Well I have had this Linux box built for ~6 months now and the longest I was able to keep it up was ~ 15 days in a row.

I am running an XP2100 with a Shuttle motherboard ak35gt and 1.25 Gig of ram with a 400 Watt PS which is supposed ot be one of the best and I have 3 HD's 1 Floppy and 1 CD-RW.

So Wheneve I go to copy large amounts of data form one drive to the next, or when I am bzipping 20 Files in a row or anything like this..It get a crash and a reboot.

any ideas how to de-bug this?

thank

Are there any clues in /var/log/messages?

It carshed 3 more times. I removed 1 memory module to see if that helps..it doesnt.

I opened up my case to let more airflow in ..it didnt help.

I did see one useful message(not). Segmentation fault and the whole system freezes.

/var/log/messages has nothing in it to help.

I now turned down my FSB to 130 from 133. It didnt help.

Any other suggestions?

Have you tried running any other OS's on it? Maybe a different kernel? Maybe you could try running it on a live-cd like knoppix for awhile.

I do need a BIOS flash because I upgraded to XP processor and doesnt recoginze this..you think this may be the problem?

I would try this:

1. shut down all non essential programms, run in console mode with no extras on (punch down your runlevel)

2. remove all non-essential hardware our of your
system. This sounds very much like a hardware thing to me. (I guess that is why it is correctly placed in the hardware forum ;-)

3. Grade down anything that you can in the BIOS. Can you reduce the ramspeed? Is there a compatibility setting? (more stable or more performance switch)

4. Try another distro, I can especially recommend Knopix, since you can boot it off a CD and that will not change/harm your config in any way. Then torture the machine a little, run heavy stuff on it and see if it crashes again.

5. Play a game on it if you can, since they usually use a lot of juice from the system. Does that crash too?

What distro are you using?
Is the dmesg (bootmessage thing of the kernel) saying anything strange while recognizing your hardware during bootup?

Cheers

Markus

Two people were having the idea of Knoppix at the same time ;-)

thanks for the reply.

I am using RH 8.0

What can I do in knoppix to strain the system?


also, here is my dmesg:

