[Nester]

Hi lynch, codejockey

I have checked through /var/log/messages - /var/log/warn & ,/var/log/boot.msg I don't have, when I checked /var/log/messages, I have another four of them, like messages.1 up to messages.4. Is this normal or will they keep growing!? It's the same with bootlog; I have four of those too.

When I looked in messages I could find no errors relating to the hard drive, but I did see something which looked a little strange;

apmd (721) : charge: * * * (_1% unknown)

I think apmd is related to advanced power management?? which I do not use anyway.

I tried typing just hdparm -c3 /dev/hda, without the /usr/bin but it still didn't work, also I've looked at the file permissions, I can't see any number like 755, I don't really know that much about file permissions yet but

root has, read write and exec
group has, read and exec
others have, read and exec

Last night when the computer started slowing up, I just left it to see how long it would take to finish whatever it was, but It went on all night! When I got up the next morning it was still thrashing and I had to wait at least 30 minutes just to log out and back in, I have tried shutting down some services but I'm not sure which ones I need or not.

Here is what I have running:

anacron
apmd
atd
autofs
crond
gpm
ip6tables
ipchains
iptables
isdn
keytable
kudzu
ipd
netfs
network
nfslock
portmap
random
rawdevices
rhnsd
sgi_fam
sshd
syslog
xinetd

I'm not using it on the net at present as I would like to make it much more secure before I do, but could you perhaps tell me of the above services I can afford to shut down and which ones I really have to keep?

Sorry this is sooo long, but I had much to say!

Thanks again so much for both your advice,

Nester

ps: I am in run level 5