From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1PuoN0-000162-Mp for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Wed, 02 Mar 2011 15:53:47 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 5A4BB1C048; Wed, 2 Mar 2011 15:51:55 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-iy0-f181.google.com (mail-iy0-f181.google.com [209.85.210.181]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2ECCC1C048 for ; Wed, 2 Mar 2011 15:51:54 +0000 (UTC) Received: by iyb26 with SMTP id 26so52040iyb.40 for ; Wed, 02 Mar 2011 07:51:54 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date :message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; bh=RV7J97n/gx1U3p1qz+Mw0hETA00vlMvROcYMB7Yi5t8=; b=TiXbpKe5CyzzBp37CfxBWs9Z2vRt5k75oQ10DQn94lAmDcYPWEVNAkYBHWB19vjwzz RLS5dqhHYm8hk2FDXANFHXXdzZ82jqEj95/Z6RI4iGQIZD78jXQCHBM9F0u5uEmZ50YF z/adcdoi8EI4Nlo0MfTRnCI4r6OSCEsLeQRU8= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :content-type; b=mgLM07R0m7F/n/ozjPYHG9oTmZNlixDEhTyoWbe7qyV+ADrVG/9BgZvtn7ZVzIXJNj SfQxox4krLwvLtGAgf1BVrFal/zZDoevzCMf4MNgtk1MVBU7iSOZ4S/+MJ2HQYWNIMX7 splB+tdfJna11eq3sONo200YHWMVK2lxPJ5mM= Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.42.164.201 with SMTP id h9mr45067icy.301.1299081114649; Wed, 02 Mar 2011 07:51:54 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.42.213.134 with HTTP; Wed, 2 Mar 2011 07:51:54 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <201103012351.52033.peter@humphrey.ukfsn.org> References: <4D67CBC0.4000604@gmail.com> <201102272334.09092.peter@humphrey.ukfsn.org> <201103012314.24652.michaelkintzios@gmail.com> <201103012351.52033.peter@humphrey.ukfsn.org> Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2011 15:51:54 +0000 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Random reboots. Where to start? From: Mick To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Archives-Salt: X-Archives-Hash: 8821d64ca516cacfb8c9a3c59711c851 2011/3/1 Peter Humphrey : > 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