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I left windows and came to Ubuntu for just 1 reason: stable system.

I know I am new to Ubuntu but what I understand about stability is whatever happened in application never should hangs the whole system

so yesterday I was facing issue with VirtualBox so when I run the win7 system I got my real Ubuntu 12.04 system totally hang (no control at all) - I already solved this but I am not happy as I didn't got any solution but just press the power button for like 12 sec. (so any suggestions about what to do when face something like that in Ubuntu?)

Today I noticed that when I came to plug out my USB headphone+mic I got black screen with a lot of statements and nothing to do (any advice?)

One of those statements was: Kernel panic - not syncing; fatel exception in interrupt

Please advice, and let me know if I need to re-install my ubuntu system as I played a lot in this copy like trying to install all stuff like GNOME, xface, Lubuntu, and so forth.

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possible duplicate of What should I do when Ubuntu freezes? – fabricator4 Jan 11 at 19:20
Kernel panics are not supposed to happen: when they do, it means something has gone wrong. Sometimes the problem is in hardware. But usually it is a bug (in the kernel or drivers). I recommend reporting this as a bug. (This question also has some good information about bug reporting.) – Eliah Kagan Jan 12 at 8:32

closed as not a real question by Uri Herrera, fabricator4, Ringtail, The Lord of Time, psusi Jan 12 at 1:12

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

1 Answer

up vote 3 down vote accepted

Stability depends on three things

  1. Your hardware (its quality and how well it is supported)
  2. The operating system (Ubuntu in this case)
  3. The user (that is you)

If you want to you can share the data about your hardware. My guess, however, is that your instability has (at least in part) to do with you as a user. Don't get me wrong, but if you say you experiment installing lots of stuff, you use a VM and more then you should be willing to learn how to use the system. Learn about commands like top, about keystrokes like Ctrl+Alt+F1. and Ctrl+Alt+F7., and learn how to keep your system clean.

I think you should check whether your hardware is compatible and reinstall.

Note: It is very common for new users to point-and-install as they did in windows, but Ubuntu is a powerful system which gives you great control. You should not just blindly point-and-install whatever you find (even though it is tempting).

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Thank you for the response, Yes I agree I have a long way to learn, My hardware is HP Pavilion g Series (I don't think it's very compatible) - can you guide me to tutorial or article about how to keep my system clean? – amr osama Jan 11 at 19:13
You can check compatibility on Ubuntu's website. I don't know of such a tutorial, for beginners I advice to write down everything you install and read (!) the install manual or at least some basic info about software before getting started. – Private Jan 12 at 8:02
@Private Installing VirtualBox and additional desktop environments doesn't cause kernel panics. (Well...maybe VirtualBox, if there is a serious bug.) This is unlikely to be primarily due to any wrong action by the user. – Eliah Kagan Jan 12 at 8:33
@EliahKagan, I disagree. New users can definitely mess up their system. Kernel panic is only one of the OP's errors. It could be caused by many things, not just hardware failure. An improper install of the OS could be one of them. – Private Jan 12 at 10:51
@Private Installing GUI packages is not a plausible cause. Furthermore, if the kernel panic is not a hardware problem, it is almost always a bug. If you have a reasonable explanation for how the OP may have installed things wrong to produce a kernel panic, I recommend editing your answer to include it. – Eliah Kagan Jan 12 at 10:58
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