[NTLUG:Discuss] system crash

[Koren, Peter A.]

This is a very interesting observation. I suspected as much, given all of
the X crashes that I have had with Netscape. It is generally understood that
Netscape is a quality challenged product, but we think of Linux/Unix as
robust. But X is a fact of Linux/Unix life for the vast majority of users,
so that the distinction that "X has crashed, but not Linux/Unix" is almost a
distinction without a difference. If it were not for the critical function
of web browsing that Netscape performs, a reasonably featured and well
behaved challenger would displace it in a heartbeat.

Perhaps an X windows server needs to be more robust so that the server could
at least back off and operate in a command line mode. Then one could kill
errant processes and restart the X server. I wonder if it would be a good
idea to have a daemon running to check up on the health of X periodically to
make for a more robust X operation and Linux/Unix experience. Just a
thought.

Regards,

Peter Koren


-----Original Message-----
From: asenec at senechalle.net [mailto:asenec at senechalle.net]
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2000 2:14 PM
To: discuss at ntlug.org
Subject: RE: [NTLUG:Discuss] system crash


That sort of thing happens frequently to me
under Solaris 2.5.1--Netscape is almost always
involved, and 4.0.6 causes the crash much more
frequently than earlier versions of Netscape.
Of note, and why I'm posting to this list, is that
I found that what actually is happening on at least
some occasions, is that X is dying--my server is alive
and well, but X is dead and I can't get back to the shell--not even
telneting into this box and rebooting the server will 
get rid of the dead OpenWin screen on the console.
Only a reset will revive the server.

Annette

> From discuss-admin at ntlug.org Mon Feb 28 11:15 CST 2000
> From: "Koren, Peter A." <PKoren at spectrapoint.com>
> To: "'discuss at ntlug.org'" <discuss at ntlug.org>
> Subject: RE: [NTLUG:Discuss] system crash
> Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2000 11:12:47 -0600
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> X-Mailman-Version: 1.0
> List-Id: NTLUG Discussion List <discuss.ntlug.org>
> X-BeenThere: discuss at ntlug.org
> 
> Yes, I have had this happen with Netscape running without StarOffice even
> installed. If you are quick enough, you can ctrl-alt-backspace to kill X.
> But if you wait too long, you might not get ctrl-alt-backspace to work,
nor
> get any keyboard or mouse click response. This happens to me with Netscape
> all too often and with Suse, RedHat, and Mandrake.
> 
> I sure hope Mozilla will be better.
> 
> -- Peter Koren
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Sandfort [mailto:sandfort at post.cis.smu.edu]
> Sent: Monday, February 28, 2000 8:50 AM
> To: discuss at ntlug.org
> Subject: Re: [NTLUG:Discuss] system crash
> 
> 
> 
> I had something like this happen a couple of months ago. I had changed an 
> "innocuous" setting in Netscape (home page change, or something like
that), 
> tried to go to a new URL and suddenly paging like there's no tomorrow.
> Attempts to get another console failed, since the shell would get locked
up
> immediately after login/password. About every minute or so, I'd get a
> message
> about init() in console 1. A ctrl-alt-backspace in X finally killed off
> this rogue behavior, but I never did figure out exactly what happened
> (i.e., have been unable to replicate the behavior). I chalked it up to
> alpha/linux weirdness, but maybe the problem was really Netscape. I have 
> had far fewer problems with 4.7 than I did with the Digital Unix 3.x ECOFF
> binary I was running at the time.
> 
>  Mike
> 
> Michael T. Sandfort                           Phone:  214-768-3856       
> Department of Economics                       Fax:    214-768-1821
> Southern Methodist University
> 
> On Sun, 27 Feb 2000, Peter Koren wrote:
> 
> > I just had a system crash and it is not the first time.
> > 
> > I'm running Suse 6.3 and I was running netscape and StarOffice when the
> > disk drive suddenly started furious activity that did not stop. I could
> > not get another shell to work and could not get to the console. I had to
> > shut off the power.
> > 
> > Any Ideas?
> > 
> > Regards,
> > 
> > Peter Koren
> >