Two things spring to mind
1. Shortage of RAM
2. Fault in Ram addresses.
The typical lockup only occurs when the system is trying to do
something it can't.
On Mon, 13 Sep 1999, Richardson, Tony wrote:
> I've got a Maxtech laptop (it's a Chicony MP-983 that's resold by
> Maxtech as their 783 model) that locks up only when I'm using a
> text console. I've never had it lockup when using X, only when
> using a text console. The lockups are total system freezes, I can't
> switch virtual consoles, the cursor stops blinking, no response to
> CTRL-ALT-DEL. The only thing that I can do is power off.
>
> It happens randomly, sometimes during the boot process before I can
> get into X, other times I can use the text console for a few minutes
> before it locks up. It only seems to happen when text is being
> sent to the display or sometimes when doing a virtual console switch.
> A recursive directory listing from / (ls -R /) will always lock
> it up but not at the same point. Even if X is running, the system
> will lock up if I try to use one of the text consoles for awhile.
>
> I've only had problems with the 2.2 kernels. I never had a problem
> with the 2.0 kernels. (Redhat 5.2 and Debian run fine, Redhat 6.0 and
> Suse 6.1 lock it up, so I believe it is a kernel problem.)
>
> I've never had a problem in other OSes (even under DOS using the same
> VGA mode that I assume is used by default under Linux).
>
> I've tried kernels up to 2.2.11 but still no luck. I've tried a couple
> of kernel config options, but there doesn't seem to be much related to
> virtual consoles (or maybe I'm missing something?)
>
> Any suggestions, or "I'm having the same problem" comments would be
> greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Tony Richardson
--
Regards,
Declan Moriarty.
