Date: Mon, 22 Apr 1996 19:51:58 +0000 From: Christoff Snijders <hjcs@portal.ca> To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Follow-up: Spontaneous Reboot Message-ID: <317BE35E.41C67EA6@portal.ca>
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My original posting read: > Subject: > Spontaneous reboots > Date: > Sat, 20 Apr 1996 00:05:40 +0000 > From: > Christoff Snijders <hjcs@portal.ca> > To: > questions@freebsd.org > > > Hi there, FreeBSD guru(s): > > Firstly, thanks for a really great product (FreeBSD)! Oh, what the > heck--thanks for a really great suite of products (BSDI, FreeBSD, > NetBSD. . .) :-) > > I posted a message on the comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc newsgroup, but > haven't received any replies yet, so I thought I'd post a message here, > too. > > Almost every morning (with literally one or two exceptions), for about > the last four or five days, when I check my FreeBSD box, it has rebooted > itself. I checked the obvious (power), but that wasn't the problem. > > Instead, after some testing, I've discovered that it may be a matter of > memory (Signal 11) errors which aren't given the chance to generate core > dumps, but instead reboot the machine. > > I can reproduce one of the errors. If I log in as one of my users who > is on group wheel, and I run xdtm (from the ports collection), the > program core-dumps (signal 11). If I run the same command as root, it > runs perfectly for a while, then core-dumps, too. Okay, it could be a > bad executable or buggy code, so not really serious. > > Serious, however, are the reboot problems, which are occurring with > /etc/daily (run by cron at 02:00), which I have not (yet) modified from > its original form. Specifically, I think the problem is with find. > > >From time to time, even when I perform a find manually (though more > rarely by this method than by cron)--say, for example, > > find / -name text.txt -print > > the machine will pause for a moment or two, and then reboot itself. > > While, in principle, I'm not unwilling to consider the possibility of > faulty RAM or a faulty motherboard, I believe this is unlikely, since I > am also running Windoze 95 on the same machine with a slew of (some > really demanding, processor & FPU-wise) applications, and I receive no > errors. > > The machine is a Gateway 2000, with > > Intel Pentium 120 > AMI BIOS > 16MB EDO RAM > STB Trio 64V+ video card (PCI) > IDE Western Digital Caviar 21200 1.2GB hard disk > Wearnes 6X IDE CD-ROM drive > Telepath 28.8 Fax Modem > 1.44MB 3.5" floppy drive > PS/2-style mouse > 104-key keyboard > > Any ideas? With the exception of the occasional Signal 11 error, the > machine is running fine, as is BSD, and I *really love* this operating > system, and would love to see it run with stability. > > Is there anything in -STABLE or -CURRENT you think might solve my > problems? > > Thanks in advance. > > -- > Christoff Snijders > hjcs@portal.ca FreeBSD gurus: I thought I'd post a follow-up, since I think I've found the problem. I did some testing this week-end, and I think the problem lies with the IDE CD-ROM driver. The system seems to function reliably, as long as I don't mount any CD-ROMs (or DOS floppies). I still can't explain why xdtm (from Ports) core-dumps when I use it from my user name, but works when I run it as root (although, give it five minutes and it core-dumps too). Does my diagnosis sound about right (or at least plausible) to you? Thanks in advance. -- Christoff Snijders hjcs@portal.ca -- Christoff Snijders hjcs@portal.ca
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