This is probably more of a kernel issue or possibly hardware, but my system has locked up twice within the last week while I was asleep :-(. In the log file for the latest one (this morning), it appeared to happen during the cron job run:
Nov 8 04:02:00 penguin CROND[18995]: (root) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.daily) Nov 8 04:02:00 penguin anacron[18998]: Updated timestamp for job `cron.daily' to 2001-11-08 Nov 8 04:02:10 penguin kernel: APIC error on CPU1: 08(00) Nov 8 04:02:10 penguin kernel: APIC error on CPU0: 02(00) Nov 8 04:02:10 penguin kernel: APIC error on CPU1: 01(00) Nov 8 04:02:45 penguin kernel: APIC error on CPU1: 08(01) Nov 8 04:02:45 penguin kernel: APIC error on CPU0: 02(00) Nov 8 04:02:45 penguin kernel: APIC error on CPU1: 00(00) Nov 8 04:02:49 penguin kernel: APIC error on CPU1: 09(00) Nov 8 04:02:49 penguin kernel: APIC error on CPU0: 02(00) Nov 8 07:01:56 penguin syslogd 1.4-0: restart. Nov 8 07:01:56 penguin kernel: klogd 1.4-0, log source = /proc/kmsg started. Nov 8 07:01:56 penguin kernel: Inspecting /boot/System.map-2.4.13-2mdksmp Nov 8 07:01:56 penguin rpc.statd[855]: Version 0.3.3 Starting Nov 8 07:01:57 penguin nfslock: rpc.statd startup succeeded Nov 8 07:01:57 penguin kernel: Loaded 15972 symbols from /boot/System.map-2.4.13-2mdksmp. This system has the latest cooker as of 11/6/2001, and is running on a dual Pentium 233/MMX (Pentium 1). I have actually got these APIC errors ever since I started using 2.4.x (about a year I think..), with occasional freezes. With 2.2.x, I didn't see the APIC errors, though it sometimes froze without warning. Back when it had NT on it (3 years ago), the only thing that froze it was the Creative Labs Sound Blaster AWE64 driver (froze NT during sound playback and listed the driver at the top of the stack in the BSODs). Does anyone have any tips on how I might go about debugging the kernel? On every crash that I've had since running Mandrake, the SysRq key combinations to sync, unmount, and reboot don't work, but they do work when the system is not crashed. I'm hoping that it's a software issue that can be fixed, though I'm not ruling out hardware.. The processors felt very warm in both cases, as if some part of the kernel was stuck in an infinite loop or race condition. In some of my previous kernels, I've commented out the printk() line that writes the APIC error to the log so that my hard drives could actually pin down from less disk activity, but of course this isn't an ideal solution ;-). I've read that the infamous Abit BP6 dual Celeron motherboards were notorious for APIC errors and had a lot of crashing problems, but I'm hoping that my motherboard, a GigaByte dual-Pentium (GA-5DX or something like that), doesn't have the same problems :-) (it came out well before the BP6, back in 1997). Crashes are quite rare, but do happen a couple times each month (unusual for a Linux system). X on my Matrox Millennium II crashes sometimes, too (about once a month), but it doesn't bring the system down with it. My router, by contrast, has been up since I last turned it on in March 2001 (old RedHat 6.2 system on a single Pentium 133 and 300MB hard drive). --Steven Lawrance-- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
