May 2002 - WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

RE: [Wlug] Locked up

by dibb_jim＠emc.com

Regarding the IDE hard drive going bad... can you elaborate more on the symptoms? I've been trying to track down system instability on one of my systems which is running *cough* XP pro. I think I've traced it down to a bad hard drive, but I'm curious what symptoms you were seeing. Thanks. -----Original Message----- From: Andy Stewart [mailto:andystewart@attbi.com] Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2002 8:14 AM To: wlug(a)mail.wlug.org; Gregory Avedissian Subject: Re: [Wlug] Locked up On Tuesday 14 May 2002 01:05, Gregory Avedissian wrote: > Still? I don't know, as I've never logged in remotely. Can I do this > from a friend's house next time it locks up? I'm not set up as a server, > and I don't really know what I'd need to change to do that. > > Could I do it with the parallel port connection that Andy is going to > talk about on Wednesday? > > Greg HI Greg, If you setup the parallel port connection between two computers (A and B) and insure that its working, when computer A locks up, you could try logging in over the parallel port connection from computer B to see if it really locked up or simply not responding to keyboard/mouse input. Lockups really stink. It took me several weeks to finally figure out my problem (an IDE hard drive slowly going bad). Memtest is great - definitely try it out. I would also recommend the Cerberus Test Control System program (ctcs). It is the program used by VA Linux to burn in their hardware. It does some *really* stressful things to the hardware and will find anything that is flaky (supposedly). Later, Andy -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

May 14, 2002

Re: [Wlug] Locked up

by Andy Stewart

On Tuesday 14 May 2002 01:05, Gregory Avedissian wrote: > Still? I don't know, as I've never logged in remotely. Can I do this > from a friend's house next time it locks up? I'm not set up as a server, > and I don't really know what I'd need to change to do that. > > Could I do it with the parallel port connection that Andy is going to > talk about on Wednesday? > > Greg HI Greg, If you setup the parallel port connection between two computers (A and B) and insure that its working, when computer A locks up, you could try logging in over the parallel port connection from computer B to see if it really locked up or simply not responding to keyboard/mouse input. Lockups really stink. It took me several weeks to finally figure out my problem (an IDE hard drive slowly going bad). Memtest is great - definitely try it out. I would also recommend the Cerberus Test Control System program (ctcs). It is the program used by VA Linux to burn in their hardware. It does some *really* stressful things to the hardware and will find anything that is flaky (supposedly). Later, Andy -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org

May 14, 2002

Re: [Wlug] Locked up

by Karl Hiramoto

First I would try and eliminate the possibility that it's a HW problem. Try Memetest86 http://www.teresaudio.com/memtest86/ Run it overnight, or better yet, 24+ hours. If you see ONE error you have a big problem. If Memtest86 doesn't find anything, chances are that your Memory, Mobo are good. It's good for finding memory, mobo, and cpu problems. What kind of memory? ECC? Have scrubbing turned on? So it happens under both linux and windowz? If it happens uder two OS's there is a good chance it is a hardware problem or a BIOS configuration issue. Reset you BIOS to "Safe Values", Borrow a keyboard and see if that fixes it. It would be a cheap fix if that's all it is. Like Michael said, try and login remotely next time it happens. I HATE LOCKUPS. The worst are when you have broken memory/mobo. Memtest 86 is good at finding those. On Tue, 14 May 2002, Gregory Avedissian wrote: > Sometimes my computer locks up completely, so that neither the mouse nor > the keyboard will work. I'm running SuSE 7.2 on an Athlon 1.2GHz/Shuttle > Spacewalker AK12A, 256M memory. > > It seems to happen when I'm in a chat room. Running Mozilla 0.9.9 with > recent Java plugin, also running Yahoo Instant Messenger, and it seems > like things were loading very slowly in the chatroom all the times this > had happened. I'm on a dialup line, so when I say slow, I mean like > go-and-make-tea slow. Otherwise, the connection is ok (46.6K) when > loading other pages. > > ctrl-alt-backspace does nothing, alt-F2,3 etc. does nothing, same for > ctrl-D, ctrl-C, ctrl-Z, ctrl-alt-Fx. I had to hit the kill switch. This > last time, it wasn't too bad, but the time before this, rebooting to > linux was pretty scary. This only happens once every couple of weeks. > > I'm suspicious of the keyboard, because it persisted once when I > rebooted to win98, then it cleared when I rebooted once more, first > wiggling the wire where it goes into the keyboard. > > Does it sound at all like a software problem, or should I just ignore it > and replace the keyboard? And is there some other way to bail out that I > haven't tried? > > > Thanks, > Greg > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > -- ¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø Karl Hiramoto <karl(a)hiramoto.org> Work: 978-425-2090 ext 25 Cell: 508-517-4819 Personal web page: http://karl.hiramoto.org/ Zoop Productions: http://www.zoop.org/ KTEQ Rapid City: http://www.kteq.org/ AOL IM ID = KarlH420 ¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø QOTD: Some people have one of those days. I've had one of those lives.

