[SWLUG] kernel "screen of death"

[Mark Summerfield]

Hi Colin (et al!)

On Mon, 5 Dec 2011 11:00:15 +0000
Colin Law <clanlaw at googlemail.com> wrote:
> On 5 December 2011 08:04, Mark Summerfield <mark at qtrac.eu> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Twice in the past week my computer has failed to boot first time.
> > Seems to go wrong when doing USB-related stuff.
> >
> > I reset it and so far it has always booted second time. But when I
> > do dmesg I get the message for the boot I've just done, not the
> > failure boot, so I can't tell you why it failed! Is it possible to
> > get the previous boot message?
> 
> Run the Log File Viewer where you will find, in particular, syslog.
> You should find the previous records in there.

Although I didn't find syslog to be helpful, I hadn't known about the
Log File Viewer, and did find the log I needed:-)

The kern.log entry had exactly the text that had appeared on screen
right up almost to the moment the machine froze (plus more text from the
reboot that followed)---but frustratingly with some lines absent.

Anyway, I've sent a bug email to Debian...

Thanks!

-- 
Mark Summerfield, Qtrac Ltd, www.qtrac.eu
    C++, Python, Qt, PyQt - training and consultancy
        "Advanced Qt Programming" - ISBN 0321635906
            http://www.qtrac.eu/aqpbook.html