[mythtvnz] Pointers on how to track down machine lockup

Sun Oct 10 23:16:19 BST 2010

On 14/09/2010, at 10:25 PM, Solor Vox wrote:

> Hello Wade,
> 
> Standard things to check when having hardware instability:
> (in order)
> 
> * Heat, try and setup lmsensors and monitor your CPU/chipset temps, make
> sure fans are all running and the heatsinks are free of dust
> 
> * Bad RAM, run memtest86 for a few hours, it's listed on ubuntu boot menu
> 
> * Hard disk, run fsck from a livecd to check for filesystem errors, run
> SMART tools to check for hardware problems
> 
> * Power supply, bad power supplies can cause problems, see if your local
> IT shop can run a PSU tester on it.  Make sure you're not pulling too many
> watts.
> 
> * If it's a new system, ensure the clock speeds, FSB or BLK for I7 are
> correct.  Also verify your memory settings.
> 
> * Lastly, check dmesg/logs for any signs.  Lots of segfaults might
> indicate faulty memory or CPU.
> 
> 
> Cheers,
> sV
> 

I went through that list and didn't find anything that stood out as an issue. Can't find any evidence of bad RAM after running memtest for 20+ hours, CPU and other temps are all under 40°C, no mention of segfaults in any log, and I reset the BIOS to the failsafe defaults.  

So I clean installed Ubuntu 10.04 Server, and then added enough packages to get MythTV & gdm running and a few other things like lm-sensors, smartmon & epgsnoop, etc. I have't added any Nvidia packages. Machine still locked up every few days for the following 2-3 weeks. 

I then found a BIOS update for the motherboard, installed that Oct 2 and since then the machine hasn't locked up.  8)

But it has spontaneously restarted itself twice.  Oct 9 16:32, and Oct 11 9:05. 

I can't find anything in the logs to indicate why it's doing that though.  Going through syslog and kern.log the machine is just operating normally, then all of a sudden it's booting. It's connected to a UPS so it shouldn't be losing power or restarting because of some sort of power spike. Nobody was sitting in front of the machine at the time, but a remote frontend was playing back a recording during the Oct 9 restart.

Any thoughts on where to look or other things to try?

 - Wade

syslog (Oct 9)
------
Oct  9 16:17:01 mythtv mountd[1528]: authenticated unmount request from 192.168.1.60:906 for /storage/recordings2 (/storage/recordings2)
Oct  9 16:17:01 mythtv CRON[15441]: (root) CMD (   cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
Oct  9 16:17:21 mythtv mountd[1528]: authenticated mount request from 192.168.1.60:906 for /storage/recordings2 (/storage/recordings2)
Oct  9 16:25:57 mythtv dhclient: DHCPREQUEST of 192.168.1.57 on eth0 to 192.168.1.1 port 67
Oct  9 16:25:57 mythtv dhclient: DHCPACK of 192.168.1.57 from 192.168.1.1
Oct  9 16:25:57 mythtv dhclient: bound to 192.168.1.57 -- renewal in 1398 seconds.
Oct  9 16:32:48 mythtv kernel: imklog 4.2.0, log source = /proc/kmsg started.
Oct  9 16:32:48 mythtv rsyslogd: [origin software="rsyslogd" swVersion="4.2.0" x-pid="1068" x-info="http://www.rsyslog.com"] (re)start
Oct  9 16:32:48 mythtv rsyslogd: rsyslogd's groupid changed to 103
Oct  9 16:32:48 mythtv rsyslogd: rsyslogd's userid changed to 101
Oct  9 16:32:48 mythtv rsyslogd-2039: Could no open output file '/dev/xconsole' [try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2039 ]
Oct  9 16:32:48 mythtv kernel: [    0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuset
Oct  9 16:32:48 mythtv kernel: [    0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpu
Oct  9 16:32:48 mythtv kernel: [    0.000000] Linux version 2.6.32-25-server (buildd at yellow) (gcc version 4.4.3 (Ubuntu 4.4.3-4ubuntu5) ) #44-Ubuntu SMP Fri Sep 17 21:13:39 UTC 2010 (Ubuntu 2.6.32-25.44-server 2.6.32.21+drm33.7)
Oct  9 16:32:48 mythtv kernel: [    0.000000] Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-25-server root=UUID=4f627233-bc71-4116-b416-9fa22d15f6d3 ro quiet

