From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Nov 2 09:06:47 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4FC6616A4CE for ; Tue, 2 Nov 2004 09:06:47 +0000 (GMT) Received: from smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (ns0.infracaninophile.co.uk [81.2.69.218]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 89AA543D3F for ; Tue, 2 Nov 2004 09:06:46 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: from happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk (localhost [IPv6:::1]) iA296gQT065279 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Tue, 2 Nov 2004 09:06:42 GMT (envelope-from matthew@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: (from matthew@localhost)iA296gCs065278; Tue, 2 Nov 2004 09:06:42 GMT (envelope-from matthew) Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2004 09:06:42 +0000 From: Matthew Seaman To: Jian Guang Xu Message-ID: <20041102090642.GB64847@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk> Mail-Followup-To: Matthew Seaman , Jian Guang Xu , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <274e8bdc04110119392a144be7@mail.gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="MfFXiAuoTsnnDAfZ" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <274e8bdc04110119392a144be7@mail.gmail.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-1.5.6 (smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk [IPv6:::1]); Tue, 02 Nov 2004 09:06:42 +0000 (GMT) X-Virus-Scanned: clamd / ClamAV version devel-20040904, clamav-milter version 0.75l on smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.8 required=5.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL autolearn=ham version=3.0.1 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.1 (2004-10-22) on happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: freebsd dies freequently X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 02 Nov 2004 09:06:47 -0000 --MfFXiAuoTsnnDAfZ Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Mon, Nov 01, 2004 at 10:39:32PM -0500, Jian Guang Xu wrote: > I'm experiencing frequent freeze in my FreeBSD with out any error > message. I don't know what exactly the reason is and I can only put my > current dead system information here: > The system is 5.3RC1, KDE, Firefox without flash plugin yet, Konsole > is dong "make install clean" at /usr/ports/www/mozilla. >=20 > This is a dual boot machine with W2K in the first 25G and FreeBSD in > the rest. The CPU is AMD Athlon 1600+ and 1024 Giga Ram, 3 sticks with > 512mb+256mb+256mb. GeForce 2 with 32 MB, AC97 on board Audio device. >=20 > Most of the dying time for BSD is when I doing online surfing using > firefox without Flash plugin. Another thing need to be noticed is that > my /var is an independent partition approaching 83% at least. >=20 > It would be great that if somebody could at least point me somewhere > to go. Thank you in advance. What exactly are you seeing when your FreeBSD box goes down? There should be output on the console, and there might be something logged in /var/log/messages. If you're seeing any mention of 'SEGV' or 'Signal 11' then start by suspecting your hardware. This can be due to bad memory, bad CPU or even something as simple as the system overheating. However, overheating more usually shows itself as the system suddenly blacking out as the thermal cutout operates. Note that it is quite possible for these sort of problems to only show up under FreeBSD and not other operating systems. It's a matter of pot luck as to whether any particular system gets bitten. For diagnosing memory problems, the memtest86 program is very useful (although it cannot guarrantee that it won't generate the occasional false negatives): http://www.memtest86.com/ If you can rule out hardware troubles and can't otherwise find the problem, see: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/developers-handbook/ke= rneldebug.html Generating a traceback from a core dump is the sort of information necessary for a developer to debug the problem. Cheers, Matthew --=20 Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 26 The Paddocks Savill Way PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Marlow Tel: +44 1628 476614 Bucks., SL7 1TH UK --MfFXiAuoTsnnDAfZ Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.6 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQFBh04iiD657aJF7eIRAmRkAJkBoRb6BTyTlu6nKaFCt/LzpCohEQCfYxFQ QhGaVkKUsOgDXqFgbx5kEtU= =EQyG -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --MfFXiAuoTsnnDAfZ--