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System Panics, Part 2: Recovering and Debugging

Posted by timothy on from the lifejackets-and-axes dept.

LiquidPC writes: "This is Part 2 in a two-part series on system panics. In his first column, Michael Lucas talked about how to prepare a FreeBSD system in case of a panic. In this column, he talks about what to do when the worst happens."

26 comments

  1. Words to live by by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Titty fuck pussy cock dick anus rectum booby vagina vulva clitoris gape mantwat

  2. *BSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Netcraft officially confirms: *BSD is dying

    Yet another crippling bombshell hit the beleaguered *BSD community when recently IDC confirmed that *BSD accounts for less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of the latest Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as further exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

    You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood. FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers.

    Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

    OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.

    Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

    All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and *BSD's long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS hobbyist dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.

    *BSD is dying

    1. Re:*BSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even if it is dying I couldn't care less, because it is unthreatened in quality; I don't care about hype or coolness, I want high quality products that are fast and DO_NOT_CRASH(TM).

    2. Re:*BSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

      Are all BSD "advocates" as dumb as you?

      Read the netcraft uptime FAQ.

      If you weren't such a fucking newbie, the mere fact that IRIX was high in the list would have tipped you off that its not an accurate measure.

    3. Re:*BSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your inability to administrate Silicon Graphics machines must be daunting, if a machine craches it most often the administrators fault for not understanding how to make the most of what the machine and software has to offer.

      I'm not talking mainframes here, I'm talking UNIX, because that's what you idiots are bashing. I've yet to see a Linux box pass 1200 days uptime, plenty of BSD/OS boxes at Telia are well beyond twise that, and still going strong.

    4. Re:*BSD is dying by boltar · · Score: 1

      Any box thats been running for 1200 days (ie over 3 years!!) deserves to be hacked since the admin
      is obviously too lazy or just too irresponsible to have done any security patches to the machine
      (which would require a reboot). There is NO operating system unix or otherwise which has not
      found some sort of security flaw either in the kernel or in a server app in that length of time.

    5. Re:*BSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you need to reboot, it's because flaws in the kernel, all other flaws can correfcted without rebooting. Naturally you can patch a running kernel if it has a /dev/kmem, but it's not recomended.
      It's been like 8 years since there was a security issue in SunOS kernel, similar can be said for a lot of system; though not Linux kernel, which has had atleast two know holes in the last 18 months.

    6. Re:*BSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      though not Linux kernel, which has had atleast two know holes in the last 18 months.


      Speaking of two holes, I filled two of your mom's holes last night. I would've taken her up the ass, but that pear-sized hemmaroid was a little off-putting. Still, good woman your mom. She says you should call me daddy now.


      Go get daddy a beer.

  3. Hard Times for *BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    So why now? Why did *BSD fail? Once you get past the fact that *BSD is fragmented between a myriad of incompatible kernels, there is the historical record of failure and of failed operating systems. *BSD experienced moderate success about 15 years ago in academic circles. Since then it has been in steady decline. We all know *BSD keeps losing market share but why? Is it the problematic personalities of many of the key players? Or is it larger than their troubled personalities?

    The record is clear on one thing: no operating system has ever come back from the grave. Efforts to resuscitate *BSD are one step away from spiritualists wishing to communicate with the dead. As the situation grows more desperate for the adherents of this doomed OS, the sorrow takes hold. An unremitting gloom hangs like a death shroud over a once hopeful *BSD community. The hope is gone; a mournful nostalgia has settled in. Now is the end time for *BSD.

  4. *BSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Netcraft officially confirms: *BSD is dying

    Yet another crippling bombshell hit the beleaguered *BSD community when recently IDC confirmed that *BSD accounts for less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of the latest Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as further exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

    You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood. FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers.

    Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

    OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.

    Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

    All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and *BSD's long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS hobbyist dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.

    *BSD is dying

  5. Google and Niggers by Chinese+Karma+Whore · · Score: -1

    did you know that searching for 'nigger' on google returns the category Arts > Movies > Titles > W > Who Framed Roger Rabbit ??? See for yourself!

  6. Stop trolling ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    This "BSD is dying" thing is getting boring !
    Stop it will you ?

    How many times I need to say this ?
    It's DEAD. D-E-A-D ! BSD is dead !
    Got it ?
    Good.

  7. AH HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    YHBT

  8. Just to reiterate-*BSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Netcraft officially confirms: *BSD is dying

    Yet another crippling bombshell hit the beleaguered *BSD community when recently IDC confirmed that *BSD accounts for less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of the latest Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as further exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

    You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood. FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers.

    Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

    OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.

    Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

    All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and *BSD's long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS hobbyist dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.

    *BSD is dying

  9. *BSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    It is official; Netcraft confirms: *BSD is dying

    One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BS community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

    You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood. FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers.

    Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

    OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.

    Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yt another charnel house.

    All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.

    Fact: *BSD is dying

  10. Panic! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I would panic too if I were using an OS that is dying

  11. First Non-Troll Post in this thread by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    At least it would be if someone modded this post up.

  12. Wouldn't it be nice if we had... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    World Peace or at least a post modded to +1 in th is thread? I sure think so.

  13. Solution! by Icephreak1 · · Score: 1

    "In this column, he talks about what to do when the worst happens."

    This one's too easy: switch to Linux

    1. Re:Solution! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Naturally, since who wouldn't want to have a crap VM system, other nice flaws like the curruption of filesystem on reboot and god knows what else.
      Oh, I forgot, we don't.

    2. Re:Solution! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      It is official; Netcraft confirms: *BSD is dying

      One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BS community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers.
      Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last [samag.com] in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.


      You don't need to be a Kreskin [amdest.com] to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future.
      In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are
      looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market
      share. Red ink flows like a river of blood. FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having
      lost 93% of its core developers.

      Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.


      OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD
      are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in
      ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on
      Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users
      of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore
      there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of
      FreeBSD Usenet posts.

      Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on,
      FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled
      OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yt another charnel house.


      All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick
      and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will
      be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could
      save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.

      Fact:
      *BSD is dying

    3. Re:Solution! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you from Microsoft or what?

      Anyhow, y're wrong and stop posting this bull-sh*t

    4. Re:Solution! by ASyndicate · · Score: 2

      I tried Gentoo, hated it. :(
      I am no newbie either. Its just, They patch anything and everything without any regard for side effects, I have had 4 different boxes corrupt a filesystem with gentoo. Then I said, thats it. I have had enough. Bye.

      If you tell me that there isnt a system that the worst can happen, I had a deal that you could make 10,000 at home.

      --
      This page left intentionally blank.
    5. Re:Solution! by sales_worldwide · · Score: -1

      But it's easier than BSD to distribute since there is no fussy regression test suite in the way.

      --
      "Making linux GPL was the best thing I ever did" - Torvalds. I'd hate to see the worst thing...
  14. Mantwat? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What's a mantwat?

    1. Re:Mantwat? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm surprised you don't know. Here's a pic of a mantwat.