Sorry if this is the wrong place - I've already posted to
alt.os.linux.ubuntu, but am not familiar with the spread/overlap of
knowledge in this area...

Having been successfully using a Dell PowerEdge SC430 for over a year
with kubuntu/apache2/php/MySQL as my local server, it suddenly started
misbehaving in weird ways.
It's almost completely stopped serving up web pages.
Strangely, my other machine will get some response from the domains the
server hosts - but only after a while (minutes, then with failure to get
MySQL connection) calling it by IP address always brings up the apache
default page instantly.
All the above fail on the server itself using any of 'localhost',
'127.0.0.1' or its own IP address.
So, I thought I should have a look at the configuration files, only to
find more problems...
Some of the basic utitilties come up with sometimes incomplete border
buttons and NO window content - just blank white, while others are OK.
The offending ones I've noticed so far are:
Terminal
*Time and Date
*Network
*Users and groups
*Network Tools - initial fdialog OK but clicking 'configure' brings up
blank 'Settings for..' dialog. This gets osme content after a while, but
clicking to change the configuration (it's not picking up its usual
address from dhcp) clobbers everything (the bottom bar appears and the
icons expand, but there's no response to clicks), including
Ctrl-Alt-Del, but not Ctrl-Alt-Back.
Ctrl-Alt-Back works as usual, but choosing either 'default', 'gnome' or
'failsafe' leaves me with the screen background image and a white
rectangle in the top r-h corner, sometimes with an inner frame as if
it's a terminal window trying to make itself known.
Well, what do you reckon? It seems that's quite enough strangeness.
It's especially problematic for me as I work on the system daily and
it's been perfect for a long time - so much so that each day I turn it
on and off without looking at its screen (I use a KDM switch) - I only
usually switch over to the server to shutdown and do that entrirely by
touch-typing.

Can anyone help?

thanks in advance

Dave Johnson

On 06/23/2008 08:04 AM, Dave Johnson wrote:
> Sorry if this is the wrong place - I've already posted to
> alt.os.linux.ubuntu, but am not familiar with the spread/overlap of
> knowledge in this area...
>
> Having been successfully using a Dell PowerEdge SC430 for over a year
> with kubuntu/apache2/php/MySQL as my local server, it suddenly started
> misbehaving in weird ways.
> It's almost completely stopped serving up web pages.
> Strangely, my other machine will get some response from the domains the
> server hosts - but only after a while (minutes, then with failure to get
> MySQL connection) calling it by IP address always brings up the apache
> default page instantly.
> All the above fail on the server itself using any of 'localhost',
> '127.0.0.1' or its own IP address.
> So, I thought I should have a look at the configuration files, only to
> find more problems...
> Some of the basic utitilties come up with sometimes incomplete border
> buttons and NO window content - just blank white, while others are OK.
> The offending ones I've noticed so far are:
> Terminal
> *Time and Date
> *Network
> *Users and groups
> *Network Tools - initial fdialog OK but clicking 'configure' brings up
> blank 'Settings for..' dialog. This gets osme content after a while, but
> clicking to change the configuration (it's not picking up its usual
> address from dhcp) clobbers everything (the bottom bar appears and the
> icons expand, but there's no response to clicks), including
> Ctrl-Alt-Del, but not Ctrl-Alt-Back.
> Ctrl-Alt-Back works as usual, but choosing either 'default', 'gnome' or
> 'failsafe' leaves me with the screen background image and a white
> rectangle in the top r-h corner, sometimes with an inner frame as if
> it's a terminal window trying to make itself known.
> Well, what do you reckon? It seems that's quite enough strangeness.
> It's especially problematic for me as I work on the system daily and
> it's been perfect for a long time - so much so that each day I turn it
> on and off without looking at its screen (I use a KDM switch) - I only
> usually switch over to the server to shutdown and do that entrirely by
> touch-typing.
>
> Can anyone help?
>
> thanks in advance
>
> Dave Johnson

What version of Kubuntu are you using?

Did these problems start after an update?

Does your /etc/hosts file have the normal 'localhost' line in it?
127.0.0.1 localhost

Did you recently make changes to your firewall configuration?

Mumia W. wrote:
> On 06/23/2008 08:04 AM, Dave Johnson wrote:
>> Sorry if this is the wrong place - I've already posted to
>> alt.os.linux.ubuntu, but am not familiar with the spread/overlap of
>> knowledge in this area...
>>
>> Having been successfully using a Dell PowerEdge SC430 for over a year
>> with kubuntu/apache2/php/MySQL as my local server, it suddenly started
>> misbehaving in weird ways.
>> It's almost completely stopped serving up web pages.
>> Strangely, my other machine will get some response from the domains
>> the server hosts - but only after a while (minutes, then with failure
>> to get MySQL connection) calling it by IP address always brings up the
>> apache default page instantly.
>> All the above fail on the server itself using any of 'localhost',
>> '127.0.0.1' or its own IP address.
>> So, I thought I should have a look at the configuration files, only to
>> find more problems...
>> Some of the basic utitilties come up with sometimes incomplete border
>> buttons and NO window content - just blank white, while others are OK.
>> The offending ones I've noticed so far are:
>> Terminal
>> *Time and Date
>> *Network
>> *Users and groups
>> *Network Tools - initial fdialog OK but clicking 'configure' brings up
>> blank 'Settings for..' dialog. This gets osme content after a while,
>> but clicking to change the configuration (it's not picking up its
>> usual address from dhcp) clobbers everything (the bottom bar appears
>> and the icons expand, but there's no response to clicks), including
>> Ctrl-Alt-Del, but not Ctrl-Alt-Back.
>> Ctrl-Alt-Back works as usual, but choosing either 'default', 'gnome'
>> or 'failsafe' leaves me with the screen background image and a white
>> rectangle in the top r-h corner, sometimes with an inner frame as if
>> it's a terminal window trying to make itself known.
>> Well, what do you reckon? It seems that's quite enough strangeness.
>> It's especially problematic for me as I work on the system daily and
>> it's been perfect for a long time - so much so that each day I turn it
>> on and off without looking at its screen (I use a KDM switch) - I only
>> usually switch over to the server to shutdown and do that entrirely by
>> touch-typing.
>>
>> Can anyone help?
>>
>> thanks in advance
>>
>> Dave Johnson
>
> What version of Kubuntu are you using?
>
> Did these problems start after an update?
>
> Does your /etc/hosts file have the normal 'localhost' line in it?
> 127.0.0.1 localhost
>
> Did you recently make changes to your firewall configuration?
>

