On Mon, Aug 27, 2007 at 06:36:18PM +0100, Tim Day wrote: > A few days ago I reverted to the "nv" driver and so far so good (it's > still a bit early to be sure though though). Interestingly, the > occasional APIC error I used to see in dmesg (a couple a day at most?) > seems to have dried up. > > Any hints for how to get any useful debug information out of the system > when such hangs occur ? I have an idea you can do something involving > attaching a serial cable and monitoring from another machine (any > pointers to a howto ?)
You mean that the system has totally hung and you can't ssh into it (its not just the keyboard and display that's frozen)? Check out the Remote-Serial-Console-HOWTO in the standard doc-linux-html package. That plus the Serial-HOWTO and the Text-Terminal-HOWTO should get you up and running. If you're wanting to monitor it at a distance, you may want the modem howto. In any event, you'll need the correct cable. The howto's cover this. You need to ensure that kernel messages are going to the console. Check /etc/sysctl.conf that you don't have the kernel.printk parameter set. Then you get the actual serial setup as per the HOWTOS. While you're at it, set up a getty in case you can get into the system that way. On the other end, you can use minicom to connect. However, if you just want long-term logging of the console messages, don't use a getty on the target box and use ttylog, perhaps teeing it to a file and the your screen. Good luck, Doug. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]