I am running usb version of lucid 10.04.2, with many apt-get installs. Shortly after running awhile, programs will not run, I get either an "input/output error" or "Bus error (core dumped)". (Examples of programs rendered inoperable are top, df, file)

I've read something about a memory leak in Lucid, but in my case, the computer doesnt slow down, things just stop working. Is this a known problem with Lucid? I'm thinking maybe one of my apt-get installs corrupted something. Is this a known problem that has a software update available?

Here is the output of "top" which fortunately currently DOES work, while other progs don't. (the memory usage stays constantly in that 1.5 GB range)
Mem: 3056772k total, 1554952k used, 1501820k free, 173004k buffers
Swap: 0k total, 0k used, 0k free, 1081808k cached

Those errors indicate hardware problems with the disks. The programs that do work are the ones already cached in RAM.

Thanks for your reply. Hmmmmmmmmm. Well this is a live USB version so I understand all applications are stored in the squashfs file. Would you suspect there is a problem in reading the program executable, or a problem with the program writing to another part of the filesystem (like to the ramdisk)?