Re: crash dumps

Alan Cox (alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk)
Mon, 8 Dec 1997 08:25:37 +0000 (GMT)


> 1) Is the lack of crash dumps just due to the fact that no one
> implemented it and you all have found ways to get along without it or
> was there some conscious decision made to avoid it?

A crash dump is mostly useless - it doesnt tell you anything about
stuff like hardware state

> 2) If you don't have crash dumps, how do you debug the linux
> kernel? The only debugging facility that I have found for when a

The Oops traces, debugging messages and gdb on misbehaving stuff, especially
as Linux stays up instead of paniccing as much as possible

> of servers to our field offices and so we opted for a more bare bones
> machine the HP vectra vl. The problem is that we can't keep the little

Our entire net is built with Vectra VL PC's and no problems. What netcards
are you using

> buggers running. After just a few hours of load they drop off of the
> network. The screen is completly blank and there is no messages in
> syslog, nothing anywhere we can find. We really don't know how to
> troubleshoot the problem without something like a crash dump.

A machine in that state would never have made a crash dump under BSD
anyway. What network cards are you using ? Do you have APM off ?

Alan