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From: Roderick A. Anderson (raanders_at_acm.org)
Date: Wed 20 Aug 2003 - 01:47:19 BST


On Wed, 20 Aug 2003, Herbert Pötzl wrote:

> about 90% of the kernel 'crashes' do not need any
> further explanation (besides a crash report), about
> what the user was doing or what was going on ...

In this case nothing I can tell. The message file was pretty slim.

> > I have turned on kernel logging into /var/log/kernel but do not know what
> > else I need to or should do to to get better information for when I do
> > have a crash. Case in point this morning or rather last night. Suddenly
> > the system froze up. Would not respond to the keyboard and I had to press
>
> freezes and lockups are actually not kernel crashes,
> but, if you want to get something useful in such a case
> you have to do some preparations, namely
>
> - setup nmi_watchdog (this will cause a kernel oops
> when the kernel is not responding ...
> - configure magic sys-req (you'll be able to activate
> some kernel task/process/memory info in such a
> case)
>
> - use lkcd, or a serial line to capture the kernel
> oops (handwritten oopses are as much fun as
> screenshots done with your webcam :( )

I'll research and get these going.

> huh? what does e100/e1000 have to do with 2.4.21?
> as fas as I remember those where in 2.4.14 and for
> sure are in 2.4.22-rc2 ...

But not part of the binary ctx distribution. Remember we're dealing with
a pretty low-on-the-food-chain computer guy. I only recently started
compiling my own ctx kernels and then only when there was time and not on
a running system. People that use alpha/beta/pre - me - releases deserve
any trouble they get.

> > random for my liking to make me think it is a hardware issue. I did run
> > memtest86 on the system before I put it online.
>
> for how long?

Probably a day. I know, I know; sometimes it takes 3 days or longer to
run.

> > Where I am trying to take this is; what information is needed to help
> > determine the cause of the crashes so I (we) can point a finger in the
> > right direction - hardware, software, wetware, or the ctx kernel and
> > friends. Not to point fingers as much as to lend a hand to the
> > developers.
>
> first step for any further investigation will be
> some kind of kernel oops, parsed by ksymoops with
> the correct kernel System.map ...
>
> further useful information (after a captured oops)
> will be a detailed system description, and some
> hardware tests ...

Will get this ready for the next (though now that I am setting this up it
won't happen) _unexplained_ lock-up/crash/freeze.

Rod

-- 
  "Open Source Software - Sometimes you get more than you paid for..."


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