Sudden and unexplained reboots

[Scott Mitchell]

On Thu, Jun 05, 2003 at 08:55:03AM +0200, Noor Dawod wrote:
> Hi again,
> 
> I must say that I believe I forgot to mention four main factors that
> might aid in finding the cause of the panic:
> 
> 1) I use ipfw to limit allowed connections to the machine. I
> specifically limit connections to (ftpd) all along, which means that for
> some weird reason, the kernel panic'ed in (ftpd) while it shouldn't have
> been running at all.
> 
> 2) the machine is based on a server motherboard and case, manufactured
> by Intel, and its hardware is highly appreciated. I had no problem with
> it at all ever.
> 
> 3) Apache is failing to start on few occasions with sudden 'Signal 4' or
> 'Signal 11' exit codes. Restarting it would work most of the times.

Random sig 11's are a classic sign of dodgy RAM (especially) or other
hardware.  Take a look at http://www.bitwizard.nl/sig11/ for much more
information than you ever wanted...

> 4) kernel is built using "-O2 -pipe" make options.
> 
> The above information is the currently used ones. I am building a new
> kernel now without the "-O2 -pipe" options, using a newly built world.

This is a good idea, but I'd be tempted to install a kernel & world built
on another machine if possible, in case some part of your toolchain is
damaged.

It'll be interesting to see how things work out with the new world.

	Scott

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