May 14, 2002

Re: [Wlug] Locked up

by Baris Hasdemir

hi, if you are using java 1.4, I recommend using version 1.3.1_03 . 1.4 causes more problems. http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/download.html best wishes, baris On Tue, 14 May 2002 00:03:04 -0400 Gregory Avedissian wrote: > Sometimes my computer locks up completely, so that neither the mouse nor > the keyboard will work. I'm running SuSE 7.2 on an Athlon 1.2GHz/Shuttle > Spacewalker AK12A, 256M memory. > > It seems to happen when I'm in a chat room. Running Mozilla 0.9.9 with > recent Java plugin, also running Yahoo Instant Messenger, and it seems > like things were loading very slowly in the chatroom all the times this > had happened. I'm on a dialup line, so when I say slow, I mean like > go-and-make-tea slow. Otherwise, the connection is ok (46.6K) when > loading other pages. > > ctrl-alt-backspace does nothing, alt-F2,3 etc. does nothing, same for > ctrl-D, ctrl-C, ctrl-Z, ctrl-alt-Fx. I had to hit the kill switch. This > last time, it wasn't too bad, but the time before this, rebooting to > linux was pretty scary. This only happens once every couple of weeks. > > I'm suspicious of the keyboard, because it persisted once when I > rebooted to win98, then it cleared when I rebooted once more, first > wiggling the wire where it goes into the keyboard. > > Does it sound at all like a software problem, or should I just ignore it > and replace the keyboard? And is there some other way to bail out that I > haven't tried? > > > Thanks, > Greg > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > >

May 14, 2002

Re: [Wlug] Locked up

by Gregory Avedissian

Still? I don't know, as I've never logged in remotely. Can I do this from a friend's house next time it locks up? I'm not set up as a server, and I don't really know what I'd need to change to do that. Could I do it with the parallel port connection that Andy is going to talk about on Wednesday? Greg Michael Frysinger wrote: > you describe issues via just the mouse and keyboard. > can you still login remotely to the computer ? > i.e. can you ssh/telnet into it, or even get a ping response ? > -mike > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Gregory Avedissian" <avedis(a)ma.ultranet.com> > To: <wlug(a)mail.wlug.org> > Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2002 00:03 > Subject: [Wlug] Locked up > > > >>Sometimes my computer locks up completely, so that neither the mouse nor >>the keyboard will work. I'm running SuSE 7.2 on an Athlon 1.2GHz/Shuttle >>Spacewalker AK12A, 256M memory. >> >>It seems to happen when I'm in a chat room. Running Mozilla 0.9.9 with >>recent Java plugin, also running Yahoo Instant Messenger, and it seems >>like things were loading very slowly in the chatroom all the times this >>had happened. I'm on a dialup line, so when I say slow, I mean like >>go-and-make-tea slow. Otherwise, the connection is ok (46.6K) when >>loading other pages. >> >>ctrl-alt-backspace does nothing, alt-F2,3 etc. does nothing, same for >>ctrl-D, ctrl-C, ctrl-Z, ctrl-alt-Fx. I had to hit the kill switch. This >>last time, it wasn't too bad, but the time before this, rebooting to >>linux was pretty scary. This only happens once every couple of weeks. >> >>I'm suspicious of the keyboard, because it persisted once when I >>rebooted to win98, then it cleared when I rebooted once more, first >>wiggling the wire where it goes into the keyboard. >> >>Does it sound at all like a software problem, or should I just ignore it >>and replace the keyboard? And is there some other way to bail out that I >>haven't tried? >> >> >>Thanks, >>Greg >> >>_______________________________________________ >>Wlug mailing list >>Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org >>http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > >

May 14, 2002

Locked up

by Gregory Avedissian

Sometimes my computer locks up completely, so that neither the mouse nor the keyboard will work. I'm running SuSE 7.2 on an Athlon 1.2GHz/Shuttle Spacewalker AK12A, 256M memory. It seems to happen when I'm in a chat room. Running Mozilla 0.9.9 with recent Java plugin, also running Yahoo Instant Messenger, and it seems like things were loading very slowly in the chatroom all the times this had happened. I'm on a dialup line, so when I say slow, I mean like go-and-make-tea slow. Otherwise, the connection is ok (46.6K) when loading other pages. ctrl-alt-backspace does nothing, alt-F2,3 etc. does nothing, same for ctrl-D, ctrl-C, ctrl-Z, ctrl-alt-Fx. I had to hit the kill switch. This last time, it wasn't too bad, but the time before this, rebooting to linux was pretty scary. This only happens once every couple of weeks. I'm suspicious of the keyboard, because it persisted once when I rebooted to win98, then it cleared when I rebooted once more, first wiggling the wire where it goes into the keyboard. Does it sound at all like a software problem, or should I just ignore it and replace the keyboard? And is there some other way to bail out that I haven't tried? Thanks, Greg

