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My headless Ubuntu (11.10) crashed. When I plug in keyboard and monitor, I see an non-interactive cursor (no blink) on a black screen. SSh, telnet don't work from other machines. Ping works.

I have restarted the machine. How could I check the log files of the last session, so I can know more about this crash?

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Look in /var/log – micke Oct 16 '11 at 22:08
They are for this session right? I already restarted the box. What are the file name patterns for the last session's logs? – Tom Fishman Oct 16 '11 at 22:10
2  
The ones that ends in .1 are from the last syslog session. A quick ls -lta /var/log will give you an idea of which files are new. – micke Oct 16 '11 at 22:29
I discovered those files: alternatives.log.1 daemon.log.1 dpkg.log.1 kern.log.1 messages.1 syslog.1 auth.log.1 debug.1 jockey.log.1 lpr.log.1 pm-powersave.log.1 user.log.1 . messages.1 is the biggest file. So I assume it is the file that most likely has the information I need. – Tom Fishman Oct 16 '11 at 22:44

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