FC6: Things segfaulting all over

[Rick Stevens]

On Fri, 2006-11-17 at 22:06 +0000, David Fletcher wrote:
> On Friday 17 November 2006 21:52, Alex wrote:
> > Vijay Gill wrote:
> > >> BTW Just another thought - Are you powering the machine with a UPS?
> > >
> > > Hi Dave,
> > >
> > > No there is no UPS.
> > >
> > > Just another thought. Do I need noapic and nolapic etc as kernel
> > > params during boot? Currently I do not have those but I still remember
> > > using those long time ago to install Mandrake (before it became
> > > Mandriva) Linux.
> > >
> > > Vijay
> >
> > Hi
> >
> > I just noticed your question - how does a UPS cause issues, and how
> > would you troubleshoot/resolve them?
> >
> >
> > many thanks
> >
> > Alex
> 
> They're supposed to prevent issues with bad mains supplies. e.g my son was 
> happily tapping and clicking away as I came upstairs with a thunderstorm 
> raging away overhead.
> 
> "Dad, my UPS just kicked in"
> 
> "That's great - it's working"
> 
> Tap tap click click....
> 
> I don't know where the OP is located but bad mains power causes problems. I 
> just wondered whether this could be a possibility.

A UPS should not cause any issues.  It's there to supplant the mains
power if it gets interrupted.  The only way a UPS could cause a segfault
is if the monitoring software that watches the UPS (generally via a
serial port) has issues.

If one is having tons of segfaults on lots of different applications,
the most likely cause is flakey memory.  Reboot off the first CD and
at the "boot:" prompt, enter "memtest86" and test your RAM.

If RAM tests OK, the next most likely culprit is a power supply that's
slowly dying.  Get thyself a DMM and check the supplies.  If they're OK,
then look at the CPU cooling fans.

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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-        "More hay, Trigger?" "No thanks, Roy, I'm stuffed!"         -
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