[olug] My console has fallen and it can't get up

[dbw]

This just happened again on the same box.  This time I was NOT in 
X11 and it had nothing to do with the X screensaver.  The machine 
froze at the login prompt; once again the keyboard was completely 
unresponsive.  I suspect that the fact I was in an X session the 
first time is incidental.  Once again the console is completely dead.


Last time I received a lot of “press this key and then press that” 
suggestions.  I will reiterate the fact that the keyboard does not 
respond, not even CNTRL-ALT-DELETE does anything.  It is not a hardware 
problem with the KB, after all, when I restart the system by killing 
the power then the system comes back and the keyboard is fine.

I want to take up Phil Brutsche on his suggestion to put a getty 
on one of the machines serial ports.  I do not want to run ssh or 
any remote login services for security reasons, but accessing the 
machine via the serial port would be a great solution.

Could someone please offer me some information or resource on how 
to accomplish this?  I am guessing that using minicom on another 
machine I would be able to access a login prompt of the afflicted 
machine via the serial port.

Thank you,

-Derek



At Wednesday, 31 January 2001, you wrote:

>So, I’ve got this linux server that is basically only a firewall 
>/ IP Masquerade. There are no ports listening for connections on 
>telnet, ssh, rlogin or otherwise.  The box has been running for a 
>couple months now without restart and or incident.  (uptime approx.
>65 days)  The distribution is Redhat and the kernel is 2.2.16 (or 
>in that neighborhood).
>
>The box was running in Xwindows, the screensaver on, and after a 
>keystroke the screensaver password prompt appeared. I attempted to 
>enter my password so I could access the environment and do some work.
>I typed in my password and hit the ENTER key...
>
>The console is frozen, no keyboard or mouse response.  I cannot change 
>consoles, I cannot even change the caps lock state on the box.  No 
>keyboard response, yet the caps lock and scroll lock lights are lit,
>and the keyboard connection is fine.  The keyboard works on other 
>computers also, so this is not a keyboard hardware problem.
>
>However, the ipchains and firewall stuff is still working fine.  
>I can ping the box and it replies without delay.  The box is also 
>a cache name server and share the Internet to a lan of Windowze 
workstations.
>It is still serving in this capacity and working.  From this point 
>of view, the box is still functioning ok.
>
>I simply cannot get a console to respond.  I can’t get a CNTRL-ALT-
>DELETE to work.  The only thing that I “could” do is to unplug the 
>unit or hold down the power button accomplishing the same thing. 
>The computer power supply is ATX architecture.  
>
>Killing the power is the last thing I want to do.  I haven’t done 
>this yet because the box is still working as a firewall / IP Masquerade 

>server.  But I would like to know 1) what causes this and 2) a better 
>way to get console back other than to kill the power.
>
>Has anyone else had a linux box lock up (while in Xwindows) to the 
>point where you cannot even change to another console and access 
>another shell?  Is this a problem with mingetty, or is there a known 
>issue? Is there any way to make the box start responding again? Keep 
>in mind there are no remote shells to access.
>
>thanx
>
>-Derek
>
>(append)
>
>I doubt this is a hardware issue or I believe that the box would 
>not be functioning at all.  I am disappointed that this is happening,
>I choose linux as a solution for this task because I was avoiding 
>this very thing from happening; the type of thing that happens in 
>Micro$oft environment.
>
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