My machine locks hard during kernel compiles with any stock Debian 2.4.x kernel.
Using 2.2.x, I can compile without an incident. Usually, shortly before freezing, I will see this dmesg, or one like it << Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address fffffffc printing eip: c01220ad *pde = 00001063 *pte = 00000000 Oops: 0002 CPU: 0 EIP: 0010:[<c01220ad>] EFLAGS: 00010216 eax: ef678e04 ebx: c01fe4b8 ecx: c1d9f444 edx: c1d9f444 esi: e67fd1e0 edi: ee1ecbe0 ebp: 00000074 esp: dfda5e94 ds: 0018 es: 0018 ss: 0018 Process as (pid: 7429, stackpage=dfda5000) Stack: 00000074 c1d9f444 c01fe4b8 e67fd1e0 ee1ecbe0 00000000 0000011c c1d9f444 ef678e04 ef678d60 e8916180 c011f22e e67fd1e0 400ee000 00000000 400eef10 ee1ecbe0 ffffffff 00000000 c011f317 ee1ecbe0 e67fd1e0 400eef10 00000000 Call Trace: [<c011f22e>] [<c011f317>] [<c010fa54>] [<c010fbb4>] [<c010fa54>] [<c011ff5e>] [<c011c907>] [<c0106e1c>] Code: 50 e8 4d f2 ff ff 89 c3 83 c4 0c 85 db 74 74 8b 7b 18 c1 ef >> (The above was while using the 2.4.8-686 kernel-image.) My motherboard is an ABit VT6X4 with the VIA686A chipset. I have 768 megs of PC133 ECC memory. The problem persists with no extra hardware but an nVidia GeForce2MX in the machine. Where should I begin to look for a solution?