strange vmlinuz when opened in pico
 

I was just pocking around on my sytem in the console looking at different things in pico (emacs for newbies LOL) and I opened vmlinuz in the /boot directory to see what it was.

Heres and example of what got me kinda worried:

Enter mode number or `scan': ^@Unknown mode ID. Try again.^@You passed an undef$^@Error: Scanning of VESA modes failed. Please report to <mj@ucw.cz>.
^@CGA/MDA/HGA^@EGA^@ VGA^@VESA^@Video adapter: ^@^@^@?^@^@U?ZZ^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^$!^@^@ ?u^K^^1??^@^@^P^@^P^@??^@^P^@?^@^P^@^@??^@
^P^@)???^C??^B???^[^YZX?^@^@^$???t^Q??N?D?$^@
^@^@^@E???u??D$^P^@^@^@^@?6????^A^@^@^
:scratch:

and.....

^@bad gzip magic numbers^@out of memory^@crc error^@length error^@Input has inv$^@Multi part input
^@Input is encrypted
^@
Out of memory
^@Memory error
^@Malloc error
^@ran out of input data

there is all kinds of stuff like that in the file, probably to much to post here.

Im assuming there is some kind of problem, just kinda wondering if anyone can tell me what I'm looking at when I have this file open. Is it some kind of log file?

Strange part is that I thought everything was working fine, havent noticed any problems with performance...

thanks for the help

Oddly, I haven't looked at vmlinuz through a text editor but I suspect those are the strings your kernel displays *if* there's an error - it should include all possible error messages - but there's no need to worry unless it displays those strings on your console. :)

alright, thanks. I was panicing a bit, wasnt sure what it meant.

Also wondered one other thing. When I type "startx" an error message seems to flash for a split second before Nautilus starts. I cant really see what it says other that a quick glance of something about XF86Config and something that might have looked like EE or something.

Is there maybe a log somewhere to see that error that flashed so quickly?

vmlinuz is your kernel. It will more than likely just be a bunch of giberish when you open it because it is a binary file. I do not know why it would be error messages but inside the /boot directory, all vmlinuz are kernel's.
John

Let me try again. *g* The code is written in C or whatever. This contains plain-English messages about "what to do if" something succeeds or fails. When it's compiled, the code is turned into binary gibberish but the message elements are left alone and echoed to the display when necessary. You can use 'strings' on any binary to get a display of any plain-text in it - the output of '--help', error messages, etc. The kernel's just another binary with some ascii inside. The computer doesn't just invent those error messages - they're embedded in the kernel, the shell, and other apps. :)

It's like the code says
'if foo doesn't exist print "File not found", etc.
and the binary says
@#$$#@File Not Found&^%
and the display says
"File Not Found"

mipia - you might try .xsession-errors or any X-related log in /var/log. I'm really not sure where to look precisely for that.

If you can't get everything from .xsession-errors, try /var/log/XFree86.0.log or whatever it's called (number might be different). Just make sure you check the right date, or you might get some nasty shocks ;)
-bbp