[vox-tech] RH keeps crashing

[Peter Jay Salzman]

richard, at the risk of starting another "tom the bicyclist" thread, i
would say that you need to pick up a general book on linux.

at a *bare minimum* you need to know how to get information about your
system.  i would say that knowing how to get basic info about your
system is MORE crucial than, say, mounting a floppy disk (assuming you
don't have a tech support guy).

use your favorite editor, say vi, and look at:

   vi /var/log/messages

this is where your system logs all important events.   you can also look
at the output of dmesg:

   dmesg | less

there is a program called memtest that you may want to run.  it checks
out your ram by a series of very detailed, very thorough tests.

also, you may want to rethink the strategy of how you ask a question.
saying your computer "crashed" may mean a whole bunch of stuff.  saying
that your system "rebooted unexpectedly",  "hung", "the screen went
blank" or "stopped responding to the keyboard" is much more descriptive
and will help people who try to reply to your email.  plus, (and i've
posted this many, many times) when posting a message like:

   my computer does X.  how do i fix it?

(where in your case X is "crashes")  it's absolutely ***crucial*** that
you modify your question to read:

   my computer does X whenever i do Y.   how do i fix it?

does your system crash over night?   is it completely random?  were you
running a program?  is there ANYTHING  to connect the different
occurances of the crash?

i don't mean to sound harsh, but it seems like we get a "look at your
log files" thread about every 1 or 2 weeks.  it would be beneficial to
read other vox-tech traffic.

and if someone posts you don't understand

   "look at your log files"
	
you're fully encouraged to pipe in with a question

   "where are the log files and how do you look at them"

that the person can respond to:

   "no prob.  use vi or emacs and look at /var/log/messages"

just because you didn't ask the original question doesn't mean a) it
doesn't apply to you and b) you can't join in on the discussion.


pete


begin Richard S. Crawford <rscrawford@mossroot.com> 
> I know it's not much to go on, but when it comes to this area, that's about 
> the limit of my expertise.  In all honesty, I'm not even entirely sure 
> which system logs to check, or how to check them.
> 
> I'm just hoping it isn't hardware... I'm not all that keen on replacing my 
> hard drive. ;-)
> 
> 
> 
> At 09:13 AM 4/22/02 -0700, you wrote:
> >That's not much to go on, but make sure you don't have a
> >full filesystem.  Otherwise it's most likely hardware.
> >
> >-- Rod
> >   http://www.sunsetsystems.com/
> >
> >On Monday 22 April 2002 09:06, 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?