[NMLUG] This box runs windows ok but won't run linux

[nmlug@swcp.com (Mike)]

Aaron Birenboim wrote:
> 
> Mike wrote:
> >
> > I ran both windows 95 and RedHat 5.2 on this box for over a year,
> > recently reinstalled RedHat 6.2 and started having problems. Netscape
> > crashes, either stops responding or all netscape windows close. Same
> > thing when I tried Mozella. Or the system just locks up.
> 
> I have had similar problems with netscape.
> Sometimes when my system "locks-up" its really just that netscape
> has screwed up X.  Have you tried going to a text console
> <alt-f1,f2,f3...> and killing any (hung?) netscape processes?
> Or telneting in to do the same?

Yes, I'm always having to go to a console and do 'killall -KILL
netscape-communicator'. But I can't even get X to start now.

> 
> >  When I do a
> > 'shutdown -h now' it shuts down but then I see a full screen of hex
> > numbers scrolling by and the system reboots.
> 
> That, I never saw.  You may be in more trouble than I.
> Is this what LINUX does for a crash dump?

Haven't seen it appear upon crash. Or are you talking about a trace of
the system stack as below?

> 
> > ... when
> > booting, it hangs at the starting system logs message. After a while it
> > finishes booting.
> 
> This makes things tough.
> Perhaps you could try avoiding X for a while (text console login).
> Try to see if/why the syslogd didn't start.  Start it by hand
> if its dead, and if you can find a way.

I don't boot into X. I start it later. I just looked with 'ps aux' and
saw syslog running.

> 
> Also...  try to look into Linux crash dumps (kernel panics?)
> Set up your machine to capture crash dumps.
> The most valuable thing to do with these is try to get
> a trace of the system stack when it crashes.  This can tell you
> whats causing the trouble.  Could be flakey hardware.

How do I capture crash dumps or trace the system stack? I'm thinking
maybe a hardware problem but windows still runs normally on the same
box, same hard disk. If windows runs does that mean my hardware is ok?

Thanks,
Mike
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