Linux version 2.4.20-18.8 (compile@daffy.perf.redhat.com) (gcc version 3.2 20020903 (Red Hat Linux 8.0 3.2
-7)) #1 Thu May 29 07:20:39 EDT 2003
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 00000000000a0000 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 00000000000f0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000003fff0000 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000003fff0000 - 000000003fff3000 (ACPI NVS)
BIOS-e820: 000000003fff3000 - 0000000040000000 (ACPI data)
BIOS-e820: 00000000ffff0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
127MB HIGHMEM available.
896MB LOWMEM available.
On node 0 totalpages: 262128
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 225280 pages.
zone(2): 32752 pages.
Kernel command line: auto BOOT_IMAGE=linux ro BOOT_FILE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-18.8 hdd=ide-scsi root=LABEL=/
ide_setup: hdd=ide-scsi
Initializing CPU#0
Detected 1696.415 MHz processor.
Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
Calibrating delay loop... 3381.65 BogoMIPS
Memory: 1027612k/1048512k available (1310k kernel code, 17320k reserved, 995k data, 132k init, 131008k highm
em)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 8, 1048576 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer-cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 262144 (order: 8, 1048576 bytes)
CPU: CLK_CTL MSR was 6003d22f. Reprogramming to 2003d22f
CPU: L1 I Cache: 64K (64 bytes/line), D cache 64K (64 bytes/line)
CPU: L2 Cache: 256K (64 bytes/line)
Intel machine check architecture supported.
Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
CPU: After generic, caps: 0383f9ff c1c3f9ff 00000000 00000000
CPU: Common caps: 0383f9ff c1c3f9ff 00000000 00000000
CPU: AMD Unknown CPU Type stepping 01
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
mtrr: v1.40 (20010327) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
mtrr: detected mtrr type: Intel
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfb440, last bus=1
PCI: Using configuration type 1
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
PCI: Using IRQ router default [1106/3099] at 00:00.0
isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
Initializing RT netlink socket
apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x07 (Driver version 1.16)
Starting kswapd
allocated 32 pages and 32 bhs reserved for the highmem bounces
VFS: Disk quotas vdquot_6.5.1
Detected PS/2 Mouse Port.
pty: 2048 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS MULTIPORT SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI ISAPNP enabled
ttyS0 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
ttyS1 at 0x02f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
Real Time Clock Driver v1.10e
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
NET4: Frame Diverter 0.46
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size 1024 blocksize
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta3-.2.4
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
VP_IDE: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:11.1
VP_IDE: chipset revision 6
VP_IDE: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
VP_IDE: VIA vt8233a (rev 00) IDE UDMA133 controller on pci00:11.1
ide0: BM-DMA at 0xe000-0xe007, BIOS settings: hdaMA, hdbMA
ide1: BM-DMA at 0xe008-0xe00f, BIOS settings: hdcMA, hddMA
hda: MAXTOR 6L080J4, ATA DISK drive
hdb: Maxtor 33073H3, ATA DISK drive
blk: queue c039eba0, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
blk: queue c039ece4, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
hdc: Maxtor 92041U4, ATA DISK drive
hdd: IDE DVD-ROM 16X, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
blk: queue c039f004, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hda: attached ide-disk driver.
hda: host protected area => 1
hda: 156355584 sectors (80054 MB) w/1819KiB Cache, CHS=9732/255/63, UDMA(133)
hdb: attached ide-disk driver.
hdb: host protected area => 1
hdb: 60032448 sectors (30737 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=59556/16/63, UDMA(100)
hdc: attached ide-disk driver.
hdc: host protected area => 1
hdc: 40020624 sectors (20491 MB) w/512KiB Cache, CHS=39703/16/63, UDMA(66)
ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
Partition check:
hda: hda1 hda2 hda3 hda4 < hda5 hda6 hda7 hda8 hda9 >
hdb: hdb1 hdb2 hdb3 hdb4
hdc: [PTBL] [2491/255/63] hdc1 hdc2 < hdc5 hdc6 hdc7 hdc8 hdc9 >
ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
md: md driver 0.90.0 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27
md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
md: autorun ...
md: ... autorun DONE.
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
IP: routing cache hash table of 8192 buckets, 64Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 262144 bind 65536)
Linux IP multicast router 0.06 plus PIM-SM
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
Freeing initrd memory: 125k freed
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
Journalled Block Device driver loaded
EXT3-fs: INFO: recovery required on readonly filesystem.
EXT3-fs: write access will be enabled during recovery.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs: recovery complete.
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 132k freed
usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
usb.c: registered new driver hub
usb-uhci.c: $Revision: 1.275 $ time 07:35:30 May 29 2003
usb-uhci.c: High bandwidth mode enabled
usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0xe400, IRQ 12
usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0xe800, IRQ 12
usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
usb-uhci.c: v1.275:USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver
usb.c: registered new driver hiddev
usb.c: registered new driver hid
hid-core.c: v1.8.1 Andreas Gal, Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@suse.cz>
hid-core.c: USB HID support drivers
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,3), internal journal
Adding Swap: 875500k swap-space (priority -1)
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,1), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,2), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,8), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,7), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,6), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,5), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide1(22,1), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide1(22,9), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide1(22,8), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide1(22,6), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide1(22,7), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,65), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,66), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,67), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,68), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
hdd: attached ide-scsi driver.
scsi0 : SCSI host adapter emulation for IDE ATAPI devices
Vendor: IDE Model: DVD-ROM 16X Rev: 3.10
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 [PCSPP,TRISTATE]
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
Linux Tulip driver version 0.9.15-pre12 (Aug 9, 2002)
tulip0: Transceiver selection forced to 100baseTx.
divert: allocating divert_blk for eth0
eth0: ADMtek Comet rev 17 at 0xf890f000, , IRQ 5.
divert: allocating divert_blk for eth1
eth1: ADMtek Comet rev 17 at 0xf8911000, , IRQ 12.
ip_conntrack version 2.1 (8191 buckets, 65528 max) - 292 bytes per conntrack

Sounds like a possible PSU issue. I know you said in the first message that the PSU is 'supposed to be one of the best', but even so a faulty or underpowered PSU would certainly cause stability problems, especially with all of the hardware you have. As I have learned just recently (props to Geoff_f and Rav) your specific CPU will normally pull power from the 12v rail of your PSU. Your HDs also pull from the 12v rail, so it is possible that when you are doing a HD intensive operation (such as copying large files between drives) that it is stealing enough juice to underpower the CPU to the point of failure.

