[Nottingham] My Linux broke

[David Aldred]

On Wednesday 19 Sep 2007, Rennacker Ed wrote:
> ===The Issue: I turned on the monitor last night and everything looked
> normal, but the browser wasn't responding. So I did the Yast network
> check (it's usually my BT hub) which ran OK. I then opened a terminal to
> do some checks and ...
>
> 1) There was a Xterm window WITH NO BASH PROMPT (caps mean 1st clue).
> Could type, had cursor. Eventually a prompt appeared

> 2)Tried to log off and ended at a blank screen. After several minutes
> the Suse splash/login appeared. (rinse, repeat)

> 3)Enter login details and again the blank screen, wait 4-5 minutes while
> the HDD runs and back to the splash/login. 

The first two of those symptoms (and by a bit of a stretch the third) could 
mean a seriously wedged process is eating all your available cpu time / 
memory.  If you could get the xterm window to respond at all, 'top' might 
give you a clue, albeit you might have to wait some time for any information 
to appear!

(I've had a situation on an old laptop where a rogue process using 99% of CPU 
and all my available memory caused everything to be very nearly locked up, 
but not quite.  Similar symptoms: an xterm appeared slowly, but the prompt 
was way behind!  Once I got the prompt, identified (slowly!) the process 
concerned and killed it (and even the kill took time), the machine sprang 
back into life).

That would be solved (the rough way!) by a reboot, so if a reboot has resulted 
in more normal behaviour it's a distinct possibility. 

-- 
David Aldred