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1

I have a laptop converted to a Linux Mint server running a variety of services. Recently, it started being unaccessible at random.

The situation seems intermittent. The server is usually blazing fast. I can still ping the server, but any attempt to access its services (ssh, web, etc) takes a prohibitive amount of time.

When I try to access the server with SSH, it can take over 15 minutes before I get to the login screen. The hard drive activity light stays on and the machine is running hotter than usual but not dangerously so. If I reboot the machine, it is super fast for some time, until it randomly becomes unresponsive again, maybe days later.

I have tried using iotop, but I've spent the past 45 minutes just waiting for it:

user@machine~ $ sudo iotop

[sudo] password for user: debug3: Received SSH2_MSG_IGNORE

debug3: Received SSH2_MSG_IGNORE

debug3: Received SSH2_MSG_IGNORE



debug2: client_check_window_change: changed

debug2: channel 0: request window-change confirm 0

EDIT I power cycled the server and took a look at all the logs. These were the last entries in syslog. There were several hundred of identical lines preceding it:

Jul 17 20:35:16 t510-mint pulseaudio[2106]: [pulseaudio] protocol-native.c: Warning! Too many connections (64), dropping incoming connection.

Jul 17 20:35:40  pulseaudio[2106]: last message repeated 673 times

Jul 17 20:35:40 t510-mint rsyslogd-2177: imuxsock begins to drop messages from pid 2106 due to rate-limiting

Jul 17 20:35:41 t510-mint rsyslogd-2177: imuxsock lost 6 messages from pid 2106 due to rate-limiting

Jul 17 20:35:41 t510-mint pulseaudio[2106]: [pulseaudio] protocol-native.c: Warning! Too many connections (64), dropping incoming connection.

Jul 17 20:36:05  pulseaudio[2106]: last message repeated 673 times

Jul 17 20:36:05 t510-mint rsyslogd-2177: imuxsock begins to drop messages from pid 2106 due to rate-limiting

Jul 17 20:36:06 t510-mint rsyslogd-2177: imuxsock lost 6 messages from pid 2106 due to rate-limiting

Jul 17 20:36:06 t510-mint pulseaudio[2106]: [pulseaudio] protocol-native.c: Warning! Too many connections (64), dropping incoming connection.

Jul 17 20:37:19  pulseaudio[2106]: last message repeated 567 times

linux linux-mint

share|improve this question

edited Jul 18 '14 at 0:46

Nicolas Bouliane

asked Jul 17 '14 at 15:44

Nicolas BoulianeNicolas Bouliane

12166 bronze badges

bumped to the homepage by Community♦ 42 mins ago

This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Logs? Did you check logs? like /var/log/messages or /var/log/dmesg.0 and so on?
  
  – rush
  Jul 17 '14 at 15:48
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Sounds like a swapping issue. Please edit your question and tell us how much RAM and how much swap you have. Also show us the output of grep swappiness /etc/sysctl.conf.
  
  – terdon♦
  Jul 17 '14 at 15:48
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I would love to check the logs, but the system is still inaccessible. The swappiness settings should be the default ones. However, I have considered checking for memory usage too.
  
  – Nicolas Bouliane
  Jul 17 '14 at 15:59
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Also run top and look at the VIRT column to see if there's anything that is a lot larger than the size of your RAM.
  
  – Mark Plotnick
  Jul 17 '14 at 16:13
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I like this command vmstat 1. You can leave running in background and paste the most recent lines when it fails?
  
  – LatinSuD
  Jul 17 '14 at 17:43
  

  
  
  
  

 | 
show 1 more comment

1

I have a laptop converted to a Linux Mint server running a variety of services. Recently, it started being unaccessible at random.

The situation seems intermittent. The server is usually blazing fast. I can still ping the server, but any attempt to access its services (ssh, web, etc) takes a prohibitive amount of time.

When I try to access the server with SSH, it can take over 15 minutes before I get to the login screen. The hard drive activity light stays on and the machine is running hotter than usual but not dangerously so. If I reboot the machine, it is super fast for some time, until it randomly becomes unresponsive again, maybe days later.

I have tried using iotop, but I've spent the past 45 minutes just waiting for it:

user@machine~ $ sudo iotop

[sudo] password for user: debug3: Received SSH2_MSG_IGNORE

debug3: Received SSH2_MSG_IGNORE

debug3: Received SSH2_MSG_IGNORE



debug2: client_check_window_change: changed

debug2: channel 0: request window-change confirm 0

EDIT I power cycled the server and took a look at all the logs. These were the last entries in syslog. There were several hundred of identical lines preceding it:

Jul 17 20:35:16 t510-mint pulseaudio[2106]: [pulseaudio] protocol-native.c: Warning! Too many connections (64), dropping incoming connection.

