Mandrake 8.2 install that periodically will stop reponding aft=
er
> logging in.  It will prompt for username and password and then just sit
> there.  I can't switch between virtual terminals nor give a CTRL+ALT+DEL =
to
> cleanly shut the system down.  The only thing I am able to do is power cy=
cle
> the box.
>=20
> This happens no matter how I'm logging either via the console, graphical X
> via KDM,  remote SSH, or a Webmin login.
>=20
> Now even though the login I'm attemping has stopped responding all kernel
> level networking still works because the box still acts as the internet
> gateway for the rest of my client boxes just fine.

I had a similar problem once; it turned out to be my cheap Maxtor hard=20
drive that claimed to support DMA, but would hang every now and then.
The symptoms were that the system seemed to be running okay, but any=20
process that needed to use the disk for any reason (including being=20
swapped in) would hang. CTRL+ALT+DEL wouldn't work because it would try to=
=20
load /sbin/shutdown from disk, and hang. Also, the disk activity LED on=20
the front of my case was on solid when this happened.=20

If the symptoms persist, try disabling DMA on your hard disk(s) and see if=
=20
the crashes end. Mandrake uses /etc/sysconfig/harddisks for IDE disk=20
parameters.=20

--=20
Samuel Merritt
PGP key is at http://wwwcsif.cs.ucdavis.edu/~merritt/snmerritt.asc
Information about PGP can be found at http://www.mindspring.com/~aegreene/p=
gp/

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