Monday, January 08, 2007

My first experience with Linux kernel panic

I was running a web server from my apartment using Ubuntu Linux. During vacations, I traveled to Washington DC and was managing the server by SSH. I installed a kernel update, and then the server wanted restart. After restart, I couldn't login!

Sending a (-technologically challenged) friend for investigation revealed that the server now has a kernel panic each time it boots up. This was because I filled up its capacious 1GB hard drive by installing the update, and that led to kernel panic.

I agree not many people are running Linux on a 1GB hard disk. Still it has ruined my server in no time at all! My suggestion to the Linux developers is to have an intelligent software updater that can recognize updates that will fill up the entire HD. It should be pretty simple to do, just takes some thought.