From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Sep 3 21:46:55 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DB53716A419 for ; Mon, 3 Sep 2007 21:46:55 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wmoran@potentialtech.com) Received: from mail.potentialtech.com (internet.potentialtech.com [66.167.251.6]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B076813C468 for ; Mon, 3 Sep 2007 21:46:55 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wmoran@potentialtech.com) Received: from working (c-71-60-127-199.hsd1.pa.comcast.net [71.60.127.199]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mail.potentialtech.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id AA25CEBC78; Mon, 3 Sep 2007 17:46:54 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2007 17:46:54 -0400 From: Bill Moran To: Ghirai Message-Id: <20070903174654.1afa4354.wmoran@potentialtech.com> In-Reply-To: <20070903234458.cb13c501.ghirai@ghirai.com> References: <60608.18289.qm@web30810.mail.mud.yahoo.com> <20070903225247.bd5622ff.ghirai@ghirai.com> <20070903163141.2f4e1f9e.wmoran@potentialtech.com> <20070903234458.cb13c501.ghirai@ghirai.com> X-Mailer: Sylpheed 2.4.4 (GTK+ 2.10.14; i386-portbld-freebsd6.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: periodic freeze and reset X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 03 Sep 2007 21:46:55 -0000 Ghirai wrote: > > On Mon, 3 Sep 2007 16:31:41 -0400 > Bill Moran wrote: > > > Ghirai wrote: > > > > > > Hello list, > > > > > > My desktop running 6.2-STABLE is freezing then resetting shortly after. > > > This behaviour happens every couple hours, for no apparent reason. > > > > > > I checked messages, etc, there's nothing there. > > > > > > This is getting annoying... :/ > > > > > > I'd appreciate any hints/where to look/what to look for. > > > > My first guess would be hardware problems. Have you run memtest? > > Checked for cooling problems? cpuburn to test for a flaky CPU? > > > > Haven't ran any hw monitors/test, but i spend time periodically in windows, > about 2-3 days each time, and it didn't crash reset. > > That's why i think there are no hw issues. > > In FreeBSD the freeze+resets occur and seemingly random intervals, but > not longer than 30 hours. Mostly within 6 hours. That seems to suggest that it isn't hardware, but doesn't completely eliminate the possibility. Often, vendors write drivers to work around known deficiencies in their hardware. Since FreeBSD's drivers are written to the specs, they may expose these deficiencies while the vendor's drivers intentionally avoid them. Additionally, FreeBSD seems to work hardware in different ways than Windows, thus tickling corner cases with hardware that's just barely failing. Run some hardware tests to be sure. Also, the driver issue that was raised is a good point. I've seen a number of buggy NICs where the vendor's driver worked around the bugginess so it _looked_ like FreeBSD was at fault. Make sure all your hardware is known to work on FreeBSD. -- Bill Moran http://www.potentialtech.com