Jul 17 20:35:40  pulseaudio[2106]: last message repeated 673 times

Jul 17 20:35:40 t510-mint rsyslogd-2177: imuxsock begins to drop messages from pid 2106 due to rate-limiting

Jul 17 20:35:41 t510-mint rsyslogd-2177: imuxsock lost 6 messages from pid 2106 due to rate-limiting

Jul 17 20:35:41 t510-mint pulseaudio[2106]: [pulseaudio] protocol-native.c: Warning! Too many connections (64), dropping incoming connection.

Jul 17 20:36:05  pulseaudio[2106]: last message repeated 673 times

Jul 17 20:36:05 t510-mint rsyslogd-2177: imuxsock begins to drop messages from pid 2106 due to rate-limiting

Jul 17 20:36:06 t510-mint rsyslogd-2177: imuxsock lost 6 messages from pid 2106 due to rate-limiting

Jul 17 20:36:06 t510-mint pulseaudio[2106]: [pulseaudio] protocol-native.c: Warning! Too many connections (64), dropping incoming connection.

Jul 17 20:37:19  pulseaudio[2106]: last message repeated 567 times

linux linux-mint

share|improve this question

edited Jul 18 '14 at 0:46

Nicolas Bouliane

asked Jul 17 '14 at 15:44

Nicolas BoulianeNicolas Bouliane

12166 bronze badges

bumped to the homepage by Community♦ 42 mins ago

This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Logs? Did you check logs? like /var/log/messages or /var/log/dmesg.0 and so on?
  
  – rush
  Jul 17 '14 at 15:48
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Sounds like a swapping issue. Please edit your question and tell us how much RAM and how much swap you have. Also show us the output of grep swappiness /etc/sysctl.conf.
  
  – terdon♦
  Jul 17 '14 at 15:48
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I would love to check the logs, but the system is still inaccessible. The swappiness settings should be the default ones. However, I have considered checking for memory usage too.
  
  – Nicolas Bouliane
  Jul 17 '14 at 15:59
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Also run top and look at the VIRT column to see if there's anything that is a lot larger than the size of your RAM.
  
  – Mark Plotnick
  Jul 17 '14 at 16:13
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I like this command vmstat 1. You can leave running in background and paste the most recent lines when it fails?
  
  – LatinSuD
  Jul 17 '14 at 17:43
  

  
  
  
  

 | 
show 1 more comment

I have a laptop converted to a Linux Mint server running a variety of services. Recently, it started being unaccessible at random.

The situation seems intermittent. The server is usually blazing fast. I can still ping the server, but any attempt to access its services (ssh, web, etc) takes a prohibitive amount of time.

When I try to access the server with SSH, it can take over 15 minutes before I get to the login screen. The hard drive activity light stays on and the machine is running hotter than usual but not dangerously so. If I reboot the machine, it is super fast for some time, until it randomly becomes unresponsive again, maybe days later.

I have tried using iotop, but I've spent the past 45 minutes just waiting for it:

user@machine~ $ sudo iotop

[sudo] password for user: debug3: Received SSH2_MSG_IGNORE

debug3: Received SSH2_MSG_IGNORE

debug3: Received SSH2_MSG_IGNORE



debug2: client_check_window_change: changed

debug2: channel 0: request window-change confirm 0

EDIT I power cycled the server and took a look at all the logs. These were the last entries in syslog. There were several hundred of identical lines preceding it:

Jul 17 20:35:16 t510-mint pulseaudio[2106]: [pulseaudio] protocol-native.c: Warning! Too many connections (64), dropping incoming connection.

Jul 17 20:35:40  pulseaudio[2106]: last message repeated 673 times

Jul 17 20:35:40 t510-mint rsyslogd-2177: imuxsock begins to drop messages from pid 2106 due to rate-limiting

Jul 17 20:35:41 t510-mint rsyslogd-2177: imuxsock lost 6 messages from pid 2106 due to rate-limiting

Jul 17 20:35:41 t510-mint pulseaudio[2106]: [pulseaudio] protocol-native.c: Warning! Too many connections (64), dropping incoming connection.

Jul 17 20:36:05  pulseaudio[2106]: last message repeated 673 times

Jul 17 20:36:05 t510-mint rsyslogd-2177: imuxsock begins to drop messages from pid 2106 due to rate-limiting

Jul 17 20:36:06 t510-mint rsyslogd-2177: imuxsock lost 6 messages from pid 2106 due to rate-limiting

Jul 17 20:36:06 t510-mint pulseaudio[2106]: [pulseaudio] protocol-native.c: Warning! Too many connections (64), dropping incoming connection.

