[Techtalk] kernel panic

Akkana Peck akkana at shallowsky.com
Mon Oct 27 04:44:12 UTC 2008


Maria McKinley writes:
> This is a server, so I don't have X enabled, as I don't really have user 
> accounts on it. Anybody know of a way to log the kernel panic dump that 
> doesn't involve X? I've always wondered if there was a way to log this 
> stuff.

Usually it's the other way around: if you run X, then you're out of
luck for debugging panics because you can't see the panic message
(unless you have some other provisions for it, like a separate
serial console, or the Morse code keyboard LED hack or something).
If X isn't running, then usually kernel panics write a bunch of
obscure debugging information to the screen.

A while back, a kernel developer gave me a tip on how to save these:
use a digital camera to take a picture of the screen. Then you have
the message saved in case you want to delve into kernel debugging,
or file a bug on the panic. Much better than trying to write all
those hex numbers on an envelope without getting anything wrong.

	...Akkana


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