Chapter 7. Linux System Crashes and Hangs

Introduction

One of Linux’s claims to fame is stability and infrequency of system crashes and hangs. Development versions of the kernel are less stable, but unfortunately, mainstream kernel versions will also sometimes crash or hang. The beauty of Linux is that when this happens, users have the ability to track the problem down to a failing line of source code and even fix it themselves if they’re so inclined! With proprietary operating systems, your only course of action is to contact the company or author(s) of the operating system and hope that they can help you. Anyone that has had this happen to them in the past knows that this can be the start of a very lengthy battle full of frustration, which is ...

Get Self-Service Linux®: Mastering the Art of Problem Determination now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.