Computer freezing, won't update, can't su to root

[tgagne]

Today when I came home I discovered my computer froze, and the keyboard lights blinking. I rebooted it twice and it made it up.

In /var/log/messages I found:

Sep 13 22:29:44 localhost abrtd: Directory 'ccpp-1284431384-2698' creation detected
Sep 13 22:29:45 localhost abrtd: New crash /var/spool/abrt/ccpp-1284431384-2698, processing
Sep 13 22:29:45 localhost abrtd: RunApp('/var/spool/abrt/ccpp-1284431384-2698','test x"`cat component`" = x"xorg-x11-server-Xorg" && cp /var/log/Xorg.0.log .')
Sep 13 22:29:56 localhost abrtd: Getting crash infos...
Sep 13 22:35:57 localhost abrtd: Creating report...
Sep 13 22:36:41 localhost abrtd: Directory 'ccpp-1284431800-3109' creation detected
Sep 13 22:36:41 localhost abrtd: New crash /var/spool/abrt/ccpp-1284431800-3109, processing
Sep 13 22:36:41 localhost abrtd: RunApp('/var/spool/abrt/ccpp-1284431800-3109','test x"`cat component`" = x"xorg-x11-server-Xorg" && cp /var/log/Xorg.0.log .')
Sep 13 22:53:33 localhost abrtd: Directory 'ccpp-1284432812-3189' creation detected
Sep 13 22:53:33 localhost abrtd: Crash is in database already (dup of /var/spool/abrt/ccpp-1284431800-3109)
Sep 13 22:53:33 localhost abrtd: Deleting crash ccpp-1284432812-3189 (dup of ccpp-1284431800-3109), sending dbus signal
Sep 13 23:01:01 localhost abrtd: Directory 'ccpp-1284433261-3313' creation detected
Sep 13 23:01:02 localhost abrtd: New crash /var/spool/abrt/ccpp-1284433261-3313, processing
Sep 13 23:01:02 localhost abrtd: RunApp('/var/spool/abrt/ccpp-1284433261-3313','test x"`cat component`" = x"xorg-x11-server-Xorg" && cp /var/log/Xorg.0.log .')

There's little reason for these things to crash.

The crashes seem coincident with a recent Firefox upgrade. First time I used it, it crashed, wanted to file a report, downloaded some debug-info stuffs and now it seems to be happening all the time.

The way the system is right now, I can't run a command-line yum-update 'cause I can't su to root.

Any ideas?

[tgagne]

I'm wondering how I can reboot Amahi in a shell mode so I can try to eliminate a bunch of extra stuff. Not sure if inittab is the right place to start...

[tgagne]

Ran "init 3"

From the command line (logged on as root) "yum update" crashed.

from /var/log/messages

Sep 13 23:45:21 localhost abrt[2437]: saved core dump of pid 2436 (/usr/bin/python) to /var/spool/abrt/ccpp-1284435921-2436.new/coredump (3919872 bytes)
Sep 13 23:45:21 localhost abrtd: Directory 'ccpp-1284435921-2436' creation detected
Sep 13 23:45:21 localhost abrtd: Crash is in database already (dup of /var/spool/abrt/ccpp-1284435782-2269)
Sep 13 23:45:21 localhost abrtd: Deleting crash ccpp-1284435921-2436 (dup of ccpp-1284435782-2269), sending dbus signal

So, if python is crashing, I'm wondering how I'm supposed to update/patch the box. Groan.

[moredruid]

hmm a "yum clean all" and then a "yum update" might do the trick for you.