Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Random reboots. Where to start?

[Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com>]

2011/3/1 Peter Humphrey <peter@humphrey.ukfsn.org>:
> On Tuesday 01 March 2011 23:14:12 Mick wrote:
>
>> Ha! I remember on an old machine when in WinXP would rarely if ever
>> crash, while in Gentoo would crash every time.
>
> My machine is only about a year old, built by a specialist builder of high-
> performance systems, so it shouldn't be experiencing hardware failures.
>
>> Different OS' use memory differently.
>
> Indeed they do. My experience is the converse of yours: Gentoo does not
> hang, while Fedora and Mandriva do. It's not a problem with a particular
> area of the disks, as I've installed them both in different partitions and
> got the same result. I assume that some kernel options don't suit my
> motherboard. Don't all laugh, but it's an Asus P7P55D.
>
>> After a year or so though the WinXP installation eventually corrupted
>> itself irreparably, while Gentoo (on reiserfs) soldiered on. Eventually, I
>> bought new memory modules and there were no more crashes.
>
> Maybe I need to replace the memory. That's a bit drastic though when I
> haven't actually proved it faulty.

Yes, I tend to agree.  You could end up replacing the memory only to
find out that the crashes persist.


>> memtest 86+ showed no errors, so I didn't know what to blame for all
>> these crashes.
>
> It's well known that test programs can't stress a computer the way real life
> does. It was true of Ferranti Argus 500 systems in 1974, and I'm sure it's
> still true today.

I remember using a script which put the system (memory modules and
swap) through its paces.  That did show me some errors which made me
replace the memory.  I can't recall where I found that script, but
remember it being aired in this mailing list.


>> After close observation I discovered that the machine would crash the
>> moment it tried to start swapping.
>
> Interesting. As far as I can tell though this box doesn't swap often - it
> can go weeks without doing so. As I said the other day, my 4GB is enough to
> contain the work I usually do.
>
>> This would typically happen in the middle of an emerge, which was rather
>> annoying, and/or when updatedb was running.
>
> At least you could re-run an aborted emerge; when my box hangs it just stops
> responding to keyboard and mouse, and the network interface stops receiving
> packets so I can't ssh in from another box to shut it down neatly. It's BRS
> time.

No I couldn't.  :-(

The whole system would freeze up, no keyboard, no network, no nothing.
 I had to pull the plug every time.
-- 
Regards,
Mick