Best way to troubleshoot intermittant lockups on F12

[Marko Vojinovic]

On Friday 22 January 2010 16:07:10 Mark Goldberg wrote:
> I have an F12 installation that experiences intermittent lockups,
> usually at times of heavy usage.
> The system just locks up solid, keyboard and mouse are non responsive.
> Graphical screen remains
> the same as it was when it locked up. Nothing is recorded in the
> system logs, and I also have
> logging to a remote machine and nothing is sent to there either. If
> you attempt to telnet in, you get
> the first telnet message with the kernel name but no login prompt and
> it times out. Only a hard reset
> and reboot gets it back.

Telnet? Why telnet?

I would check for the following:
* ssh from the remote machine --- this checks the extent of lockup. It may 
well be just X locking up, while kernel is still alive and well. That would be 
the issue with graphics hardware/drivers.
* reproduce the problem with a LiveCD, prefferably different distro --- this 
checks for hardware vs. software fault. If for ex. Knoppix locks up too, it's 
definitely a hardware issue, independent on the OS in use.
* if it's a hardware issue --- upgrade power supply, downclock the processor, 
change the motherboard, remove components from the box one by one until you 
find the culprit.
* if it's a Fedora issue --- boot with nomodeset kernel option, disable ACPI, 
change graphics drivers, boot older kernel, try to narrow down the app that 
triggers the lockup...

HTH, :-)
Marko