I'm running a RH9 basic web/home file server and just tried to install Cyrus to get a mail server going. While building the source, gcc throws a seg fault about 20 seconds or so after I start the make. Reinstalling gcc (3.4.1) didn't fix anything as I still got the seg faults while building gcc and afterwards. It seems most any computationally intensive task makes my computer cry in one way or another. I can still access it via telnet/web with no problems.

All the hardware is at least 5 years old, including a P3 600mhz, 2x64M Kingston pc100 RAM, and an old Gateway mobo. The box ran Distr. Folding for months so this is a very new issue. I'm guessing it's a hardware issue (RAM) but other suggestions would be great.

Would that be a "Signal 11" error, by any chance..?

No mention of Signal 11. gcc throws mainly seg faults (occasionally macro or syntax errors) while other programs just hang if they run for more than 10-30 seconds at a time. Also I left out that the code isn't at fault, when gcc seg faults I just run make again and it picks up where it left off for another 30 seconds.

I think its a faulty processor. I had a K6 500 Mhz do the same to me, giving me seg faults every time I put anything to compile on it. I had to unfortunately bury that processor. If you want you discard the processor problem, I would recommend trying with a different RAM stick. Either way good luck with that.

If only I had another stick of ram laying around I wouldn't put it past this processor to be kaput, it's had a long run.

An update in case it can help someone else someday. A faulty processor was to blame, with a new P3 installed the system has not hung during CPU intensive times (so far anyways). Thanks for the suggestion SonJelfn!