Computer locking up after several days' uptime

[Derek Broughton]

Mark Haney wrote:

> Dotan Cohen wrote:
>> A new Ubuntu user has 8.04 installed on an LG laptop. I do not have
>> the machine nearby to check what the specific hardware is, but it is a
>> fairly modern unit.
>> 
>> He is reporting that after three days' uptime the computer locks up.
>> He did not have this problem in Windows. I asked if he could leave the
>> machine running without programs for a few days' time to see if it is
>> the OS or an application, but this is a work machine so he cannot do
>> that.
>> 
>> Where can I begin troubleshooting? It may actually be a while before I
>> get to the machine physically, so whatever I can ask over the phone or
>> via SSH would help. Thanks!
>> 
> 
> 
> To me, especially considering it's a laptop, it sounds like it's
> overheating.  Take a look at syslog for ACPI messages for fans not being
> turned on, or similar.
> 
> 
> Have him 'cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THRM/temperature' 

That's /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/*/temperature - there's absolutely no
guarantee that a single sensor is named THRM (mine's named THR1) and there
could be multiple sensors, anyway.

> (or at least 
> look at his CPU temp output if it's multiple core or the proc location
> is different, the above if from my laptop YMMV)

Good point - I keep a ksysguard sensor display on my kicker panel for this,
I'm not sure what the corresponding applet would be in Gnome, but since
istr I might have got the idea from Dotan, he probably knows how to do
it :-)

> I suppose it could be a memory leak, but if it's a work machine he'd
> probably be using fairly standard work apps (OpenOffice,

Well, OpenOffice is one of those Java apps that worry me memory-wise.
-- 
derek