kern.log (Oct 9)
--------
Oct  9 14:53:21 mythtv kernel: [609531.635189] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Setting dpms mode 0 on tmds encoder (output 1)
Oct  9 15:53:39 mythtv kernel: [613142.994774] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Setting dpms mode 3 on tmds encoder (output 1)
Oct  9 16:32:48 mythtv kernel: imklog 4.2.0, log source = /proc/kmsg started.
Oct  9 16:32:48 mythtv kernel: [    0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuset
Oct  9 16:32:48 mythtv kernel: [    0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpu
Oct  9 16:32:48 mythtv kernel: [    0.000000] Linux version 2.6.32-25-server (buildd at yellow) (gcc version 4.4.3 (Ubuntu 4.4.3-4ubuntu5) ) #44-Ubuntu SMP Fri Sep 17 21:13:39 UTC 2010 (Ubuntu 2.6.32-25.44-server 2.6.32.21+drm33.7)

syslog (Oct 11)
------
Oct 11 09:02:52 mythtv sensord:   temp1: 36.0 C (min = 127.0 C, max = 127.0 C)
Oct 11 09:02:52 mythtv sensord:   temp2: 26.0 C (min = 127.0 C, max = 127.0 C)
Oct 11 09:02:52 mythtv sensord:   temp3: 18.0 C (min = 127.0 C, max = 60.0 C)
Oct 11 09:02:52 mythtv sensord:   cpu0_vid: +0.000 V
Oct 11 09:05:59 mythtv kernel: imklog 4.2.0, log source = /proc/kmsg started.
Oct 11 09:05:59 mythtv rsyslogd: [origin software="rsyslogd" swVersion="4.2.0" x-pid="1263" x-info="http://www.rsyslog.com"] (re)start
Oct 11 09:05:59 mythtv rsyslogd: rsyslogd's groupid changed to 103
Oct 11 09:05:59 mythtv rsyslogd: rsyslogd's userid changed to 101
Oct 11 09:05:59 mythtv rsyslogd-2039: Could no open output file '/dev/xconsole' [try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2039 ]
Oct 11 09:05:59 mythtv kernel: [    0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuset
Oct 11 09:05:59 mythtv kernel: [    0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpu
Oct 11 09:05:59 mythtv kernel: [    0.000000] Linux version 2.6.32-25-server (buildd at yellow) (gcc version 4.4.3 (Ubuntu 4.4.3-4ubuntu5) ) #44-Ubuntu SMP Fri Sep 17 21:13:39 UTC 2010 (Ubuntu 2.6.32-25.44-server 2.6.32.21+drm33.7)

kern.log (Oct 11)
--------
Oct 11 06:29:39 mythtv kernel: [136363.763581] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Setting dpms mode 3 on tmds encoder (output 1)
Oct 11 07:59:20 mythtv kernel: [141735.019647] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Setting dpms mode 0 on tmds encoder (output 1)
Oct 11 09:05:59 mythtv kernel: imklog 4.2.0, log source = /proc/kmsg started.
Oct 11 09:05:59 mythtv kernel: [    0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuset
Oct 11 09:05:59 mythtv kernel: [    0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpu
Oct 11 09:05:59 mythtv kernel: [    0.000000] Linux version 2.6.32-25-server (buildd at yellow) (gcc version 4.4.3 (Ubuntu 4.4.3-4ubuntu5) ) #44-Ubuntu SMP Fri Sep 17 21:13:39 UTC 2010 (Ubuntu 2.6.32-25.44-server 2.6.32.21+drm33.7)