My Linux box tends to lock up sometimes. Bad enough that all network activity ceases (dropping SSH connections), the on-screen GUI cursor stops moving (and I understand that it's a hardware cursor, so it ought to keep going even if processes are deadlocked) and the SysRq key doesn't work - although I suspect that might be because it's a USB keyboard…

To my mind this evidence leads to one of

1. Kernel problems (Perhaps an “Oops!” I cannot see?)
2. Hardware lockup

If it's the kernel, I might be able to setup my laptop to monitor kernel messages over a serial port. I'll have to get myself a null-modem cable and give it a try.

For anyone who isn't me, here is the relevant output from the lshw command:

ikari
    description: Desktop Computer
    product: OEM
    vendor: OEM
    version: OEM
    serial: OEM
    width: 32 bits
    capabilities: smbios-2.2 dmi-2.2 smp-1.4 smp
    configuration: boot=normal chassis=desktop cpus=2 uuid=00000000-0000-0000-0000-00508D9D7584
  *-core
       description: Motherboard
       product: AB9/AB9RPO(Intel965+ICH8)
       vendor: http://www.abit.com.tw/
       physical id: 0
       version: 1.x (BIOS:15)
     *-firmware:0
          description: BIOS
          vendor: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
          physical id: 0
          version: 6.00 PG (04/02/2007)
          size: 128KiB
          capacity: 448KiB
          capabilities: isa pci pnp apm upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect socketedrom edd int13floppy360 int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer int10video acpi usb ls120boot zipboot
     *-cpu:0
          description: CPU
          product: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU          6320  @ 1.86GHz
          vendor: Intel Corp.