[olug] My console has fallen and it can't get up

[dbw]

nope

-dbw

At Wednesday, 14 February 2001, you wrote:

>That almost sounds like a heating issue. You might want to make 
sure the 
>cpu isn't overheating or anything.
>
>dbw wrote:
>
>> This just happened again on the same box.  This time I was NOT in 
>> X11 and it had nothing to do with the X screensaver.  The machine 
>> froze at the login prompt; once again the keyboard was completely 
>> unresponsive.  I suspect that the fact I was in an X session the 
>> first time is incidental.  Once again the console is completely dead.
>> 
>> 
>> Last time I received a lot of "press this key and then press that" 
>> suggestions.  I will reiterate the fact that the keyboard does not 
>> respond, not even CNTRL-ALT-DELETE does anything.  It is not a 
hardware 
>> problem with the KB, after all, when I restart the system by killing 
>> the power then the system comes back and the keyboard is fine.
>> 
>> I want to take up Phil Brutsche on his suggestion to put a getty 
>> on one of the machines serial ports.  I do not want to run ssh or 
>> any remote login services for security reasons, but accessing the 
>> machine via the serial port would be a great solution.
>> 
>> Could someone please offer me some information or resource on how 
>> to accomplish this?  I am guessing that using minicom on another 
>> machine I would be able to access a login prompt of the afflicted 
>> machine via the serial port.
>> 
>> Thank you,
>> 
>> -Derek
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> At Wednesday, 31 January 2001, you wrote:
>> 
>> 
>>> So, I've got this linux server that is basically only a firewall 
>>> / IP Masquerade. There are no ports listening for connections on 
>>> telnet, ssh, rlogin or otherwise.  The box has been running for a 
>>> couple months now without restart and or incident.  (uptime approx.
>>> 65 days)  The distribution is Redhat and the kernel is 2.2.16 (or 
>>> in that neighborhood).
>>> 
>>> The box was running in Xwindows, the screensaver on, and after a 
>>> keystroke the screensaver password prompt appeared. I attempted to 
>>> enter my password so I could access the environment and do some 
work.
>>> I typed in my password and hit the ENTER key...
>>> 
>>> The console is frozen, no keyboard or mouse response.  I cannot 
change 
>>> consoles, I cannot even change the caps lock state on the box.  No 
>>> keyboard response, yet the caps lock and scroll lock lights are lit,
>>> and the keyboard connection is fine.  The keyboard works on other 
>>> computers also, so this is not a keyboard hardware problem.
>>> 
>>> However, the ipchains and firewall stuff is still working fine.  
>>> I can ping the box and it replies without delay.  The box is also 
>>> a cache name server and share the Internet to a lan of Windowze 
>> 
>> workstations.
>> 
>>> It is still serving in this capacity and working.  From this point 
>>> of view, the box is still functioning ok.
>>> 
>>> I simply cannot get a console to respond.  I can't get a CNTRL-ALT-
>>> DELETE to work.  The only thing that I "could" do is to unplug the 
>>> unit or hold down the power button accomplishing the same thing. 
>>> The computer power supply is ATX architecture.  
>>> 
>>> Killing the power is the last thing I want to do.  I haven't done 
>>> this yet because the box is still working as a firewall / IP 
Masquerade 
>> 
>> 
>>> server.  But I would like to know 1) what causes this and 2) 
a better 
>>> way to get console back other than to kill the power.
>>> 
>>> Has anyone else had a linux box lock up (while in Xwindows) to the 
>>> point where you cannot even change to another console and access 
>>> another shell?  Is this a problem with mingetty, or is there 
a known 
>>> issue? Is there any way to make the box start responding again? 
Keep 
>>> in mind there are no remote shells to access.
>>> 
>>> thanx
>>> 
>>> -Derek
>>> 
>>> (append)
>>> 
>>> I doubt this is a hardware issue or I believe that the box would 
>>> not be functioning at all.  I am disappointed that this is happening,

>>> I choose linux as a solution for this task because I was avoiding 
>>> this very thing from happening; the type of thing that happens in 
>>> Micro$oft environment.
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ______   __   _    ________________________________________      
>> 
>> _____   / /  (_)__  __ ____  __                         ___
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>> ___   /____/_/_//_/\_,_/ /_/\_\   _________________________
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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