it sounds like your hardware is getting flaky. If nothing else, how old 
is the disk? If youre getting problems when doing exactly the same thing,
and you're getting OS problems, then there is something very hokey about
the filesystem or the disk itself. or else, some piece of unmentioned
hardware which is somehow only being triggered by some higher level of 
activity than an idle system. 

happy hacking,
gregg

On Sat, 17 Oct 1998, Joop Carels wrote:
> 
> 1)	These days it consequently crashes when booting and updating the
> motd. That line appears on screen and I'm instantly in the debugger.
> 
> 2)	It has always crashed, though not consequently at the same 'spot'.
> 
> How can I configure the kernel to my specific VAXen needs?
> Has anybody ever tried to cross-compile a kernel on a non-VAX?

well, what system are you running on it right now?
 who built the kernel?
do you have a compiler?
Do you have another VAX?
I do believe gcc can cross-compile to the VAX. 
with the right libraries, cross compiling the kernel is no problem.