Computer locks up/freezes randomly

[MtnMan]

dj> not sure but you may have hit the nail on the head.  Looking at

/var/log/security.log (as root user) to see if directory permissions and chkrootkit were running at the time of the system "lockup"

I see that msec was running at "about" that time and there were some many messages around that time that seem unrelated to msec.  I often get the msec messages but never any lockups - I just unchecked msec in PCC to see (out of curiosity) if the crons stop.  Just not sure what to make of all the messages.  Will look there right away if it happens again.

[trustytrev]

Hello,
       

Look at /var/log/security.log (as root user) to see if directory permissions and chkrootkit were running at the time of the system "lockup". You'll have to scroll down to the end of the file to see the most current events.

I looked in the file with Krusader-root-mode but It lists from May 1 14:06:51 through to May 31 14:06:51 halfway through. How do I know if the 25 May is the relevant data for 2012?Or is it an indication of something wrong?
trustytrev

[djohnston]

How do I know if the 25 May is the relevant data for 2012?Or is it an indication of something wrong?
trustytrev

Sorry, I don't understand what you're asking.

[trustytrev]

Hello,
      I was referring to the Date/time for the entries in  /var/log/security.log (as root user)I am presuming as they go up to May 31 I may be looking at logs for 2011.
trustytrev.

[djohnston]

I don't know. What results do you get from the following?

date
ls -l /var/log/security.log

[trustytrev]

Hello,

I don't know. What results do you get from the following?

date
ls -l /var/log/security.log

[trevor@madhouse ~]$ date
Sun May 27 16:24:53 BST 2012
[trevor@madhouse ~]$ ls -l /var/log/security.log
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 256087 May 31  2011 /var/log/security
 
trustytrev.

[djohnston]

Well, your system date is right. Except it looks like security.log may not be rolling over. One year is very old for that file. Are you looking at the very bottom of the text file when you read it, or at the very top of the file?

[trustytrev]

Hello,
       It goes from May 1 at the top to May 31 at the bottom.
trustytrev.

[djohnston]

Hello,
       It goes from May 1 at the top to May 31 at the bottom.
trustytrev.

What's the result of:

rpm -qa | grep logrotate
cat /etc/logrotate.conf

[pclinmike]

Hello,
      I have noticed a number of computers freezing up randomly.The mouse  and keyboard fail to operate and the only way to regain control is to press the reset button and do a hard restart.It occurs on my computers and a relatives.They all run KDE fully updated.
trustytrev.

I have had a similar thing happen, I have a 'CPU' widgets on my desktop  and some times I notice the CPU maxing out (at 100% ) when I have Firefox running and locking everything up, sometimes if you leave for some time it sorts its self out, other times I use "Press,alt, and sys rq and then type 'reisub'" to reboot.
Using 'system monitor'      'Firefox' was using 56% also 'Plugin containe' was using a lot of CPU as well.

[trustytrev]

Hello,
     

What's the result of:

rpm -qa | grep logrotate
cat /etc/logrotate.conf

[trevor@madhouse ~]$ rpm -qa | grep logrotate
logrotate-3.7.9-2pclos2011
[trevor@madhouse ~]$ cat /etc/logrotate.conf
# Mandriva logrotate configuration
# $Id: logrotate.conf 533703 2010-04-12 15:43:25Z eugeni $

# rotate log files weekly
weekly

# keep 4 weeks worth of backlogs
rotate 4

# create new (empty) log files after rotating old ones
create

# allow missing log
missingok

# do not rotate empty files
notifempty

# uncomment this if you want your log files compressed
compress
delaycompress

# RPM packages drop log rotation information into this directory
include /etc/logrotate.d

# no packages own lastlog, wtmp, or btmp -- we'll rotate them here
/var/log/wtmp {
    create 0664 root utmp
    rotate 1
}

/var/log/btmp {
    create 0600 root utmp
    rotate 1
}

# system-specific logs may be configured here


trustytrev.

[djohnston]

trustytrev,

I don't see anything out of the ordinary there. This may go back to a time when there was a problem with logrotate. Let's update the file's date and time, then check it on June 1st to see if it has rolled over.

su
touch /var/log/security.log
exit

The touch command will give the security.log the current date and time. If the file did not already exist, an empty file would be created.

[trustytrev]

Hello,
      Ive done that.I'll come back with the results tomorrow.
Thanks.
trustytrev.

[trustytrev]

Hello,
     Here is the result of the commands today.
[trevor@madhouse ~]$ date
Sat Jun  2 15:42:20 BST 2012
[trevor@madhouse ~]$ ls -l /var/log/security.log
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 256087 May 30 16:38 /var/log/security.log

I guess this means I still have a problem?
trustytrev.

[djohnston]

trustytrev,

What's in the log now?

su
cat /var/log/security.log | tail -20
exit

Yeah, It looks like maybe the log file isn't being written to at all. What about other files in the /var/log directory? Are they current?