[Techtalk] Is there a log file for time of a kernel panic

[Maria Blackmore]

On Wed, 26 Feb 2003, Lucky Lady wrote:

> Our main file server (running RH 7.1) kernel panic'ed
> last night. I was able to get it working again without
> a problem. Is there a log file showing what time this
> occured & what processes were being run? 

Hi,

by the time that a kernel has paniced, it isn't likely to be in a state
where it will be able to write anything to anywhere about anything.  There
should usually be a message on the screen regarding what it was doing at
the time.  If it happens again, you may find milage in recompiling the
kernel to include serial console support, so that if it panics and is
able, you can log the panic as it comes out of the serial port (assuming
it is connected to something :-).

Many other unices have the ability to save the entire contents of memory
at the time of a panic to their swapspace, and then retrieve it and save
it on the next boot.  Sadly this feature is missing from linux due
(amongst other reasons) to the reported difficulty in getting block device
drivers to behave sufficiently predictably in the event of a panic.  If
you're interested, you can then run this memory dump through a debugger,
in a similar way to running a core dump through gdb (or other debugger).
uhm, except you can't, because you don't get one with Linux, sorry :)


good luck

Maria