ssh connection keeps dropping

[kr651129]

I just installed FreeBSD on an old Apple G5. Everything went well but I'm trying to compile some software on it. The SSH connection (from my Linux machine) keep dropping every 10 minutes or so.

Connection to 192.168.1.104 closed by remote host.
Connection to 192.168.1.104 closed.

I've not run into this problem on FreeBSD before so I don't know where to begin. What logs should I be looking in for hints?

Edit:

I just saw my machine reboot on me by itself. Maybe it's overheating? Is there something I need to do on Apple hardware to make sure the cooling is working properly?

 

[Anonymous]

...I just saw my machine reboot on me by itself. Maybe it's over heating? Is there something I need to do on Apple hardware to make sure the cooling is working properly?

I remember, that the PPC Macs had a watchdog counter in their OpenFirmware. If activated, the Mac would reboot, if the operating system does not frequently update the counter. Perhaps this counter is still active, and of course FreeBSD does not know, how to reset it in time.

See here: http://www.firmworks.com/QuickRef.html. Search for watchdog at that page. And here: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Conceptual/KernelProgramming/build/build.html. Again search for watchdog at that page. In that paragraph there is an interesting hint:

To disable this watchdog timer, add the argument pmuflags=1 to the kernel's boot arguments. See “Setting Debug Flags in Open Firmware” for information about how to add a boot argument.