I installed redhat 9 on a d530 desktop. Sometimes (2 times a week)the computer stops working. The led from the Harddisk is then green all the time. I tried it on different systems but with the same result. I remember that when the Harddisk is new, so the first time, the system shows a warning that if unix has to be installed, you have to run the setup utility first, without telling what to change there.
Since this issue is following the disk, replace the disk. Whoever sold it to you will take it back based on this testimoney. Linux does not need any add in software to deal with IDE disks.
My notes on this sympton in general.
On the hardware side, check the power supply. This is symptomatic of difficulties with that part.
Its also possible another machine is coming up on the network with the same IP address. That would also cause this problem. Check that.
SEP
Steven E Protter Owner of ISN Corporation http://isnamerica.com http://hpuxconsulting.com Sponsor: http://hpux.ws Twitter: http://twitter.com/hpuxlinux Founder http://newdatacloud.com
My hunch is that some process brought up by the weekly cron job is running amok holding up HDD activity. I have seen hdparm trying to set dma on and holding up the HDD. After this only a hard reset brings the machine up.
Well, I think it all really depends if the HD activity goes on forever or ends after a finite amount of time (lets say 10 minutes).
If the first case I tend to agree with the HW problem suggestion, in the second case it really might be a cron job. Prime candidate for such a behaviou are e.g. jobs that update the catman database or the data used by locate (which essentially touches every single directory entry on the disk).