Jul 17 20:37:19  pulseaudio[2106]: last message repeated 567 times

linux linux-mint

share|improve this question

edited Jul 18 '14 at 0:46

Nicolas Bouliane

asked Jul 17 '14 at 15:44

Nicolas BoulianeNicolas Bouliane

12166 bronze badges

user@machine~ $ sudo iotop

[sudo] password for user: debug3: Received SSH2_MSG_IGNORE

debug3: Received SSH2_MSG_IGNORE

debug3: Received SSH2_MSG_IGNORE



debug2: client_check_window_change: changed

debug2: channel 0: request window-change confirm 0

Jul 17 20:35:16 t510-mint pulseaudio[2106]: [pulseaudio] protocol-native.c: Warning! Too many connections (64), dropping incoming connection.

Jul 17 20:35:40  pulseaudio[2106]: last message repeated 673 times

Jul 17 20:35:40 t510-mint rsyslogd-2177: imuxsock begins to drop messages from pid 2106 due to rate-limiting

Jul 17 20:35:41 t510-mint rsyslogd-2177: imuxsock lost 6 messages from pid 2106 due to rate-limiting

Jul 17 20:35:41 t510-mint pulseaudio[2106]: [pulseaudio] protocol-native.c: Warning! Too many connections (64), dropping incoming connection.

Jul 17 20:36:05  pulseaudio[2106]: last message repeated 673 times

Jul 17 20:36:05 t510-mint rsyslogd-2177: imuxsock begins to drop messages from pid 2106 due to rate-limiting

Jul 17 20:36:06 t510-mint rsyslogd-2177: imuxsock lost 6 messages from pid 2106 due to rate-limiting

Jul 17 20:36:06 t510-mint pulseaudio[2106]: [pulseaudio] protocol-native.c: Warning! Too many connections (64), dropping incoming connection.

Jul 17 20:37:19  pulseaudio[2106]: last message repeated 567 times

share|improve this question

edited Jul 18 '14 at 0:46

Nicolas Bouliane

asked Jul 17 '14 at 15:44

Nicolas BoulianeNicolas Bouliane

12166 bronze badges

share|improve this question

edited Jul 18 '14 at 0:46

Nicolas Bouliane

asked Jul 17 '14 at 15:44

Nicolas BoulianeNicolas Bouliane

12166 bronze badges

asked Jul 17 '14 at 15:44

Nicolas BoulianeNicolas Bouliane

12166 bronze badges

asked Jul 17 '14 at 15:44

Nicolas BoulianeNicolas Bouliane

12166 bronze badges

1 Answer
1

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0

You can try accessing the system in runlevel 3 for multiuser command line mode and try to clean some space on the / filesystem, while you are at it, it'll be a great idea to get some unused space (if any) for some extra swap. If you already are in runlevel 3, then clean the system at runlevel 1 which will load basic services for you to run diagnostics and/or troubleshoot. The system should become accessible from this runlevel and you should be able to get some logs as well (grep swappiness /etc/sysctl.conf).

Take a look at this post for runlevel info:

Debian init runlevels

share|improve this answer

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

Community♦

1

answered Jul 18 '14 at 0:18

strkIVstrkIV

4166 bronze badges

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  The filesystem has plenty of space left, so that is not an issue. The grep command returns nothing with those parameters.
  
  – Nicolas Bouliane
  Jul 18 '14 at 0:22
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  What about the swap space? Do you have enough assigned? grep SwapTotal /proc/meminfo
  
  – strkIV
  Jul 18 '14 at 0:38
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I was able to get the same thing to happen a few seconds ago. There was plenty of RAM left, so it shouldn't be a problem, correct?
  
  – Nicolas Bouliane
  Jul 18 '14 at 0:40
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Well, enough RAM doesn't always means that you are OK to go. RAM is always important, but Linux uses swap space too for process buffering. Swap is recommended to be 2x the size of RAM but this is just a suggestion. If you have enough RAM and HDD space, then 1x of swap should be OK. Something else to check is what the top command gives you when the services are running, try: top > Shift+f > n. That will give you who's eating RAM when the problem occurs
  
  – strkIV
  Jul 18 '14 at 0:46
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Got 8GB of SWAP (and 4GB of RAM), so I assume this is fine?
  
