> Nothing.  The logs simply stop when the machine does and are no longer written
> even though the kernel is operable enough to respond to pings and initiate
> TCP sessions.

You could certainly encounter this too when the machine's load shoots to the 
roof or one of the running programs is vehemently leaking memory.
When trying to log in via ssh, wait for a few minutes for the prompt
or response to
come up. Most of the time it takes a while for the kernel to kill the
misbehaving
process. 

BTW just in case its a load issue, this patch to kernel/fork.c could help 

@@ -119,7 +119,7 @@ void __init fork_init(unsigned long memp
         * value: the thread structures can take up at most half
         * of memory.
         */
-       max_threads = mempages / (8 * THREAD_SIZE / PAGE_SIZE);
+       max_threads = mempages / (16 * THREAD_SIZE / PAGE_SIZE);
 
        /*
         * we need to allow at least 20 threads to boot a system


> Linux 2.6.11-hardened-r1 #3 SMP Tue Apr 12 07:22:52 UTC 2005 i686 Intel(R)
> Xeon(TM) CPU 2.40GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
> Portage 2.0.51.19 (hardened/x86/2.6, gcc-3.3.5-20050130,
> glibc-2.3.4.20041102-r1, 2.6.11-hardened-r1 i686)
> 
> ......
>
> Linux 2.4.20-24.9smp #1 SMP Mon Dec 1 11:25:17 EST 2003 i686 i686 i386
> GNU/Linux
> glibc-2.3.2-4.80.8
> Red Hat Linux release 8.0 (Psyche)
> 
> Linux 2.6.11-hardened #3 SMP Sat Apr 23 09:04:51 UTC 2005 x86_64 AMD
> Opteron(tm) Processor 250 AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux
> Portage 2.0.51.19 (default-linux/amd64/2004.3, gcc-3.4.3,
> glibc-2.3.4.20041102-r1, 2.6.11-hardened x86_64)
> 
> Linux 2.6.11-hardened-r1 #3 Tue Apr 12 07:26:56 UTC 2005 i686 Pentium III
> (Coppermine) GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
> Portage 2.0.51.19 (default-linux/x86/2005.0, gcc-3.3.5-20050130,
> glibc-2.3.4.20041102-r1, 2.6.11-hardened-r1 i686)

I would have speculated this being a probable issue with one of the
hardened-patches applied to the kernel but seeing redhat with linux
2.4 there hmmm
Are they by any chance all running the same programs/services?


-- 
                                                    Eduardo Tongson     
                                                    <pornadmin.net/~tongson>

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