FC4 x86_64 system crashes every 7 days

[Gilboa Davara]

On Sun, 2006-01-29 at 10:01 +0100, Jurgen Kramer wrote:
> It seems that my server always crashes after 7 days and some odd hours.
> When I find it crashed the harddisk light is always on continuously. The
> problem is that this system does not have a monitor on it so I cannot
> see what the cause of is.
> 
> Any ideas how to determine what the problem is? Dmesg does not reveal
> any clues. 
> 
> System specs:
> Asus A8N-E running FC4 x86_64 (fully updated)
> 1x SATA disk for system and swap
> 2x SATA in software RAID-1
> 
> Jurgen
> 

The best method to spy on a crashing machine is serial console.
A. Connect a serial cable to another machine.
B. In the grub kernel command line, change:
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.14-1.1656_FC4smp ro root=/dev/VolRoot/LogFC4 rhgb
quiet
to:
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.14-1.1656_FC4smp ro root=/dev/VolRoot/LogFC4
console=tty console=ttySN,57600n8 
Where: ttySN should be replaced by ttyS0/1/2/3 and 57600 is the line
speed)
C. Open minicom on a remote machine connected to the serial console,
configure it to match the line speed of the host machine. (No
hardware/software flow control, 57600, etc).
D. Boot the machine; you should be able to control it via serial console
now.
E. If the machine crash, you should be able to see the last kernel log
on the serial console. (Just make sure you keep the remote minicom
open!)

Gilboa