Thanks, again Szemir. I went through the log file and copied some samples of what may (or may not) be error-related messages. Some of these lines also have references to IRQ (which Garth mentioned -- thanks for your very detailed reply, Garth.) By the way, whenever I boot up, the line reading "Bringing up interface eth0:" seems to display for quite a while (probably 15-20 seconds). I don't know if that indicates something is amiss with the network card. Anyway, here are some samples from the log files:
Feb 2 08:53:17 alic6e0y37ff kernel: oprofile: can't get RTC I/O Ports Feb 2 08:53:17 alic6e0y37ff kernel: block: 992 slots per queue, batch=248 Feb 2 08:53:17 alic6e0y37ff kernel: Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 6.31 Feb 2 08:53:17 alic6e0y37ff kernel: ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx Feb 2 08:53:17 alic6e0y37ff kernel: PIIX4: IDE controller on PCI bus 00 dev f9 Feb 2 08:53:17 alic6e0y37ff kernel: PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:1f.1 Feb 2 08:53:17 alic6e0y37ff kernel: PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 01:04.0 Feb 2 08:53:17 alic6e0y37ff kernel: PIIX4: chipset revision 2 Feb 2 08:53:17 alic6e0y37ff kernel: PIIX4: not 100%% native mode: will probe irqs later Feb 2 08:53:18 alic6e0y37ff kernel: EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Feb 2 08:53:18 alic6e0y37ff kernel: IA-32 Microcode Update Driver: v1.11 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Feb 2 08:53:18 alic6e0y37ff kernel: microcode: CPU0 no microcode found! (sig=f27, pflags=4) Feb 2 08:53:18 alic6e0y37ff kernel: parport0: PC-style at 0x378 [PCSPP,TRISTATE,EPP] Feb 2 08:53:18 alic6e0y37ff kernel: ohci1394: pci_module_init failed Feb 2 12:13:01 alic6e0y37ff kernel: IA-32 Microcode Update Driver: v1.11 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Feb 2 12:13:01 alic6e0y37ff kernel: microcode: CPU0 no microcode found! (sig=f27, pflags=4) Feb 2 12:13:01 alic6e0y37ff kernel: parport0: PC-style at 0x378 [PCSPP,TRISTATE,EPP] Feb 2 12:13:01 alic6e0y37ff kernel: ohci1394: pci_module_init failed Feb 2 12:13:01 alic6e0y37ff kernel: ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team Feb 2 12:13:01 alic6e0y37ff kernel: via-rhine.c:v1.10-LK1.1.14 May-3-2002 Written by Donald Becker Feb 2 12:13:01 alic6e0y37ff kernel: http://www.scyld.com/network/via-rhine.html Feb 2 12:13:01 alic6e0y37ff kernel: PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 01:04.0 Feb 2 12:13:01 alic6e0y37ff kernel: PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:1f.1 --Pat On Sun, 2003-02-02 at 18:02, Bogi wrote: > Hi Pat. > > You seem to have done fairly well with the df command. Not Knowing is not a > shame, not wanting to know IS. There is nothing wreong about not knowing as > long at you are trying to know, and you are. > > the command line should look along the lines of: > > cat /var/log/messages | less > > then you can scroll through the output using the cursor keys including pgup > and pgdn etc... > > when satisfied / bored reading the logfile, exiting is possible with q > > And you will, i am almost sure seee the error messages if there are any. > The good once are usually very close to a reboot :-) / crash. > > Cheers > Szemir > > On Sunday 02 February 2003 17:49, you wrote: > > Thanks, Szemir. Here's what I get from df: > > > > Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on > > /dev/hda9 21164916 4287636 15802132 22% / > > /dev/hda8 101089 17303 78567 19% /boot > > none 256456 0 256456 0% /dev/shm > > /dev/hda6 10231392 106896 10124496 2% /home/pat/Data > > > > I apologize for my lack of Linux knowledge (ie, command-line ignorance) > > -- but I don't even know how to check var/log/messages. > > > > For what it's worth, I don't get any error messages booting up when RH8 > > goes through a long checklist. > > > > Pat > > > > Pat > > > > On Sun, 2003-02-02 at 17:08, Bogi wrote: > > > Hi Pat. > > > The crashing rate is above avarage for sure. > > > I would suggest the following barring faulty ram and or faulty hdd. > > > See if you have enough diskspace, browsers tend to use up (large) amounts > > > of diskspace to cache webstuff you access. > > > df command should do the