[The Pondermatic]

I have a web server that likes to keep freezing up. After a reboot, it runs well, but over the course of a few hours, it locks up entirely. What is particularly interesting is that top and reboot do not work. To be sure that it wasn't the GUI, my brother-in-law and I set it up to start in run level 3; the problem still persists, however.

The computer is an IBM NetVista with 256 MB RAM and the OS is completely patched.

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Is it the entire system or just the mouse that is freezing? There is a known issue with the USB mice freezing...
Also, is the keyboard a USB keyboard?

You might try replacing them with PS/2 input devices and see if this solves the issue... if that is indeed what it is...

[thenotch]

Is it the entire system or just the mouse that is freezing? There is a known issue with the USB mice freezing...
Also, is the keyboard a USB keyboard?

You might try replacing them with PS/2 input devices and see if this solves the issue... if that is indeed what it is...

[The Pondermatic]

The keyboard or mouse specifically can't be causing the problem... We've only been getting to the server remotely via SSH2. However, we have installed USB drivers on it. We'll check to see if they're the problem.

We also plan on stopping all of the services except those that we need to run Linux and see if the problem stops, indicating that the problem is one of those services.

[thenotch]

If you are having a SSH2 problem then the mouse and kb would not be the issue themselves (i was trying to just verify what was actually freezing) and the drivers MIGHT be an issue, but I am willing to bet that you are on the right track by stopping unnecessary services (which you do anyway; if this is a server it should be as bare as you can possibly make it to keep it functional).

One other thing, when you try to access via SSH and it appears to be locked up, can you physically go to the machine and login? That might be helpful in seeing if the machine or the SSH daemon is where part of the problem lays...