capture kernel panic / hardware problem?

[Matthew Galgoci]

> Questions:
> 
> 1) how can I capture kernel panic messages and put 
> it into a file when this happens?
> 
> [my /etc/syslog.conf modification looks like so:
> 
> kern.*                  /var/log/kern.log
> ...

The best way to capture a panic is via serial console on another
machine running a terminal program such as minicom, which you have
configured to capture the panic to a file. 

> 2) I can't help but to think that this is a problem with
> the IDE drive, but there are no hardware error regarding
> /dev/hdb or the like in the messages file.  I'm going to
> switch out the drive, but why would cpio or cp cause
> the kernel to freak out if not hardware?

A catastropic failure like this when you are doing something simple like
manipulating files really sounds like you've got hardware problems. In that
case the panics that you capture should have no particular signature other
than the fact that you are asking the machine to do some work.

-- 
Matthew Galgoci
System Administrator and Sr. Manager of Ruminants
Red Hat, Inc
919.754.3700 x44155