[plug] Kernel panic

[Beau Kuiper]

On Thu, 27 Apr 2000, Damion Hill wrote:

> I have a query regarding kernel panic and the sort of thing that 
> causes it.
> 
> I'm configuring a Debian box at present and have just walked in to 
> find the kernel panic message on screen saying that the free list is 
> corrupted. The box was doing nothing other than waiting for me to 
> keep making choices in dselect. I'm guessing that the problem 
> could be RAM related but I don't know for sure.
> 
> What sort of issues cause a kernel panic?

1) Bad ram. Bad ram sucks a lot, and can do weird thinking that make you
want to tear your hair out. make sure ram is slotted in properly.
2) Kernel bugs. Early 2.2.X releases X < 13 sucked in reliabilty. You may
have tripped on of them up. I doubt this one though, since the box wasn't
doing anything
3) Bad Motherboard. They die occasionally. Check all connections ect.
4) Weird hard drives. Some older hard drives don't like linux very much,
or linux sets the PIO mode wrong, or the IDE controller on your computer
is one of the known buggy chips.
5) BIOS settings too agressive (can cause lots of weirdness). Try more
conservative settings.
6) Inactive drivers foobared the hardware on startup (during autodectect)

Anyway, bios settings or ram problems are most likely, followed by bad
motherboards, kernel bugs and wierd hard drives. Very rarely, if ever, 
would inactive drivers be a problem.

Beau Kuiper
kuiperba at cs.curtin.edu.au

> 
> Cheers,
> Damion.
> 
> --
> Damion Hill
> dhill at wantree.com.au
> 
>