I'd run the machine without X, and with console blanking disabled. I'm not sure how to get to a console in ubuntu ::ducks:: but console blanking can be disabled with "setterm -blank 0". There are other setterm options you may want to set too, in the same vain is -powersave and -powerdown. Then see if you can cause a panic and with any luck, the culprit will be staring you in the face.
Keep in mind, I'm a bit of a dinosour when it comes to this stuff. I fix problems like people would in the mid-90s. There may be a magical dump setting in ubuntu somewhere that somebody like sean would know about... -porkchop On 11/11/07 17:32 -0500, Ed Nisley wrote: > So our Christmas cactus is actually pooting out flowers this > year and I thought it'd be neat to do a time-lapse video > showing a blossom opening up. Lashed up a Logitech Quickcam > to the Dell E1405 laptop (Kubuntu 7.10 & Win XP MCE) and > started looking for a Linux time-lapse program. > > I found Videodog, a command-line V4L-compatible utility to > take single images, and Transcode, which can stitch JPGs > into an MPEG-4 AVI. Works OK, although Videodog is what > might be called a mature program and is rather thin on > creature comforts. It would be -really- nice to find a > program that did automatic exposure settings... > > The real problem is that videodog (or the underlying V4L or > USB or something) rather frequently crashes the system > hard: everything's dead except for the scroll-lock and > num-lock LEDs, which are blinking slowly and steadily. > Keyboard's dead, can't ssh in to restart the box, the only > way out is hold the power button down to force it off. > > Drat! > > The screen is either blank (due to the backlight powering > off before the crash as it's supposed to do) or simply > frozen with a dead cursor (if the screensaver / power off > hasn't kicked in yet). No debugging info to be seen. > > Mr Google sez the LEDs are the visible symptom of a kernel > panic, but isn't helpful on What To Do Afterwards. > > Fairly obviously, I'm nowhere near good enough to debug this > stuff on my own, but I'd like to pass some evidence to > somebody who is, in the hope of getting a fix. > > How does one get evidence out of a hard crash and who's the > right person / group to debug something like that? > > Alternatively, is there a better / less obsolete / more > stable time-lapse video capture program that I simply > haven't been able to find? > > Thanks... > > -- > Ed > _______________________________________________ > Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org > > http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug > Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium > > Oct 3 - Security and Privacy > Nov 7 - Django Python Application Framework _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Oct 3 - Security and Privacy Nov 7 - Django Python Application Framework
