On 16/09/2013 13:15, Dr. Jennifer Nussbaum wrote: > Of course the computer hasnt crashed for the last four days now. I > did run some of the tests suggested, and everything checks out OK. > > Theres no new hardware in the system, no new accessories. ... I dont > think that I installed any new software thats relevant.
I'm hesitant to suggest more paranoid possibilities in the absence of more concrete evidence, but it seems worth one of us mentioning the non-hardware, non-software possible cause (especially given the sporadic timing and circumstances of the crashes) : there may be a Bad Guy somewhere trying out an exploit technique to crack your system and gain privileged access. The kernel is pretty tough, but bugs are discovered fairly often which may allow some form of unauthorised code execution or privilege elevation. The exploits for these bugs often contain "parameters" (e.g. addresses of kernel functions or data structures) which the Bad Guy must tweak for the particular kernel he's trying to break into, and until the parameters are suitably tuned a common side effect of each exploit attempt is a kernel crash. The Bad Guy may either be remote (trying to break in across the network, assuming your workstation has Net access), or may have already broken in to your system via an unprivileged account, and be trying to elevate privilege to root. In the former case you would need to harden the kernel somehow: remove unnecessary drivers or subsystems, firewall the system, etc. In the latter case, you would need to back up your data, wipe and reinstall the system, and reinstall the data - and /then/ harden the system :) > I know diagnosing sporadic problems is the hardest thing. But this > is so frustrating. Maybe I should just build a new machine Yes, maybe a new machine - flaky hardware is probably more likely (as others point out) - but if a wipe & reinstall would be easy for you then it may help to eliminate Bad Guy paranoia. IMO we can't dogmatically advise that installing the latest kernel will keep the Bad Guy out, cos often the relevant bugs only exist in newer kernels. By the same token, the bugs sometimes exist in old device drivers that aren't receiving any developer-love any more cos they've been superseded by a new driver-family. But what may help is simply *changing* the kernel version, either up or down. [This is all probably a silly side-track, for which I apologise. Bad Guy attacks aren't that common. It's just that you seem to have covered all the other bases.] Good luck. Nick -- Firefox 3.6? Dude we're on 8.0 now. You're like 3 weeks behind ! -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/523718f7.60...@glimmer.adsl24.co.uk