  – Nicolas Bouliane
  Jul 18 '14 at 0:49
  

  
  
  
  

 | 
show 2 more comments

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0

You can try accessing the system in runlevel 3 for multiuser command line mode and try to clean some space on the / filesystem, while you are at it, it'll be a great idea to get some unused space (if any) for some extra swap. If you already are in runlevel 3, then clean the system at runlevel 1 which will load basic services for you to run diagnostics and/or troubleshoot. The system should become accessible from this runlevel and you should be able to get some logs as well (grep swappiness /etc/sysctl.conf).

Take a look at this post for runlevel info:

Debian init runlevels

share|improve this answer

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

Community♦

1

answered Jul 18 '14 at 0:18

strkIVstrkIV

4166 bronze badges

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  The filesystem has plenty of space left, so that is not an issue. The grep command returns nothing with those parameters.
  
  – Nicolas Bouliane
  Jul 18 '14 at 0:22
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  What about the swap space? Do you have enough assigned? grep SwapTotal /proc/meminfo
  
  – strkIV
  Jul 18 '14 at 0:38
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I was able to get the same thing to happen a few seconds ago. There was plenty of RAM left, so it shouldn't be a problem, correct?
  
  – Nicolas Bouliane
  Jul 18 '14 at 0:40
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Well, enough RAM doesn't always means that you are OK to go. RAM is always important, but Linux uses swap space too for process buffering. Swap is recommended to be 2x the size of RAM but this is just a suggestion. If you have enough RAM and HDD space, then 1x of swap should be OK. Something else to check is what the top command gives you when the services are running, try: top > Shift+f > n. That will give you who's eating RAM when the problem occurs
  
  – strkIV
  Jul 18 '14 at 0:46
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Got 8GB of SWAP (and 4GB of RAM), so I assume this is fine?
  
  – Nicolas Bouliane
  Jul 18 '14 at 0:49
  

  
  
  
  

 | 
show 2 more comments

0

You can try accessing the system in runlevel 3 for multiuser command line mode and try to clean some space on the / filesystem, while you are at it, it'll be a great idea to get some unused space (if any) for some extra swap. If you already are in runlevel 3, then clean the system at runlevel 1 which will load basic services for you to run diagnostics and/or troubleshoot. The system should become accessible from this runlevel and you should be able to get some logs as well (grep swappiness /etc/sysctl.conf).

Take a look at this post for runlevel info:

Debian init runlevels

share|improve this answer

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

Community♦

1

answered Jul 18 '14 at 0:18

strkIVstrkIV

4166 bronze badges

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  The filesystem has plenty of space left, so that is not an issue. The grep command returns nothing with those parameters.
  
  – Nicolas Bouliane
  Jul 18 '14 at 0:22
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  What about the swap space? Do you have enough assigned? grep SwapTotal /proc/meminfo
  
  – strkIV
  Jul 18 '14 at 0:38
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I was able to get the same thing to happen a few seconds ago. There was plenty of RAM left, so it shouldn't be a problem, correct?
  
  – Nicolas Bouliane
  Jul 18 '14 at 0:40
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Well, enough RAM doesn't always means that you are OK to go. RAM is always important, but Linux uses swap space too for process buffering. Swap is recommended to be 2x the size of RAM but this is just a suggestion. If you have enough RAM and HDD space, then 1x of swap should be OK. Something else to check is what the top command gives you when the services are running, try: top > Shift+f > n. That will give you who's eating RAM when the problem occurs
  
  – strkIV
  Jul 18 '14 at 0:46
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Got 8GB of SWAP (and 4GB of RAM), so I assume this is fine?
  
  – Nicolas Bouliane
  Jul 18 '14 at 0:49
  

  
  
  
  

 | 
show 2 more comments

You can try accessing the system in runlevel 3 for multiuser command line mode and try to clean some space on the / filesystem, while you are at it, it'll be a great idea to get some unused space (if any) for some extra swap. If you already are in runlevel 3, then clean the system at runlevel 1 which will load basic services for you to run diagnostics and/or troubleshoot. The system should become accessible from this runlevel and you should be able to get some logs as well (grep swappiness /etc/sysctl.conf).

Take a look at this post for runlevel info:

Debian init runlevels

share|improve this answer

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

Community♦

1

answered Jul 18 '14 at 0:18

strkIVstrkIV

4166 bronze badges

share|improve this answer

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

Community♦

1

answered Jul 18 '14 at 0:18

strkIVstrkIV

4166 bronze badges

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

Community♦

1

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

Community♦

1

answered Jul 18 '14 at 0:18

strkIVstrkIV

4166 bronze badges

answered Jul 18 '14 at 0:18

strkIVstrkIV

4166 bronze badges