[CentOS] mysterious weekly shutdown

Mon Apr 12 17:19:10 UTC 2010
m.roth at 5-cent.us <m.roth at 5-cent.us>

Frank wrote:

> I have a Centos 5.4 machine that has, for the past two weeks, apparently
> been shut off over the weekend.  It's just sitting there turned off on
> Monday morning and when someone hits the power switch it comes right
> back on and everything works again.
>
> This happened last weekend, and again over this past weekend.
>
> Here is /var/log/messages from shortly before it apparently shut down
> this weekend.  Can anyone tell me what is or might be going on?
>
> Apr 10 11:01:27 answeringmachine vgetty[6012]: message keep,
> length=00:00:20, name='', caller=none, dev=ttyACM0, pid=6012
> Apr 10 11:19:10 answeringmachine vgetty[6095]: message keep,
> length=00:00:24, name='', caller=none, dev=ttyACM0, pid=6095
> Apr 10 11:43:56 answeringmachine vgetty[6134]: message keep,
> length=00:00:11, name='', caller=none, dev=ttyACM0, pid=6134
> Apr 10 12:22:34 answeringmachine mgetty[6029]: fax dev=ttyS1, pid=6029,
> caller='none', name='', id='', +FHNG=074, pages=0/0, time=00:00:51
> Apr 10 12:43:49 answeringmachine gconfd (freeads-3524): Exiting

This - I wonder if someone's somehow getting in. Anything in
/var/log/secure for 12:43?

> Apr 10 12:43:49 answeringmachine gdm[2872]: Master halting...
> Apr 10 12:43:49 answeringmachine pcscd: winscard.c:304:SCardConnect()
> Reader E-Gate 0 0 Not Found
> Apr 10 12:43:50 answeringmachine shutdown[2872]: shutting down for
> system halt

Here's a thought: does it have bluetooth enabled? Is it in range to talk
to someone *else's* bluetooth keyboard? Is anyone near enough to shut down
their machine, and/or accidentally yours?
<snip>
> status 0)
> Apr 10 12:43:52 answeringmachine avahi-daemon[2769]: Got SIGTERM,
> quitting.

Is this machine hardwired? If so, you do NOT need the avahi-daemon, on by
default, which is intended for a clueless home user to set up a network.
Turn it *off*, and yank the firewall rule that allows it.
<snip>

           mark