Ok

I had my front / backend die the other day, restarted and it said it could not contact the backend...

Having spent an hour or so trying to get it to work I found mysql would not start.. I reinstalled mysql changed the permisions on the server directory but was still getting an error that mysql couldn't write file ..... cant remember the name.. so i ran mysqladmin and got a device io error sayng the device was full..
Armed with that info I used webmin file manager to delete some log files and the system came back up with a reboot...

The three log files that had grown too big were ...

messages.log
errors.log
everything.log

The problem I had was I had deleted these files so I could not work out what had caused them to grow too big..


Curiously today I checked the rrd charts to find my disk space was being eaten away.. So I checked the logs only to find hundreds of the following lines in the log's




It seems if you leave an unrecognised disk in the DVD ROM drive the logs slowly fill till your system dies. On my system it takes 5/6 days to fill the the root and kill my system..........

It adds 2/3 lines per log per second.

I thought I would post this for anyone else who suddenly had an unexplained backend crash...

I don't know whether the LINES team would be able to fix this I assume its MYTHTV that generates these errors.

Maybe turning off auto insert notification would stop this. I'll do some investigation and find out...

_________________
Running:-
Intel 930 3GHz dual Core
Thermaltake Fanless CPU Cooler
Asus P5GS
Samsung 750G Sata HDD
8400 512m Video Card
2 * jetway DVB-t
1 * Haupage DVB-S2 Card
Samsung Sata 16x DVDRW
2048M Ram
1 * Netop Ion 330

Hi Simon,

I noticed this a while ago too, and just don't leave CDs in the drive. However, this is a pretty lazy way to go about it. Correct way is:
1. Fix the 'feature' that insists on logging unrecognised CDs every few seconds, and
2. Install logrotate (if not already installed) and rotate/archive logs. Four days in rotation is usually enough for most people's boxes. Apparently you can also trigger a rotation on file size.

Actually, the whole root fs filling is ridiculous. When I was actively developing I tried to fix this but couldn't easily. I'll write it in the filofax now as a to-do. Unrestrained log expansion has killed a number of machines and really shouldn't.

Mike

_________________
*********************
LinHES 7.4
Australian Dragon
*********************

Yea

I have had it happen a few times before but not in the last couple of years...

Log rotation is installed..

last time it was X11 errors if I remember correctly..

The wife put the disk in the drive she told me she had a disk that wouldn't play but I didn't realise it was still in the drive..

Simon

_________________
Running:-
Intel 930 3GHz dual Core
Thermaltake Fanless CPU Cooler
Asus P5GS
Samsung 750G Sata HDD
8400 512m Video Card
2 * jetway DVB-t
1 * Haupage DVB-S2 Card
Samsung Sata 16x DVDRW
2048M Ram
1 * Netop Ion 330

Just experienced the same thing.

DVD was in for only a day, but the machine was acting strange the entire time. (a LOT of HDD activity)

Anyway, rebooted and got the "Can't connect to database" found this thread and cleared the three logs suggested. What was really huge was the acpid.log. I'm guessing from the amount freed that the file alone was over 400MB.

Thanks for the hints! They worked like a charm!