[vox-tech] RH keeps crashing

[ME]

On Mon, 22 Apr 2002, Richard S. Crawford wrote:
> My RH 7.2 box has crashed three times in the past 24 hours.  Each time I've 
> rebooted, I've run fsck / and gone through the entire check and repair 
> process, but I'm obviously missing something.
> 
> What else should I be checking?

As Pete suggested, your log files will often hold useful information in
troubleshooting a problem related to crashing. Depending upon how the
crash took place, the latest log entries may not have been sync-ed to disk
though. However, early events in the crash that may lead uup to the crash
may be listed, and logs are almost always *very good* and should be
the first item consulted when you experience anything crashing or
failing to start. :-)

Rod suggess checking the filesystems to make sure they are not full (good
idea too) and then auggests hardware (also a common problem when the
uncommon association of "crashing" meets with the word "Linux". Assuming
they are not running anything experimental, these have been the most
common problems found when I have been asked to look at people's systems
with problems.

Some items for do-it-yourself troubleshooting:

Are you running anything that is considered experimental?
What Kernel Version? (Is it one of the stable series, or one with known
                      problems?)
What is the common thread - what are you doing when it crashes, and what
   seems to be the same between all crashes you have experienced?
   (Say, are you running "X" in all of them? Are you at your system
    when it happens? Are you away from your system when it happens?
    are you making heavy use of the system when it happens?
Is this a new problem? (Say your system has been perfect for 6 months, and
  now it has started crashing) If So, what has changed around that time
  on your system?
What exactly is happening when it crashes? Any messages reported on
  console? Does it just freeze and not allow any input? Is "X" just
  frozen? (Say when you are in "X" and you notice a "freeze", what happens
  when your press control-alt-backkspace ? )
What do you see on the screen when it crashes? If you press shift or space
 or control-alt-backspace or control-alt-delete or control-alt-F1 does
 what you see change?

If running RH 7.0 or maybe even 7.1, a screensaver setting seemed to cause
problems when you never chose a default screen saver. To test this, of
course, try choosing a default screen saver and then set the time before
it comes on to never or so many minutes it adds up to days of time (if
possible.) This is just a shot in the dark on why it may be crashing, but
looking to answer the above may help you to troubleshoot the problem.

-ME

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