I would expect windows to do this, but Linux?

[Red Squirrel]

Brand new install of Ubuntu 9.10. I basically installed it in a VM to mess with later, I now go to mess with it, and it's crapped out. When I try to log in it just reboots. Not a big deal, I'll just reinstall, but WTF? Has anyone seen this before?

 

[sivart]

How many windows programs do you need? I just use Wine for the 2 or 3 that don't have a Linux alternative.

 

[Red Squirrel]

At this point I'm hoping none. I want to find alternatives. The only app I will have trouble letting go is photoshop so I will probably have a windows VM and do all my Windows stuff in there. For games that can't run in a VM very well I might just dual boot.

I reinstalled and even rebooted a couple times and it did not crap out again, so that was kinda odd. I'm thinking maybe I installed the 64-bit version by accident, but don't think it would have even let me. (not on a 64-bit OS atm)

 

[xSauronx]

Brand new install of Ubuntu 9.10. I basically installed it in a VM to mess with later, I now go to mess with it, and it's crapped out. When I try to log in it just reboots. Not a big deal, I'll just reinstall, but WTF? Has anyone seen this before?

could be some file corruption in or out of the vm. ive run several different distros in a VM without issue.

 

[Fox5]

I've found VMs are buggier than running natively.

However, I just reinstalled ubuntu on my laptop (without wiping it, so overwriting the existing install) and it logs me back out as soon as I log in. I assume that somewhere a config file in my home folder got corrupted, but perhaps one of the newer ubuntu updates is glitched on certain hardware.

 

[MrChad]

I'm sure Linux can be subject to hardware and driver files just like Windows can ...

 

[Nothinman]

Brand new install of Ubuntu 9.10. I basically installed it in a VM to mess with later, I now go to mess with it, and it's crapped out. When I try to log in it just reboots. Not a big deal, I'll just reinstall, but WTF? Has anyone seen this before?

I haven't touched Ubuntu 9.10, but no, I wouldn't expect that. Not that I would expect that from Windows either. You'd need to do a little more debugging to figure out exactly why it's rebooting.

I'm sure Linux can be subject to hardware and driver files just like Windows can ...

Sure hardware failures will affect both equally. But driver failures are less common since most of the drivers are maintained by the same people that maintain the Linux kernel. There are exceptions in things like the binary nVidia and AMD/ATI stuff though.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

If you expect that kind of behavior in Windows you're doing something wrong.

 

[Colt45]

Is "crap out" a technical term?

stderr is a handy thing.

 

[Red Squirrel]

If you expect that kind of behavior in Windows you're doing something wrong.

It's a Windows thing to randomly go down the crapper for no reason. Since win2k it does it way less often but it still does it. We had a domain controller totally crap out a few weeks ago with zero logs or any indication of a problem. Basically had to decomission it on the spot, it was beyond replacable. I've seen workstations randomly BSOD as well and never boot up again. I can't say that I've had much problems myself with win2k or XP though but I've seen it. Win98 was the worse for this. You'd be working on something and it would just randomly freeze up or BSOD.

 

[xSauronx]

We had a domain controller totally crap out a few weeks ago with zero logs or any indication of a problem. Basically had to decomission it on the spot, it was beyond replacable. I've seen workstations randomly BSOD as well and never boot up again.

More likely a hardware problem. We have 900 machines on campus, all running some version of windows, and the only serious issues are hardware related.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

It's a Windows thing to randomly go down the crapper for no reason. Since win2k it does it way less often but it still does it. We had a domain controller totally crap out a few weeks ago with zero logs or any indication of a problem. Basically had to decomission it on the spot, it was beyond replacable. I've seen workstations randomly BSOD as well and never boot up again. I can't say that I've had much problems myself with win2k or XP though but I've seen it. Win98 was the worse for this. You'd be working on something and it would just randomly freeze up or BSOD.

So when you say "I would expect windows to do this" what you mean is "I would expect 13-year-old versions of windows to do this"?

 

[Red Squirrel]

So when you say "I would expect windows to do this" what you mean is "I would expect 13-year-old versions of windows to do this"?

Even newer versions do it, just not that often. I just did not figure Linux did it as well period (crapping out randomly for no reason)

Also in the case of our DC it can't be hardware, it's a VM. It will probably remain an unsolved mystery. We need to figure out how to setup better redundancy but that's a whole other issue for another topic.

 

[Nothinman]

Even newer versions do it, just not that often. I just did not figure Linux did it as well period (crapping out randomly for no reason)

Also in the case of our DC it can't be hardware, it's a VM. It will probably remain an unsolved mystery. We need to figure out how to setup better redundancy but that's a whole other issue for another topic.

Neither just randomly crap out, there's always a reason even if you couldn't figure out what it was.

 

[Platypus]

Neither just randomly crap out, there's always a reason even if you couldn't figure out what it was.

yep

 

[Fox5]

Even newer versions do it, just not that often. I just did not figure Linux did it as well period (crapping out randomly for no reason)

Also in the case of our DC it can't be hardware, it's a VM. It will probably remain an unsolved mystery. We need to figure out how to setup better redundancy but that's a whole other issue for another topic.

VMs can be pretty buggy. I haven't used vmware much, but virtualbox has all sorts of odd bugs that never show up on real hardware.

 

[Red Squirrel]

VMs can be pretty buggy. I haven't used vmware much, but virtualbox has all sorts of odd bugs that never show up on real hardware.

Yeah we considered that and it may have been part of the cause. Our VM environment is not exactly the cleanest either. First off it's not even the same version of ESX across all servers, and 2nd off not all servers are the same. Idealy when it comes to a vm cluster you want all the servers to be exactly the same and the hypervisor to be the same. There's just less chance of complications that way imo.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Have you tried CTRL+ALT+(F1-F6) to get to a tty terminal and login that way? It sounds like there i just a simple problem with the display manager given that you can attempt to login...

Have you tried CTRL+ALT+F8 and looked at the start up script output to make sure everything is starting successfully in there?

-Kevin

 

[Nothinman]

VMs can be pretty buggy. I haven't used vmware much, but virtualbox has all sorts of odd bugs that never show up on real hardware.

VirtualBox is a completely different class product than VMware ESX. I can't think of a single problem with our VMs or any of our clients that have VMware that could be blamed on a bug in VMware.

I'm not denying the existence of bugs in VMware, they are after all reimplimenting various hardware devices in software. But it's a lot simpler and safer to patch VMware than it is to upgrade the firmware on a crappy NIC if the manufacturer even gives you that option.