Has Linux ever crashed on you?

Linux is very stable as we all know. Much more stable then say..... Windows :)

Still, no Operating System is perfect so I want to ask you has Linux ever crashed on you? Name the distribution and the programs you were using that failed.

SuSE Linux 9.3 - Xine UI - Completely froze whilst playing a video in full screen mode
SuSE Linux 10.0 - Kaffeine - Shut itself down a few times playing TV. A few other random crashes here and there.
SuSE Linux 10.0 - LimeWire - Loading the application froze the whole operating system. This was the first and only time i've had to turn of my computer from the plug whilst using Linux.

Kubuntu 6.06 - Konqueror - Crashed whilst file browsing, Happened a few times
Kubuntu 6.06 - Kaffeine - Crashes on a few videos, some TV
Kubuntu 6.06 - Xine (engine) - Crashed for unknown reason. Amarok popped up the notice saying Xine had crashed.... and said sorry too :)

On the whole though, most of the errors have been pretty much insignificant. In all of the cases bar the LimeWire crash in SuSE 10, i've been able to close the malfunctioning program and continue with my work, without having to restart my computer.

Its happened a few times with some odd programs, but no full system crashes. You can't really count a program bug as a linux crash, since its not the fault of the kernel. to be honest, XP doesn't go into a full system crash often either. The most system crash prone OS I ever used was Windows ME. At one point I was saying "hmm only 10 crashes this month, good!".

Yes you're right, I should have put 'Which Linux programs have crashed on you'.

The Kernel has never crashed on me and I doubt it ever will.

As for XP, it will lock up completey if a program crashes. I consider that to be just as bad as a kernel crash. The end result is the same - you have to pull the plug. If a program crashes in Linux, the rest of the Operating system remains uneffected.

Windows ME..... an April fools joke taken too far :D

Addis said:

XP doesn't go into a full system crash often either.

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i agree. i use XP and have never had it completely crash on me. i've had a few programs that buzzed out and had to ctrl-alt-del them, but never had a full lock-up.

although i did experience a couple of really strange incidents where my screen resolution just decided to set itself to the absolute lowest settings and i had to restart to get back to normal :confused: and there was that one time where my webcam went crazy and gave me a bsod. . . but it was a very very cheap webcam so i guess i shouldn't have been too surprised. . .

hhmmm...interesting. For me, XP crashes every time i plug in an ipod, but while Linux doesn't recoggnize the ipod. I mean for XP, complete and total BSOD. Its quite bad, but other than that, its rather ok. But linux has crashed on me twice. I use Knoppix. The First time was when i tried to use xine for playing a text file. DOn't ask me how that happened. The second time was when i was playing with my resolution, and i set it to 640x480, pressed apply, then realized that Knoppix, or at least my version, doesn't confirm resolution changes.But over all Linux pwns.

Where'd my post go?

Well, not so much crashed as simply locked up. SuSe 10.1 has given me hell. I love the setup, but I've switched it for CentOS 4.3, and so far no issues of that nature. I still need to configure a few things.

Never seen Linux crash when it wasn't a hardware problem. Well, when I was learning to compile my own kernel I got a lot of kernel panicks, but I hardly think that counts. No OS can boot to a broken kernel. :O

I'm using Mandriva and it has never crashed, but I don't use it that often. Come to think of it, I rarely have Windows crash either, except when my PSU failed. Then it was crashing all the time, but that had nothing to do with OS.

Addis said:

Its happened a few times with some odd programs, but no full system crashes. You can't really count a program bug as a linux crash, since its not the fault of the kernel. to be honest, XP doesn't go into a full system crash often either. The most system crash prone OS I ever used was Windows ME. At one point I was saying "hmm only 10 crashes this month, good!".

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you should see how XP behaves after i've being using it for a week (proper crash central)

Me is better than you think, after a few erm, erm, erm T W E A K S;) ;) ;)

I ran Slackware 10.2 on my laptop and that never stopped crashing with kernel 2.4. Then it kept crashing completley and wouldn't boot (about 3 times!!). Either Linux doesn't like me, or my laptop is made by Microsoft :confused: . And now Im running WinME it's not too bad :confused: :confused: .

I push my workstations very hard under any OS, which tends to bring out the worst in the operating system. In Windows, I experience at least one crash a day, sometimes up to three due to excessive multitasking. At home on my Linux machines I can push them probably 6x harder, on less powerful hardware, with no instability as a result.

[ot]

thomas234 said:

I ran Slackware 10.2 on my laptop and that never stopped crashing with kernel 2.4. Then it kept crashing completley and wouldn't boot (about 3 times!!). Either Linux doesn't like me, or my laptop is made by Microsoft :confused: . And now Im running WinME it's not too bad :confused: :confused: .

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you know there are a few things you can do to MAKE Me better / more stable[/ot]

Well as I said earlier, most of the failures i've had in Linux are to do with Xine :(

Even today i've had problems. Xine screwed up the television colours in Kaffiene and I had to reboot my computer to fix it.

After the reboot, Xine decided it wanted to fail in amarok! Christ!
Amarok automatically switched to the arts engine which happened to fail as well after a few tracks :confused:

I've got to work out how to Gstreamer back because the EasyUbuntu program removed it. I can't find an amarok-gstreamer engine in the repositories :(

megamaced said:

Well as I said earlier, most of the failures i've had in Linux are to do with Xine... :(

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Wow megamaced, makes me appreciate Mandriva that much more. :) I've never had any problems like the ones you're experiencing.

[ot]And by the way, this isn't a "my distro can beat up your distro" pissing match, I'm just saying that I've never even seen those problems on the distros I run. :) I think Suse has a long way to go before I would use it on my own desktop, and you already know why I don't much care for K/X/Ubuntu.[/ot]

I am pretty sure my Xine woes are because of EasyUbuntu. With hindsight I should have installed the proprietory audio codecs myself, instead of relying on a 'quick fix' wizard.

I am pretty sure if I reinstalled Kubuntu it would sort out.

Besides, I am still a Linux n00b and all of the problems I have had are self inflicted. :) I tend to fiddle with the inner workings and learn through trial and error.

SuSE was.... a learning experience. A good distribution to start my Linux ventures.

Kubuntu is solid, but no distribution is safe from idle hands :medead:

never crashed not once!
Ive had xorg crash on me but thats not linux really is it.
LFS distro with xorg and kde, dont know if I could call it slackware.