"Chuck" == Chuck Anderson <cra@WPI.EDU> writes:
Chuck> On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 11:53:41PM -0500, Andy Stewart wrote:
When the boxes freezes, I cannot ssh into the box. I cannot switch to a text console. It is totally stuck, and the caps lock and scroll lock leds are blinking on the keyboard.
Chuck> Blinking caps lock & sroll lock means there is a kernel Chuck> panic. Can you set up a serial console or netconsole in advance Chuck> to capture the panic messages to another system when it Chuck> crashes? THat would work the best I suspect. Chuck> If you set up a serial console, you should be able to send a break key Chuck> to access the System Request functionality in the same way but over Chuck> the serial port.
The trick you mentioned about running tail -f /var/log/messages from another system is a good one that I had not considered! I'll try that also.
Chuck> I doubt that will work if there is a kernel panic. It's not that it will work *after* the kernel panic, but it will hopefully log to another system and messages dumped to the console when the crash happens. You might also try going into your BIOS and setting the system defaults, esp if you tweaked them in any way or shape previously. I've also found that: cd /tmp wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.37.tar.bz2 tar xjf linux-2.6.37.tar.bz2 cd linux-<whatever> cp /boot/config-<current kernel> .config fakeroot make deb-pkg works well as an upgrade path from a vendor kernel using Ubuntu. Not always mind you, but usually. Good luck, John