asked on

Open Windows Problem

Problem: Open Windows Version 3 will not start up.

Computer: Sun IPC Sun OS 4.1.4

Error Message: (When log in as user)
/files/home/users/thicks/.xinitrc
Illegal Instruction
Core Dumped

(when log in as root)
/usr/openwin/lib/Xinitrc
Illegal Instruction
Core Dumped

Note: No problems logging in as user "thicks" on other machines on the network. Problem is on this one computer only.

The files .xinitrc and Xinitrc have been checked and are not corrupt.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

braveheart

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rway

ASKER

How do I examine the core. It is not a kernal crash, so modifying the rc.local did not save an image.

No network or software changes have been made. The problem just appeared on its own.

braveheart

When you get a message which says "core dumped" you should find a file called "core" in the current directory which is a snapshot of the executing program at the moment it crashed. It doesn't necessarily refer to a kernel crash and has nothing to do with rc.local.

Note that it is possible to get this message and the core file be thrown away. This will happen if you have limited the size of core dump file (by using the "limit coredumpsize" command in csh, for example) and the failing program is bigger than the specified size. In this case you will have to remove the limit first. Alternatively, if there is too little disk space to dump core then it will not get saved.

Once you have a core file, to determine which executable crashed try using "file core" which I think tells you the name of the original program. Failing that, use a debugger to find it out.