I thought that linux didn´t crash, but I can consistantly get it to crash just by loading xawtv and moving the xawtv window. I could understand it if just crashed xawtv... but it completly freezes my system and I have to reboot.

Any ideas? I would be happy even if there was some way of isolating xawtv so that it doesn´t completely lock up my system.

Adam

Huh, linux doesn't crash much -- you must really be pushing your system. Is it too weak to run a memory-intensive X package?

Have you tried to Ctrl-Alt-Backspace out of X?

Umm I don´t think so don´t have the best system but a Celeron 1700 512mb ddr333 ram 40gb 5200 rpm hdd Radeon 9100 128mbddr ....I don´t think it should be a problem???

Is it ctr alt backspace??? Not ctr alt del???

I hope thats not too stupid a question but Linux really seems to crash properly (but ONLY when I load xawtv and move the window)... I think it could be some sort of an IRQ problem but I have no Idea how to sort that sort of thing out cant even find my manual that is supposed to tell you which slots share IRQs

Adam

to kill X it is ctrl+alt+backspace.

depending on your setting ctrl-alt-del may reboot the system. It's unlike windows, in that it is configurable.

Usually killing and restarting X will fix anything, at least for the short time.

And linux doesn't crash, people crash linux.


/geek

It does sound like a problem with the display (only after moving the window), so I guess it's just X dying. Have you also tried Ctrl+Atl+F1 to get a login console? Ctrl+Alt+F7 is normally to get back to the X screen if it's working.

I've had to push the reset button probably a dozen times on my red hat 8.0 box in my short history with linux and thru several reinstalls. Sometimes it just locks up and there's no going to a new terminal, no escaping, no ctrl-c'ing, no ctrl-alt-bs, nothing.
Hasn't happened lately tho.

Hmmm, can I use that logic with Windows too? I ask because in all the time I've been using XP (including the beta) it has never once produced a BSOD for me. Must be luck, huh?

my only crashes in windows have been either in games: bf1942 or AA, or while writing networking code, usually java.

Redhat 9 I've only been able to crash with hardware failure...dead hard drives don't boot.

/geek

I doubt that anyone who has done any programming at all would make a claim like that

Operating systems are very complex things, especially when you consider the amount and variety of large, complicated, and potentially flawed software that is running at any given time on a modern PC, which contains any number of complex and potentially uncooperative pieces of hardware. OSes do crash once in a while. Some people use Windows XP for a year with no crashes, some use Linux for a day and have a hard freeze.

If the crash is consistent, there may be a way to localize the problem to keep it from happening. Try running GKrellm or another monitoring application and then seeing if it's possible to duplicate the crash; run 'top' in a terminal window and see if some process is hogging all the CPU right before it freezes. Check the logs, or use tail -f on one of your system logs (/var/log/messages, etc.) to see if anything useful is printed there. Find out if there is a known bug with that software, and see if there's a patch or upgrade that might fix it; use a utility like memtest-86 to test yor RAM and make sure it's okay. There are lots of things to try!

sounds to me like an incompatibility between your tv capture card and your video card. i would try the following(in no particular order)

• what happens if you switch xawtv to grabdisplay rather than overlay before you move the window?
• does it work in windows properly?
• are you using a binary driver for your video card or is it a standard xfree one.
• do fbtv and streamer run without errors?
• if you have another machine, after it crashes can you ssh in and see what sort of state the machine is in.

Never locked up on you at all?

Nope, never. But then, I built my system, installed the OS, took the time to learn it and configure it, don't overclock and maintain things regularly. Have I had apps freeze and need to be terminated? Sure. There's no shortage of crappy software out there written by half-assed programmers. But not BSOD here. Not even from games. Go figure.

When applications bring down an entire system, that's when I find it time to submit a bug report

I've had my share, they too are few and far between, but even so, I still get them, even with my vast amount of knowledge

Linux, the kernel, has NEVER brought my system down. It's ALWAYS another application, so yeah, linux (the kernel) never crashes. Not in my experience

Cool

i used win2k for well over a year and it only had one BSOD this was due to the hd motor dying which i think is a perfectly reasonable reason.

<edit> ive had a 2.4 series kernel crash but it was due to proprietry kernel module, other than that i have never seen or heard of a stable kernel crashing.

Yes, I too am impressed and pleased with how stable Linux is. I just wish it was a tad easier to get things done in. Still, I've managed to install what needs installing, update the updatable, and eventually find the configurators I need. Now I just wish I could connect to our Win2K Exchange server at work without having to buy a 3rd party utility like Crossover. Sigh....