---In message <20020828231045.B180@mayn.de>
>hi
>
>i have an old ss2 standing here, running netbsd 1.5.2, with 28mb ram and
>a 250mb hd. it is only running 2 services for me, fetchmail and cucipop,
>or in other words getting and serving mails. 
>
>the machine is running fine for 2 days, after that the following happened:
>
>on the third day uptime i booted my workpc and tried to get my mails from
>the ss2 but i did not get a connect.
>after that i connected to the console, serial cable (the machine is 
>running with no keyboard or monitor), and what i saw was the ok prompt.
>after booting again and checking some things everythings seems to be
>fine, but after 1 day i had the same problem again.
>
>any ideas ?

As someone else recommended, check /var/log/messages. If you do not find
anything useful there, do you have another machine you could connect with
a serial cable to ttya and constantly monitor the console output?  Then,
the next time it dropped to "ok" you would be able to see if there were
any few error messages just before "ok".

For example, if you had another UNIX machine named "hrothgar", connect the
serial cable to the ttya of the sick SPARC-2, and run "tip" (or kermit) on
hrothgar. Verify that you see a login prompt. Then just leave tip running
and check it next time the SPARC-2 crashes.  

>is it a problem that appears on all sparc stations, maybe i had the
>same problem on my ss5, or is it not a problem but my fault ?

Typically, you will only this happen if there is a hardware problem or the
kernel crashes in an unusual way. Or perhaps you have a cat who had paw
access and could press L1-A or send a break? ;-)

 --johan