gpilotd, kernel crashes, and having to reboot

[Jason 'vanRijn' Kasper <vR movingparts net>]

re, all.  I've asked these questions of the list before, but haven't
heard back and thought I'd try asking again....

I'm running mandrake 9.1, using kernel 2.4.21, using a USB cradle with a
Clie NX70 PDA, using the following pilot-related rpm's....

gnome-pilot-2.0.10-0.ximian.6.1
evolution-pilot-1.4.5-0.ximian.6.0
pilot-link-0.11.7-1mdk
libgnome-pilot2-2.0.10-0.ximian.6.1
gnome-pilot-conduits-2.0.10-0.ximian.6.1
gnome-pilot-applet-2.0.10-0.ximian.6.1

- occasionally, gpilotd will get itself so stuck that it refuses to
die.  I cannot kill it, kill -9 it, or kill -9 it as root.  Even if I
shut X down, it still remains, and cannot be killed unless I reboot. 
This is HIGHLY undesirable and makes one pine for the "stability" of
those fabled windows machines I've been hearing about.  (</sarcasm>)

- also occasionally, when I try to sync my PDA with gpilotd, the kernel
will manage to crash entirely, resulting in blinking numlock/capslock
lights on my keyboard, and again making one pine for the "stability"...
you get the picture....

Is anyone else seeing issues like this, and does anyone know where the
fault lies and what can be done to fix this horribly unsocial behavior?

TIA.


-- 

,-----------------------------------------------------------------//
| Jason 'vanRijn' Kasper ::  Numbers 6:22-26 
 `
 | All brontosauruses are thin at one end, much MUCH thicker 
 | in the middle, and then thin again at the far end.  That is 
 | the theory that I have and which is mine, and what it is too.  
 ,
| bash$ :(){ :|:&};:
`----------------------//