Help a new guy out? My Endian box keeps shutting down

[Guest]

[jpelton]

Hello All - my first post here

First off, thanks for providing this forum and to all the folks helping each other out with this great product.  Hopefully someone can guide me in the right direction with my problem. 

Background - I'm a Windows application developer, with some moderate experience using Linux clients.  I don't have a networking background, except for setting up and maintaining our home office (5 Windows/4 Linux clients, print server, lots of wireless devices, Xbox's, Wii's, Tivo's, the lot all connected and all sharing a single 20 mg broadband connection).  I'm using Endian because I like to tinker, and because we have pretty much outgrown the capabilities of a consumer/home router.

I have Endian 2.3 installed on a homegrown box with a JetWay J627F800-OC VIA C3 mainboard, using 512 Mb RAM and a single 20 gb drive, no optical drive, 150 watt power supply.  I am using a daughterboard (ADRTKLAN-G) to add 3 Gigabit ports (Realtek 8110SC/8169SC, r10) to complement the existing VIA 10/100 port.  I have Red on the 10/100 port and Blue/Green/Orange on the Realteks, and all are working to my satisfaction.  I really like the Endian interface and have been happy with the routing and firewall capabilities and performance.

So here's my issue - at least once a day my Endian box shuts down.  Doesn't restart, doesn't throw any warnings, just shuts off.  I'd like to check to see if there is a log or activity report of some kind where I can begin to troubleshoot but I can't seem to figure out where these would be.  I have WinSCP installed on another client and have been snooping around the Endian box, but if anyone has any ideas on where to start looking, I'd be grateful for the guidance.

Thanks in advance!

[danylux]

Hello,
when you use a OS the pcbox don't restart?
restart only when you install endian?

[jpelton]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Honestly I haven't installed anything else on this box, I built it just to run Endian.  I probably could swap the hard drive and install something else to determine if my issues are hardware or software. 

Or do you know if could I try and install another instance of Linux and dual boot?  Will that mess up my Endian install?  If not it would help to include the hard drive in the testing I guess.

EDIT:  Also, it's not a restart, it's a total shutdown.  The Endian box will run for awhile just fine, sometimes 24 hours.  But when it goes out it just shuts itself off.

[danylux]

for me, try to install for example a centos or other os..
If work fine the hardware is good.

Second
It's probabily there is a incompatibility between hardware, for example try without daughterboard.

three.
try to see if all connect inside the box are correct end have perfect insertion..

four
try to control a bios parameter, it's possible that the shoutdown is for thermal problem,

 

[jpelton]

Thanks for the ideas, I will check them out.  I can see where heat might be one of the main culprits, as this behavior is symptomatic of overheating.

But back to my original question - is there an event driven, or some type of system generated log file created while Endian is running that I could reference?

[danylux]

i don't know if this work, but on linux machine for read the kernel log it's possible use klogd with more option, try to google klogd ..

good luck

i dont have other ideas..sorry

[mrkroket]

May be a Kernel Panic due to an incompatible driver.
Unfortunately, on a kernel panic the system won't write any log file.
I know that because I suffered it with a realtek NIC. The good thing for me is that it broke up every few minutes, so I pointed a webcam to the monitor and I was able to capture the error when it happens. The error comes from r8169.ko in my case.
Try to capture the error. Your problem is that it happens only once a day, it will be hard to capture.

Anyways, you should start checking all logs on /var/log directory, specially /var/log/messages, and try to find something related to a crash.
On /var/log/startup.log, please write here what appears on NIC section, just after * Number of NICs found:

[jpelton]

Just a follow-up - looks like it was a heat related issue.  Rookie mistake, I know.

I decided that before trying out different OS's and such I'd vent the box.  Sure enough - after removing the case shell I've had 5 days straight without issue.  I was sort of surprised given the minimalist nature of this board but it might have more to do with the case than anything else.  I'm in the process of re-arranging the internal fans to get better airflow.

Thanks to all for the advice!