Linux System Failure Post-Mortem Pages: 1, 2 When the kernel
detects an unrecoverable or serious error, it prints a status
report to the kernel log file. This report includes such things
as the contents of the registers, the contents of the kernel
stack, and a function trace of the functions being executed
during the fault. All this stuff is extremely useful -- but is
in machine-readable form, and addresses vary depending on the
configuration of the individual machine. So the kernel log file
alone is useless when determining precisely what went wrong.
This is where ksymoops comes in. ksymoops converts the machine-
readable kernel oops report to human readable text. It relies on
a correct System.map file, which is generated as part of the
kernel compilation. It also expects klogd to handle loadable
modules correctly, if appropriate. ksymoops requires the "oops
text," usually available as Oops.file from the system logger. If
this file can't be found, grab the oops text from dmesg, or from
the console -- copied b