[gentoo-user] random reboots

[gentoo-user] random reboots

[Alan E. Davis]

Thank you to members of this list who have gotten me through a couple
of serious issues.  I have another one.

My system reboots at seemingly random times.  Usually, this happens
during keyboard or mouse input.  I have been using kernel 2.6.30-r2.
Often this happens when using firefox, but not exclusively.

When I checked my machine, it had an uptime of nearly 4 hours after
the last reboot, when I had not logged in.  However, after logging in,
I experienced two reboots in rapid succession.

Interestingly, after I recompiled the kernel, enabling more modules of
I2C stuff, to enable hardware monitoring for my Motherboard, the
system has seemed to become less stable, and reboots readily.

I usually use nvidia non-freedom drivers.  I am now typing with the
x11 drivers, and the system has not rebooted.  I am now also using
2.6.29-r5.

Once such things happened to me because I had a file with a filename
starting with "_" in my filesystem.  Everytime I started nautilus,
firefox, or epiphany, the system would crash.  This was some long time
ago.

I have three SATA drives installed, with a plethora of partitions.

I am not sure where to look in logs to look for evidence of problems.
May I set up the system to trap for such useful information?

Alan Davis

 "...can the human soul be glimpsed through a microscope? Maybe, but
you'd definitely need one of those very good ones with two eyepieces."

    -- Woody Allen, quoted by B. A. Palevitz

Re: [gentoo-user] random reboots

[Paul Hartman]

On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 1:50 PM, Alan E. Davis<lngndvs@gmail.com> wrote:
> My system reboots at seemingly random times.  Usually, this happens
> during keyboard or mouse input.  I have been using kernel 2.6.30-r2.
> Often this happens when using firefox, but not exclusively.

If you can identify when it started, and identify what may have
changed around then, go back to whatever you used before then :)

Otherwise I would suspect hardware, and would start with testing RAM
and things like that. Pull the plug on the hard drive(s) and boot off
a LiveCD and see if it still reboots. Try pulling some of the RAM
modules and see it the problem gets better or worse... things like
that.

Firefox uses a lot of RAM, and would cause network activity, so it's
possible if there's a problem with the network driver or port (or
wireless?), or a RAM issue, maybe its' triggering it because it is a
heavy resource user. I had some weird issues with one particular buggy
build of madwifi a long time ago that would cause weird things to
happen only during heavy network utilization.

Re: [gentoo-user] random reboots

[Volker Armin Hemmann]

On Freitag 10 Juli 2009, Alan E. Davis wrote:
> Thank you to members of this list who have gotten me through a couple
> of serious issues.  I have another one.
>
> My system reboots at seemingly random times.  Usually, this happens
> during keyboard or mouse input.  I have been using kernel 2.6.30-r2.
> Often this happens when using firefox, but not exclusively.
>
> When I checked my machine, it had an uptime of nearly 4 hours after
> the last reboot, when I had not logged in.  However, after logging in,
> I experienced two reboots in rapid succession.
>
> Interestingly, after I recompiled the kernel, enabling more modules of
> I2C stuff, to enable hardware monitoring for my Motherboard, the
> system has seemed to become less stable, and reboots readily.
>
> I usually use nvidia non-freedom drivers.  I am now typing with the
> x11 drivers, and the system has not rebooted.  I am now also using
> 2.6.29-r5.
>
> Once such things happened to me because I had a file with a filename
> starting with "_" in my filesystem.  Everytime I started nautilus,
> firefox, or epiphany, the system would crash.  This was some long time
> ago.
>
> I have three SATA drives installed, with a plethora of partitions.
>
> I am not sure where to look in logs to look for evidence of problems.
> May I set up the system to trap for such useful information?
>
> Alan Davis
>
>  "...can the human soul be glimpsed through a microscope? Maybe, but
> you'd definitely need one of those very good ones with two eyepieces."
>
>     -- Woody Allen, quoted by B. A. Palevitz

sounds like
a) heat
or
b) psu problems
or
c) triple faults.


c) is a lot of time caused by memory problems. One thing causing memory 
problems is a bad psu.

so - in your case - just try a different psu. Ask a friend for one for a 
couple of days. If your problem stays, you have to look elsewhere.

Re: [gentoo-user] random reboots

[Roy Wright]

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On Jul 10, 2009, at 2:07 PM, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:

> On Freitag 10 Juli 2009, Alan E. Davis wrote:
>>
>> My system reboots at seemingly random times.  Usually, this happens
>> during keyboard or mouse input.  I have been using kernel 2.6.30-r2.
>> Often this happens when using firefox, but not exclusively.
>
> sounds like
> a) heat
> or
> b) psu problems
> or
> c) triple faults.
>
>
> c) is a lot of time caused by memory problems. One thing causing  
> memory
> problems is a bad psu.
>
> so - in your case - just try a different psu. Ask a friend for one  
> for a
> couple of days. If your problem stays, you have to look elsewhere.
>

I had to RMA my power supply a few weeks ago, it had the same symptoms.
Let's just say I'm very satisfied with Thermaltake's RMA policy.

Here's a simple test.  Boot into BIOS and leave it there.  If the  
power supply
cycles, you'll find the machine booted into your OS.  This eliminates  
the OS
as a source of the problem.

HTH,
Roy

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