trick, If your home partition , if you have one > > > seperate, and you should, must have atleast 100 megs free, mozilla for > > > starters defaults to 50 megs for chache size, the others are not mutch > > > different. > > > If you have a single partition for your home and root (/) , the exhustion > > > of disk space could lead to unpredictabel behaviour (crash) when (/) gets > > > full. also check /var/log/messages . This is the (main) logfile, see if > > > there are any error messages, they are usually very helpful in situations > > > like yours. Changing your hardware would most definately improve on the > > > situation. Most of the (built-in) cards are slightly different then their > > > stand-alone counterparts, and not being able to turn-off / diable yours > > > is cairtinly a very strong indication of your problems. > > > So my initial suggestion is a log reading, find some error messagegs > > > relating to graphics_display_adapter or anything else. I have seen really > > > strange behaviour from motherboards like yours. > > > Cheers > > > Szemir > > > > > > On Sunday 02 February 2003 16:42, you wrote: > > > > I've been using Red Hat 8.0 on a Dell Dimension 2350 (2GH Celeron / > > > > 512MB RAM) since early January. Bottom-line impression: I love Linux. > > > > > > > > But there's one problem I'd love to resolve. Linux has crashed while > > > > surfing the Web, on average, at least every two hours (during at least > > > > 50 hours total browsing). > > > > > > > > Konqueror seems more stable than Galeon and Opera, and all seem > > > > somewhat more stable than Mozilla. There's little consistency. Mozilla, > > > > for example, crashed on the third page I accessed today (Yahoo News); > > > > but when I rebooted I surfed that page and many others for more than an > > > > hour without hanging. > > > > > > > > Meanwhile, I've worked more than 40 hours in OpenOffice Writer and can > > > > only recall it hanging once. Evolution rarely hangs and the CD player > > > > (kscd) hasn't crashed yet > > > > > > > > To compare OSes on the same machine, I've spent about 15 hours surfing > > > > in Windows 2000 (using Opera, Internet Explorer and Phoenix) and had > > > > only two crashes -- a much better average than Linux. In each OS, > > > > control-alt-delete won't force a reboot after a crash. > > > > > > > > I usually work in KDE, but didn't document any improvement during about > > > > four hours in GNOME (on Mozilla, Opera, Galeon and Konqueror). > > > > > > > > Another quirk in Linux: the hard drive sometimes runs for three minutes > > > > for no reason. > > > > > > > > Also, Evolution is very slow (maybe 10 seconds) opening HTML e-mails. > > > > Is this normal, or possibly related to my Web-browsing problem? > > > > > > > > BACKGROUND: Inside the Dell box, there are NO CARDS. Everything -- > > > > video controller, network controller, etc. -- is embedded in the > > > > motherboard. (Luckily there were three empty slots.) The video > > > > controller -- which wouldn't work with Linux -- could NEITHER BE > > > > REMOVED NOR DISABLED. > > > > > > > > As a non-technical person, I was in over my head long before this > > > > point. I'm much obliged to CLUG member Johnny Stork for coming up with > > > > the various workarounds that enabled me to use Linux my new computer. > > > > (I just wish I'd talked to him before buying the Dell.) > > > > > > > > The workaround Johnny came up for the video controller was to set up a > > > > dual-monitor system and to designate the new video card (HIS TNT2 M64 > > > > PCI) as primary and the built-in video controller as secondary. (So the > > > > original controller which couldn't be disabled is now outputting to a > > > > non-existent monitor.) > > > > > > > > Does anyone have any suggestions? Do I have any options beyond selling > > > > the new $800 Dell at a discount to my brother-in-law (who prefers XP) > > > > and starting from scratch on another new computer?? > > > > > > > > Any comments or anecdotes (e.g., your own experience with bundled, > > > > brand-name systems, both positive and negative) will be much > > > > appreciated. > > > > > > > > Thanks for reading. Sorry it's so long. > > > > > > > > Pat