Thanks for responding Mumia.

version:
7.04

updates:
I'm not aware of any updates - I just turn the machine on at the start
of a session and use it without looking at it until I power-down when
I've finished: it's previously been a very reliable server.

hosts:
Hosts file as expected: locahost has always worked as expected, and in
testing since the problem Ive used both 'localhost' and '127.0.0.1' with
identical (unsatisfactory) effect

firewall:
I've made no intentional changes: the machine connects to the internet
by ethernet to my workstation (which runs Windows XP with Windows
firewall) which has a USB modem.

I hope this might tell you something
Dave

On 06/24/2008 02:14 PM, Dave Johnson wrote:
> Mumia W. wrote:
>> On 06/23/2008 08:04 AM, Dave Johnson wrote:
>>> Sorry if this is the wrong place - I've already posted to
>>> alt.os.linux.ubuntu, but am not familiar with the spread/overlap of
>>> knowledge in this area...
>>>
>>> Having been successfully using a Dell PowerEdge SC430 for over a year
>>> with kubuntu/apache2/php/MySQL as my local server, it suddenly
>>> started misbehaving in weird ways.
>>> It's almost completely stopped serving up web pages.
>>> Strangely, my other machine will get some response from the domains
>>> the server hosts - but only after a while (minutes, then with failure
>>> to get MySQL connection) calling it by IP address always brings up
>>> the apache default page instantly.
>>> All the above fail on the server itself using any of 'localhost',
>>> '127.0.0.1' or its own IP address.

What is the exact error message? Find error messages in apache's
error.log and /var/log/messages.

>>> So, I thought I should have a look at the configuration files, only
>>> to find more problems...
>>> Some of the basic utitilties come up with sometimes incomplete border
>>> buttons and NO window content - just blank white, while others are OK.
>>> The offending ones I've noticed so far are:
>>> Terminal
>>> *Time and Date
>>> *Network
>>> *Users and groups
>>> *Network Tools - initial fdialog OK but clicking 'configure' brings
>>> up blank 'Settings for..' dialog. This gets osme content after a
>>> while, but clicking to change the configuration (it's not picking up
>>> its usual address from dhcp) clobbers everything (the bottom bar
>>> appears and the icons expand, but there's no response to clicks),
>>> including Ctrl-Alt-Del, but not Ctrl-Alt-Back.
>>> Ctrl-Alt-Back works as usual, but choosing either 'default', 'gnome'
>>> or 'failsafe' leaves me with the screen background image and a white
>>> rectangle in the top r-h corner, sometimes with an inner frame as if
>>> it's a terminal window trying to make itself known.
>>> Well, what do you reckon?

It's possible HD corruption.

Reboot and force a fsck: shutdown -rF now

>>> It seems that's quite enough strangeness.
>>> It's especially problematic for me as I work on the system daily and
>>> it's been perfect for a long time - so much so that each day I turn
>>> it on and off without looking at its screen (I use a KDM switch) - I
>>> only usually switch over to the server to shutdown and do that
>>> entrirely by touch-typing.
>>>
>>> Can anyone help?
>>>
>>> thanks in advance
>>>
>>> Dave Johnson
>>
>> What version of Kubuntu are you using?
>>
>> Did these problems start after an update?
>>
>> Does your /etc/hosts file have the normal 'localhost' line in it?
>> 127.0.0.1 localhost
>>
>> Did you recently make changes to your firewall configuration?
>>
>
> Thanks for responding Mumia.
>
> version:
> 7.04
>
> updates:
> I'm not aware of any updates - I just turn the machine on at the start
> of a session and use it without looking at it until I power-down when
> I've finished: it's previously been a very reliable server.
>

I forgot that Kubuntu probably updates automatically (Hardy does).

> hosts:
> Hosts file as expected: locahost has always worked as expected, and in
> testing since the problem Ive used both 'localhost' and '127.0.0.1' with
> identical (unsatisfactory) effect
>

Show us the output of these commands

ping -c4 127.0.0.1
ping -c4 localhost
ping -c4 <your machine name>

After the fsck from above is finished, see if there are any corrupt
files using this command (which requires that debsums be installed):

debsums -c

> firewall:
> I've made no intentional changes: the machine connects to the internet
> by ethernet to my workstation (which runs Windows XP with Windows
> firewall) which has a USB modem.
>
> I hope this might tell you something
> Dave

What firewall do you use on the Kubuntu server?

BTW, an automatic update might have mussed up the system, so try another
update which might fix it.