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Debian 9 server locks up

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countryuser
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Debian 9 server locks up

#1 Post by countryuser »

Hi all
Every night or so my Debian 9 (i386) server locks up/freezes and only a hard power off and restart is the only way to get it going again. My server setup is straight from the "Perfect Debian Server" from Sourceforge (no GUI interface). I experienced this before with Debian 8 so I upgraded the server hardware to Pentium 3 core 2 duo, 2 Gb RAM, 13 Gb HDD and Foxconn N15235 motherboard. It worked well for approx 6 months but now locks up/freezes. Dmesg shows all is fine and all other logs in the log dir also look fine with no errors reported. I also update and upgrade every month to keep the system up to date. I run 2 web and mail servers and also DNS server installed through ISPConfig 3. I am wondering if 64 bit updates are being updated from the repositories instead of 32 bit causing this problem. Regards Greg

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bw123
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Re: Debian 9 server locks up

#2 Post by bw123 »

Well it doesn't sound perfect and being unfamiliar with it I refuse to look it up. ? Anyway, any possibility it's hardware issue?
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debiman
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Re: Debian 9 server locks up

#3 Post by debiman »

every night?
you must be able to get at some log mentioning it.
have you searched properly in /var/log? like, everything? including systemd journal (which is not a plain text file so you have to use 'journalctl')?
countryuser wrote:server setup is straight from the "Perfect Debian Server" from Sourceforge
link?

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Re: Debian 9 server locks up

#4 Post by kedaha »

bw123 wrote:Well it doesn't sound perfect and being unfamiliar with it I refuse to look it up. ? Anyway, any possibility it's hardware issue?
+1
Those cut-and-paste "Perfect Server" tutorials effectively introduce a third-party software repository resulting in an entirely non-standard Debian-based system with software that doesn't comply at all with Debian Policy; it certainly doesn't go through the experimental-sid-testing-stable route.
As for the freezes, I'd look at the kernel logs; there must be some indication there,
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countryuser
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Re: Debian 9 server locks up

#5 Post by countryuser »

Hi and thanks for all the comments and replies

Searching all the logs and in the kernel log a common stoppage always occurs around these lines below

server2 kernel: [ 19.951210] input: HDA VIA VT82xx Front Headphone as /devices/pci0000:80/0000:80:01.0/sound/card0/input12
Nov 8 08:54:37 server2 kernel: [ 23.050458] Adding 1961980k swap on /dev/sda5. Priority:-1 extents:1 across:1961980k FS
Nov 8 08:54:37 server2 kernel: [ 25.856369] 8139too 0000:04:04.0 eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x45E1
Nov 8 08:57:05 server2 kernel: [ 175.273708] ip6_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
Nov 9 17:01:29 server2 kernel: [ 0.000000] Linux version 4.9.0-3-686-pae (debian-kernel@lists.debian.org) (gcc version 6.3.0 20170516 (Debian 6.3.0-18)
) #1 SMP Debian 4.9.30-2+deb9u5 (2017-09-19)

but it doesn't always freeze when checking, it just parses straight past. The most common is the last line at 08:57:05, see the time difference, probably something ??? then a restart

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debiman
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Re: Debian 9 server locks up

#6 Post by debiman »

why the headphones?
i assumed this is a headless machine, i.e. you only ssh into it?

also seeing the hardware manufacturar VIA in connection with linux gives me the heebie-jeebies.
more info on the mobo & specs would be nice.

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Re: Debian 9 server locks up

#7 Post by steve_v »

debiman wrote:also seeing the hardware manufacturar VIA in connection with linux gives me the heebie-jeebies.
Seeing that it has an audio chipset at all tells me that this is a desktop grade machine being used as a "server". That gives me the heebie-jeebies. It also has a Realtek NIC, which are decidedly nasty.
As such, I would immediately suspect hardware problems.
@OP: you have done the usual array of hardware tests, right? Memtest, CPU stress test, HDD diagnostics, etc? Checked hardware temps?
Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. Four times is Official GNOME Policy.

countryuser
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Re: Debian 9 server locks up

#8 Post by countryuser »

Yes it was a desktop re purposed to run server as headless and SSH into it. Look at my first post, it will tell what hardware is used.

When I first setup this server using Debian 5 (sarge) using old desktop hardware all went well untill just recently. I was using an old compaq desktop, 1.6gb with 4Mb RAM until it failed, then I used another desktop but it didn't last long, and now this one. I am a great believer in re purposed hardware as there is so much around.

Now getting back to my problem. What can I do to fix it. I don't think you can disable all on board devices or can you. All motherboard test were carried out, memory test, CPU tested and HDD. NO PROBLEMS FOUND.

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debiman
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Re: Debian 9 server locks up

#9 Post by debiman »

countryuser wrote:Yes it was a desktop re purposed to run server as headless and SSH into it. Look at my first post, it will tell what hardware is used.

When I first setup this server using Debian 5 (sarge) using old desktop hardware all went well untill just recently. I was using an old compaq desktop, 1.6gb with 4Mb RAM until it failed, then I used another desktop but it didn't last long, and now this one. I am a great believer in re purposed hardware as there is so much around.

Now getting back to my problem. What can I do to fix it. I don't think you can disable all on board devices or can you. All motherboard test were carried out, memory test, CPU tested and HDD. NO PROBLEMS FOUND.
i don't much like your attitude.
you make it sound like we're too stupid to read, recognize and solve your problem.
but really it is you who needs to provide more information. much more.
go through all the posts so far, look at all the questions asked and give us detailed info. usually this means commands issued & output received.
use code tags for code.

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Re: Debian 9 server locks up

#10 Post by bw123 »

I don't recognize the hardware, but I guess it has a BIOS, have you tried restoring it to defaults, and looking around?
I am a great believer in re purposed hardware as there is so much around.
I like old hardware too, but documentation can be hard to find, and very helpful.

https://duckduckgo.com/html/?q=disable+hardware+linux
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