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My Linux box keeps crashing on me and I don't know wats wrong. It basicly I login it runs for a while then it kinda freezes but the music keeps playing and I kan move the mouse. The curser moves kinda jaggedly (xcuse my english) and then after a while it freezes completely. I don't know wats happenig so I don't know wat to look for.

I've been using Linux for about 6 m to 1 jr and this hasn't happend bfore. I've considerd a virus or that I've been owned but like I said I have no idea. So if some one have maybe had this problem bfore or if some one atleast know wat it is so that I can look for a sulution it'd b greatly apreciated

Well, some linux os have problem, because if u dont do anythink on PC, hdd starts to work full, cpu load increse to 100 %. I have that problem on kernel 2.4 on FC4, i fixed with installing kernel 2.6 on machine, and download some patches for security, and system tools. Try to compile new kernel, maybe this help u

Thanx I'll check that out - refrase I'm gonna do it just fool around finding more info on kernels (haven't got any experiance in kernels) any way thanx mil

just as a side note I happen to run FC4 and I think its the 2.4 kernel

If you're using gnome, that could be your problem right there as it has a nasty reputation of being a major memory hog on some slower machines. So, if you don't have enough memory and not enough space set aside for swap on your hdd, it could lead to an eventual crash like that. I would recomend switching to a smaller window manager (ISM or fluxbox) as well as upgrading your kernel to the latest stable version (2.6.17.7 I believe) as the upgraded kernel may have a better way to allocate memory to make your system run longer.

Well, remember when installing some better Linux on machine (FC, Mandriva, etc) do not install these if u dont have 1.5 GHz and 512 MB RAM, i have problem with that, my KDE and GNOME just freez. If you dont have good PC configuration, do NOT install Linux on that PC

Check the event logs and possibly ,if you are not familiar with linux based security, and possibly ,if your kernel version is too old, and posiibly if you have some old software running on your box u got owned %)
try to install antivirus, but i dont really believe in such things %) u might have a rootkit which is almost undectable.
netstat -na and look what is listening. i suggest u to read a manual and google the web for linux security books. cant really help u with linux. running myself a FreeBSD. but if u really want to get into it pm me, ill try to do my best %) + use the firewalll

Why u dont tray to add some extra memory modules in your PC, then tray to use KDE and Gnome GUI interface, but when you add extra memory in your PC tray to compile newest version of kernel. If problem is fixed its ok then but if problem is not fixed tray to read minimum hardware requirments for Linux you use. If you have good hardware, add some memory in pc, and then install linux is new. If you dont fix problem, get a new PC

Had same troubles b4, happened after installed new packages(UNstable mostly) or been playing with xorg/xfree.conf configuration file.

The only time I've had problems are when I've installed a rediculus amount of unstable stuff (compiz is just too tempting) or bad hardware. Even in those situations it performs surprisingly well. YMMV.

Hi..
If can switch to run mode 3, maybe can take a look /var/log/message is there something wrong. Hope the prolem not on the hardware...

mahard

This may be slightly off topic but...

I've had problems like that on my Windows box. I suspect my buggy gfx card to be the sinner but I'm not sure at all.

ke wrote:I suspect my buggy gfx card to be the sinner but I'm not sure at all.

I've heard things before of graphics cards screwing up computers with crashing and stuff... so it's definitely possible. I'm more suspecting X.org here, though. Maybe you can try downgrading it?

I'm currently running Ubuntu, and so far I have had no problems with freezing at all. I tried Fedora Core 3 first, but it was terribly slow, bulky, and... not too good.

If you plan on trying a lightweight Window Manager to solve your problems, try XFCE4. It has just enough GUI to keep you satisfied, while keeping it all nice and lightweight.

If you know how to use the command line (which, as a Linux user, I hope you do), next time it "freezes", press CTRL+ALT+F1 at the same time, and it should bring you to tty1 (it's the terminal... if this does nothing, try CTRL+ALT+F2 to bring you to terminal 2... I don't know how FC4 runs, but Ubuntu runs x.org on tty7). If this is all running fine, it's just an X.org problem -- your computer is not frozen, X.org is. In this case, you can try downgrading to a previous version from the command line.