May 14, 2002

Re: [Wlug] Locked up

by Michael Frysinger

you describe issues via just the mouse and keyboard. can you still login remotely to the computer ? i.e. can you ssh/telnet into it, or even get a ping response ? -mike ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gregory Avedissian" <avedis(a)ma.ultranet.com> To: <wlug(a)mail.wlug.org> Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2002 00:03 Subject: [Wlug] Locked up > Sometimes my computer locks up completely, so that neither the mouse nor > the keyboard will work. I'm running SuSE 7.2 on an Athlon 1.2GHz/Shuttle > Spacewalker AK12A, 256M memory. > > It seems to happen when I'm in a chat room. Running Mozilla 0.9.9 with > recent Java plugin, also running Yahoo Instant Messenger, and it seems > like things were loading very slowly in the chatroom all the times this > had happened. I'm on a dialup line, so when I say slow, I mean like > go-and-make-tea slow. Otherwise, the connection is ok (46.6K) when > loading other pages. > > ctrl-alt-backspace does nothing, alt-F2,3 etc. does nothing, same for > ctrl-D, ctrl-C, ctrl-Z, ctrl-alt-Fx. I had to hit the kill switch. This > last time, it wasn't too bad, but the time before this, rebooting to > linux was pretty scary. This only happens once every couple of weeks. > > I'm suspicious of the keyboard, because it persisted once when I > rebooted to win98, then it cleared when I rebooted once more, first > wiggling the wire where it goes into the keyboard. > > Does it sound at all like a software problem, or should I just ignore it > and replace the keyboard? And is there some other way to bail out that I > haven't tried? > > > Thanks, > Greg > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

May 13, 2002

Re: [Wlug] REMINDER: Meeting Wed, May 15th

by Robert L Krawitz

From: Andy Stewart <andystewart(a)attbi.com> Date: Mon, 13 May 2002 08:10:48 -0400 At this meeting, Andy Stewart will give a short presentation about his recent experiences with PLIP (Parallel Line Internet Protocol). The Linux PLIP software allows the user to connect two computers together via their printer ports. A network is run between the parallel interfaces. If you ever wanted to build a cheap, quick (as in rapid setup), and dirty point-to-point network that actually functions, this is it. Speaking of parallel port hacking, I want to do some parallel port line sniffing to determine exactly what command sequence the Windows driver sends to a particular printer. Has anyone done anything like this? Is the simplest thing likely to be to simply set up Samba on the Linux box and strace it? -- Robert Krawitz <rlk(a)alum.mit.edu> http://www.tiac.net/users/rlk/ Tall Clubs International -- http://www.tall.org/ or 1-888-IM-TALL-2 Member of the League for Programming Freedom -- mail lpf(a)uunet.uu.net Project lead for Gimp Print/stp -- http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net "Linux doesn't dictate how I work, I dictate how Linux works." --Eric Crampton

May 13, 2002

REMINDER: Meeting Wed, May 15th

by Andy Stewart

HI everybody, This is a reminder about the upcoming WLUG meeting to be held this Wednesday evening, May 15th, at 7:00 PM in Kinnicutt Hall on the WPI campus. At this meeting, Andy Stewart will give a short presentation about his recent experiences with PLIP (Parallel Line Internet Protocol). The Linux PLIP software allows the user to connect two computers together via their printer ports. A network is run between the parallel interfaces. If you ever wanted to build a cheap, quick (as in rapid setup), and dirty point-to-point network that actually functions, this is it. If two people would like to bring their laptops, I'll bring the cable and we can try a live demo. Be sure you have parport, parport_pc, and plip compiled as modules. My cable has male DB25 connectors. As I don't expect the PLIP presentation to be lengthy, if there are others who would like to do a quick presentation, please let me know. Afterwards, we'll visit the Boynton Restaurant for pizza and beer. All are invited to attend. See ya later! Andy -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org

May 13, 2002

Compaq auction

by Michelle Vadeboncoeur

http://www.dovebid.com/Auctions/AuctionDetail.asp?AuctionID=1260 Compaq out of Houston, TX is having a webcast auction on 5/14 of a bunch of their stuff (check the equipment catalog), ranging from the office TVs and video projectors, to monitors, servers, storage arrays, desktops, individual cards, etc. Looks like some nice stuff. 8) I thought that you guys might be interested in perhaps picking up something, hopefully on the inexpensive side. Sorry for the late notice, though. -- --==*==-- --==*==-- Michelle R. Vadeboncoeur --==*==-- --==*==-- mrv(a)kluge.net: http://www.kluge.net/~mrv/

May 11, 2002