This is my best guess (but still just a guess mind you). Can you post the specs of your PSU? Specifically the 3.3v, 5v, and 12v ratings along with the TCO?

slight

I flashed my BIOS and restarted the mkisofs command of my 4 Gig iso. I got these kernel messages and then a system halt:

Jun 5 22:14:53 bruce -- root[1476]: ROOT LOGIN ON tty1
Jun 5 22:18:47 bruce kernel: Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 005cd044
Jun 5 22:18:47 bruce kernel: printing eip:
Jun 5 22:18:47 bruce kernel: c0136692
Jun 5 22:18:47 bruce kernel: *pde = 00000000
Jun 5 22:18:47 bruce kernel: Oops: 0000
Jun 5 22:18:47 bruce kernel: autofs ipt_TOS ipt_REJECT ipt_LOG ipt_limit ipt_MASQUERADE ipt_state iptable_mangle iptable_nat ip_conntrack tulip iptable_filter ip_tables ide-scsi scsi_mod
Jun 5 22:18:47 bruce kernel: CPU: 0
Jun 5 22:18:47 bruce kernel: EIP: 0010:[<c0136692>] Not tainted
Jun 5 22:18:47 bruce kernel: EFLAGS: 00010246
Jun 5 22:18:47 bruce kernel:
Jun 5 22:18:47 bruce kernel: EIP is at scan_active_list [kernel] 0x42 (2.4.20-18.8)
Jun 5 22:18:47 bruce kernel: eax: 005cd044 ebx: c15ccff0 ecx: 00000000 edx: c36bffac
Jun 5 22:18:47 bruce kernel: esi: c03027f4 edi: 005cd044 ebp: 00000000 esp: c36bffa4
Jun 5 22:19:03 bruce kernel: ds: 0018 es: 0018 ss: 0018
Jun 5 22:19:34 bruce kernel: Process kscand (pid: 6, stackpage=c36bf000)
Jun 5 22:19:48 bruce kernel: Stack: c01174c0 00000000 00000001 c36be000 00000000 c0302680 00000000 c01374f4
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: c0302680 00000000 00000000 c36be000 00000001 00000000 000001f4 00010f00
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: c1e17fa0 c0105000 0008e000 c010726e 00000000 c01373f0 c1e16000
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: Call Trace: [<c01174c0>] process_timeout [kernel] 0x0 (0xc36bffa4))
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: [<c01374f4>] kscand [kernel] 0x104 (0xc36bffc0))
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: [<c0105000>] stext [kernel] 0x0 (0xc36bffe8))
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: [<c010726e>] arch_kernel_thread [kernel] 0x2e (0xc36bfff0))
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: [<c01373f0>] kscand [kernel] 0x0 (0xc36bfff8))
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel:
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel:
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: Code: 8b 3f 39 f0 75 de 83 c4 0c 31 c0 5b 5e 5f 5d c3 89 1c 24 89
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: <1>Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 2035c04c
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: printing eip:
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: c01341ea
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: *pde = 00000000
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: Oops: 0000
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: autofs ipt_TOS ipt_REJECT ipt_LOG ipt_limit ipt_MASQUERADE ipt_state iptable_mangle iptable_nat ip_conntrack tulip iptable_filter ip_tables ide-scsi scsi_mod
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: CPU: 0
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: EIP: 0010:[<c01341ea>] Not tainted
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: EFLAGS: 00010002
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel:
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: EIP is at __kmem_cache_alloc [kernel] 0x4a (2.4.20-18.8)
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: eax: 9500000d ebx: 9500000d ecx: cc35c000 edx: ef402980
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: esi: c36b3e40 edi: 00000246 ebp: 000000f0 esp: f7027dfc
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: ds: 0018 es: 0018 ss: 0018
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: Process mkisofs (pid: 1525, stackpage=f7027000)
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: Stack: 0028d2b8 c3664dc0 00000000 00000000 00001000 00000001 c0142bbf c36b3e40
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: 000000f0 c0142c58 00000001 00000000 0028d2b8 00000342 c1579f40 c1f2a960
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: ebe979c0 c0142ed5 c1579f40 00001000 00000001 0000000c 00000000 c0143806
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: Call Trace: [<c0142bbf>] get_unused_buffer_head [kernel] 0x3f (0xf7027e14))
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: [<c0142c58>] create_buffers [kernel] 0x28 (0xf7027e20))
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: [<c0142ed5>] create_empty_buffers [kernel] 0x25 (0xf7027e40))
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: [<c0143806>] block_read_full_page [kernel] 0x2a6 (0xf7027e58))
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: [<c01352fd>] lru_cache_add [kernel] 0x11d (0xf7027e8c))
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: [<c012d870>] page_cache_read [kernel] 0xc0 (0xf7027eb4))
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: [<f881f540>] ext3_get_block [ext3] 0x0 (0xf7027ebc))
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: [<c012e00b>] generic_file_readahead [kernel] 0xdb (0xf7027edc))
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: [<c012e49f>] do_generic_file_read [kernel] 0x36f (0xf7027f0c))
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: [<c012e870>] file_read_actor [kernel] 0x0 (0xf7027f38))
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: [<c012e9f0>] generic_file_read [kernel] 0xb0 (0xf7027f58))
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: [<c012e870>] file_read_actor [kernel] 0x0 (0xf7027f68))
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: [<c01407e3>] sys_read [kernel] 0xa3 (0xf7027f94))
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel: [<c0108dff>] system_call [kernel] 0x33 (0xf7027fc0))
Jun 5 22:19:54 bruce kernel:

