CUPS problem

[PerAntonRønning]

Tim wrote:
> On Sun, 2007-08-26 at 12:03 +0200, PerAntonRønning wrote:
>   
>> I have tried to lay a trap.  On my backup machine's ssh link to the main 
>> computer I started "top", showing which programs are using most 
>> resources. After some time the machine froze (it was left idle, only 
>> connected to the internet via Firefox), and the program at the top when 
>> it froze was "updateb".
>>     
>
> That's not conclusive, though.  Firefox is as good a candidate as any
> for being the downfall of your PC, probably even more so.
>
>   
>> I did Gooogle for updateb and I found that this is a cron job, that 
>> maybe has caused trouble for others as well (I found a discussion on the 
>> Linux Thinkpad Mailing List).
>> Does anyone here have any experience with this?
>> The posting suggested to disable the updatep program, but I am not sure 
>> whether there will be other side-effects of this. Anyone know?
>>     
>
> Updatedb makes the database used by the locate command (see the the
> mlocate.cron file in /etc/cron.daily).  You can disable it, and lose
> that functionality.  Mine uses minimal resources, though I recall it
> being a bit of a drag on a seriously underpowered PC that I used to
> have.  It does trawl through almost the entire drive, so if you have any
> issues with your hard drive, it could be getting stuck thanks to that.  
>
> There's also a chance that there's a misconfiguration, and it's trying
> to access things it should leave alone.  I recall reading something
> about there being a problem there, and you can prune off some paths
> and/or file systems in the /etc/updatedb.conf file.  I'm fairly sure
> that it should be ignoring /proc/ and /sys/ but mine's not explicitly
> configured to do so.
>
>   
>> I also got a tip from a friend of mine, who runs MAC. He also had a 
>> similar kind of instability, and after running a memory analysis program 
>> he discovered faulty memory.
>> Anyone else having similar experiences?
>>     
>
> I can't say that I have, but you can run memtest86+ to test your menu.
> It's available on the install discs, just boot it, and run it for quite
> some time.  You want to go through at least a couple of iterations of
> the tests.  If you get an error message, you've got a problem.  It could
> be the RAM, or what's using it (all the bits between it and the CPU,
> including the CPU).  Ignore such errors at your peril.  Memory usage is
> something that you need zero errors with.
>
>   
The reason why I left Firefox connected was that I suspected that it 
might be a candidate.
But it did not show up high on the list. Funny thing is that there has 
been no freeze now for quite some time now, so the memory trail may be a 
better one to follow.
As to memtest86: I installed FC5 from 5 CD's ( i did no have a DVD 
burner at the time, but I have one now, since CD seems to be history), I 
have been looking around a bit, but I have not found out where memtest 
is located. If I boot up from disk 1/5 I expect to be lead through the 
installation process instead, and that is not what I want. I cannot 
remember having seen anything  pertaining memtesting when booting up 
from 1/5. But I know that I have to boot from this program since the OS 
cannot run, but I would very much like some hint as to where it is 
located, and how to tell BIOS that this is the boot program.  (BIOS is 
set to boot from CD before HD). Sorry if this is naive question, but 
this is absolutely not everyday stuff for me.
Apart from that, I learn a lot posting questions to this list, so thanks 
for all good help.

Brgds
PAR