Computer locking up after several days' uptime

[Mark Haney]

Derek Broughton wrote:
> 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.

Yeah, as I said below, wherever his temperature is located in /proc/, 
it's different for almost every system.

> 
>> (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.

Yeah that is concerning, but I've left OO up on my laptop for longer 
than 3 days and not have it hang. But, it is a resource hog, especially 
if you are dealing with large documents.




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Mark Haney
Sr. Systems Administrator
ERC Broadband
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