On Wed, 19 Jul 2006 15:16:34 +0100, Mark Cullen <mark.r.cullen@gmail.com>
wrote:


> > 
> 
> Oh :-) Maybe not then. Do you happen to remember the specs of the system 
> and what it was running? Perhaps our two machines have something in 
> common...
> 
> Intel Celeron 1GHz
> MSI MS-6368 v2.1 (VIA chipset)
> 2 x PC100 128MB
> 2 x Intel 100mbit NICS (8255x)
> 4 x IDE hard disks (one is UDMA66, rest are 100)
> Prolific USB -> Serial adapter
> Serial 4x20 LCD
> Serial console boot loader installed for com1, 57600 baud.
> 
> Samba (as a PDC)
> BIND9
> Apache 1.3.xx
> PHP 4.x
> MySQL 4.1.x
> Courier IMAP
> Postfix
> ISC DHCPd
> apcupsd
> SSH
> mbmon in daemon mode
> Acting as a gateway using PF + PF's inbuilt NAT.
> ADSL modem (xmodem ce) on fxp1, IP address via dhclient.
> 
> Kernel stripped of most of the stuff I don't need, ACPI added just so I 
> can use `shutdown -p now` and it'll power off automatically. Can't 
> really think of anything else particularly unusual...
> 
> Maybe it's some kinda strange time counter issue?

My experience was *way* before timecounters...  It was a Dell Precision
410, originally running 1.5.x.  I *think* the problem happened some time
after boot (i.e., I never saw it in single-user mode at boot), but didn't
stop when I returned to single-user.  But it's a few years since I looked
into it, so I could easily be wrong about that part.

		--Steven M. Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb