Re: [Sheflug] random crashes - how to prepare bug report?

[Alex Hudson <xxxxx [at] xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 2001-12-10 at 11:08, N.P.Strickland [at] sheffield.ac.uk wrote:
> My linux machine is crashing randomly once every couple of days - it
> freezes up and will not respond to anything (including ctrl-alt-del,
> or ping from another machine) except the on/off switch.  The load on
> the machine is light, and the work it is doing is not particularly
> unusual. 

To be honest, it sounds like hardware. If you can, the first step would
be to make sure that your kernel has the magic sysrq key (it's a
configuration thing - you may need to compile your own, and learn what
the sysrq key combos do! linux/Documentation/sysrq.txt ottomh). Next
thing is to pull out any 'unneccessary' hardware - sounds cards, etc.
Anything which might cause a hardware interrupt is a good target.
Another good idea is to update your BIOS if you can, making sure 'PnP
OS' is turned off in the BIOS options. Running a kernel without apm/acpi
support would also be a good idea.

I personally would tend to blame BIOS/APM, but it could be a number of
things. Try to narrow it down as much as possible - if you can run your
machine in runlevel 1 (i.e., no services ;) that would also be a good
idea - network cards generate interrupts as well.

Hope that helps,

Alex.


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