I have "Redhat Linux 6.2 (Zoot)Kernel 2.2.14-5.0 on i586" and run Helix Gnome. At totally inconsistent and unpredictable times, my machine just locks up and I have to reboot. I run Win98 on another partition with no problem, so I "know" it's not directly hardware related. I'm wondering if there is any suggestions anyone can make on how to troubleshoot this problem. I can boot up with no problems, but after anywhere from 2 minutes to 2 hours, everything freezes up. THANKS!

Tyan Trinity ATX Mainboard
AMD K6 450
128 MB RAM (2 x 64)
Vortex AU8830 Sound PCI
VooDoo 3 PCI
SMC EZ Card 10/100 PCI

Have you tried switching between terminal screens? Next time your booted, and it freezes, try a ctrl-alt-F2 or up to F6, any of them will work and see if it gets you to a login prompt on a different terminal. If that works, that means its not everything locking up and only your X windows...
This is where you can then do a check on all processes running and kill any. You might want to also see how many are running and recompile your kernel to boot without running some processes you won't ever use, for example maybe httpd services if your not using it for a web server. This will probably help out.

Drew

I would look for suspicious entries in syslog. Also just an FYI - you do not need to recompile the kernel to stop httpd from starting on boot. Just take it out of the startup scripts.

Thanks Drew (trickykid). Sure enough I was able to press CTRL + ALT + F2 and return to the login. I'm not sure how to proceed from here though. I ran TOP and saw that everything was "sleeping" except for TOP. Also, I could not "startX"... I was prompted to remove a file (forgot what it was already... tmp/X0????) but could not remove it anyway since it was evidently write protected. So I had to reboot to startX. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Well, it looks like I was a bit premature with my earlier reply. The system has locked up several times now while running Gnome and the Ctrl+Alt+F2 (-F6) did not work. It's odd, though, because some applications on the screen appear to be running. For example, the system monitor "gkrellm" still runs, but I can't do anything. On the other hand, other windows stop refreshing entirely (i.e., they go white).

With respect to looking at the syslog, I'm not sure if I'm experienced enough to recognize anything suspicious, but I'll keep looking. Thanks.

Well you can't startx if you switch terminal screens. Did you try to kill the process and start it again. Then you can ctrl-alt-F7 to switch back to X windows.
Sorry about the startup scripts.....didn't even cross my mind at the time, it is easier to just take it out of the startup scripts....
Also if your within X windows and it locks up, try a ctrl-alt-backspace.

Maybe off topic, but you can start another x-session from the console if there is already one running. To be honest, you can start up to 64 x-sessions from your console :-))
If you have your x-session running (Gnome, Kde ...) hit e.g. Ctrl-Alt-F2. Then log in at the prompt and type
"startx - --:1". Its nice if you want to test another x-server.
From within your running x-session you can start another session e.g. as root by opening a shell and typing
" startx --:1 "
Works fine.
As i said before, a little bit off topic, but maybe new to some people here.

cu

well, i know about starting another x server but he can't get the one he has running smoothly. but thanks for pointing that out to everyone out there that didn't know that.