lockup on one machine

[Gavin McCullagh]

Hi,

On Mon, 15 Oct 2007, alfred at nationalpriorities.org wrote:

> One machine in the office had a lock up.

Just to be clear, is this machine running edubuntu?  Is it a thin client or
a regular desktop?  

> I replaced
> The machine
> the wiring 
> the switch at the main server
> the switch in that office
> the monitor 
> the keyboard
> the mouse
> the surge protector
> and still that one machine has trouble.

What machine?  If you replaced "the machine" and the next machine had the
same trouble, it apparently can't be "the machine" that has the problem.
Are you sure the replacement machine works in other circumstances?

> Who ever logs in to use it will have a screen freeze within 1 hour or so.

When the screen freezes, does the mouse still move?  Can you set the thin
client root password, hit <ctrl><alt><F1> and login?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EdubuntuFAQ#head-285f03d2d3ed2f29847c7793dbdb8f1488814c1b

> But if those people log in at other machines in the office they are fine.
> None of the other machines in the office (6 of em) running this same
> setup have trouble at all.

If you take one of these other machines that always works and put it at
that desk does it show the problem?  That would suggest you may need to
look at the things common to that desk:

1. The network socket -- might the connection be dodgy or be in a bad spot
   for getting kicked/pulled?
2. The environment -- is the computer in a tight corner that's very warm?
3. The power socket.

When it goes down, does the link light on the network card turn off?  If
so, you're probably looking at [1].

> One thought on my end is that there is a file call /tmp/fileXXXXX <-random letters
> And maybe since the first crash this was not cleaned and now when this
> machine logs in it by chance keeps using the same tmp file (which I now
> deleted and will see how it goes)

This file is a randomly named swap file.  Every login you get a different
filename so old ones left around shouldn't be an issue (except that they
might consume disk space I guess).

Gavin