SYSTEM HALTED..I had to do a Manual REBOOT with the case switch.

It actually happened twice during the process..once 1/2 way through the 2nd 80% through. Then it segmentation Faulted.

Any ideas??

It looks like this is a memory issue no??

Well after all of this I did some searching on google and found several people who have the same problem as I. the common denominator was that we are all using kernel version 2.4.20.x

So, I booted with kernel 2.4.18 form March and I ran mkisofs twice and created 2 4 gig files and there have been no problems.

I ma now tarring and | bzip2 a 10 gig directory and I'd say it is 40% through and thus far no errors.

So in conclusion whatever the developers did from 2.4.18 to 2.4.20 for paging kernel parameters, they need to undo.

Anyone know where I can file a bug/request for these types of issues?

Thanks

Well, It worked a little better but not 100% better.
so now I changed the Power supply form a 400w allied(12A on 12v rails) to a 450w allied(18A on 12v rails).

so far so good, but it has only been 2 hours of heavy usage.

i will keep everyone update. If this works I will try the 2.4.20 to see if it is stable with that kernel or not.

thanks for the suggestions.

Hope everything works OK.

In the future what you might want to do is install lmsensors and use gkrellm to monitor your core voltages, that way you can see if your core voltages drop during heavy usage. You can also monitor temps this way as well, as heat can also be a contributing factor to instability.

slight

slight..
I have lmsensors, but I am having a basic problem of figuring out my current .config file for the kernel rebuild.

I have redhat and use thier automatic update whcih installs the src in /usr/src but where can I find my current config so I dont have to go throught the manual xconfig and answer 100 questions.

when you say config, do you mean the kernel peramaters, or the Xconfig? The X config for redhat should be /etc/X11/XF86config, AFAIK.

I thought that lmsensors could be compiled as a module though, so I'm not sure that a kernel recompile is necessary. I haven't played around with lmsensors in a while though, so I might be wrong.

slight