List of Common Error Messages and their meanings.

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Here is a list of common error messages and their meanings and troubleshooting suggestions. We are in the process of expanding this list greatly.

The application or service that generates the message is in parentheses.

1.  Numbers & Symbols

[Hexadecimal Numbers]

Hexadecimal numbers are sometimes generated by MS Windows, and occasionally other operating systems and user programs. They typically are almost meaningless, sometimes they refer to memory addresses or other things that are of questionable utility. This error is sometimes called a "Guru Meditation".

Black screen with hollow white X

Strictly, this is not an error message but is actually an artifact of the X11 service crashing. Notwithstanding, it usually indicates an instance of the Intel Video Regression. Rebooting is the only solution.

114 (SSH)

SSH error 114 is not an actual error even though the SSH specification and most clients explicitly use the word "error" to refer to it. Error 114 simply indicates to the client that no additional authentication methods are supported by the server.

403 Forbidden (HTTP)

The request was valid but the server has refused to respond to it. Often this means that you stumbled into an administrative directory on the server which can be caused by mistyping a URI or by an error on the part of the website author. (sample)

404 Not Found (HTTP)

The web page or resource requested could not be found by the server. Your URI may be bad or the link may be bad. If the link/URI worked before there could be a server error. (Often, modern websites mask this error with friendly language.)

410 Gone (HTTP)

The web page or resource has been permanently deleted and no forwarding address has been left. This is so similar to 404 that most sites use 404 instead of 410.

500 Internal Server Error (HTTP)

The web-server has internally malfunctioned, this is usually caused by the server's administrator screwing up, not you the user.

2.  A

A Problem we were not expecting [...] please report it (KDE)

This is one of several error messages used by KDE to alert you to the crash of a program. If you have a Launchpad.net account you could report it but it is best just to close the window and start over. If the problem recurs file a PR.

Access Denied (Various)

This error is typically caused by accidentally trying to read or write to an administrative resource, make sure that you are only reading and writing to your home directory (typically /home/[you]).

3.  C

The connection has timed out (Browsers)

There was either a network error somewhere between you and the website you tried to connect to or the remote server took a very long time to reply. Sometimes this is caused by one end of the connection being busy. For example, if a very large number of people try to connect to the site at once, and it does not have enough capacity this can happen.

4.  F

File Not Found (Various)

The file or directory requested could not be found, think of it as a local 404 [see above].

Firefox is already running but not responding... (Firefox)

Firefox browser exited abnormally for some reason and a process used by it is still loaded into memory but not responding. Consult Abnormal Firefox Exiting.

5.  I

I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that (HAL)

Hal is having a bad day, try singing to him.

Intel ##### playback has failed, falling back to PulseAudio (KDE)

This message is for informational purposes only, it is perfectly normal.

6.  S

Server Error (HTTP)

This is a generic error message some servers and web applications generate when they do not know exactly what the problem is. It is often functionally equivalent to 500 Internal Server Error (See Above), however it is nonstandard.

Server not Found (Browsers)

DNS lookup failed. Firefox (or whatever browser) was unable to locate the domain or subdomain requested. The site may not exist or there could be a service interruption. Check to see if you have spelled the domain and hostnames correctly.

7.  W

Website Blocked by NETGEAR Firewall (VNS)

This website has been added to the Manual Site Blacklist. Please consult that page for reason.

Window is not responding (KDE)

The window in question's controlling process has stopped responding to signals. It may have hung or crashed. This box will also ask if you want to terminate the application or wait to see if it becomes responsive. Unless you think the application will become responsive, terminating the application and then restarting it is the easiest way to deal with this problem.

8.  Z

Zero sized reply (HTTP)

Technically, all this means is that a web-server sent a reply that contained nothing, not even HTTP control headers. This is only ever caused by some sort of internal malfunction. Unfortunately, there are quite a number of different things that could cause this problem and the site administrator will have to investigate each one individually.

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