[TriLUG] help understanding /var/log/messages

[Geoff Purdy]

I've got a Dell PowerEdge 2450 server running RHL7.1 which has suddenly (as
of today) started locking up.  The server will be running normally, then
without warning ssh connections to it will freeze and as does X display on
the box itself.  Strangely, it will respond to pings, but not HTTP requests,
ssh, ftp, nfs, or any other service I have running.

The box will restart if power-cycled (yuck) but subsequently locks up again.
I suspect it may be related to the mouse driver / KVM switch as this has
caused annoyances (but not crashes) in the past.  My temporary fix has been
to set the server to boot into runlevel 3 (w/ networking but w/o X) and it's
running OK now.

I've been mucking about in the logs trying to get an idea of what might be
causing the crashes.  I don't really know how to interpret these other than
that the system is "Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at
virtual address 00000004".  I've attached excerpts from /var/log/messages
(edited to alter usernames etc.) surrounding the crashes in case anyone can
help me understand what is going on.

Thanks,
Geoff


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