How to enable watchdog on ubuntu 14.04

Install Watchdog daemon

To install watchdog daemon

sudo apt-get install watchdog

Create dir for watchdog logs files

sudo mkdir -p /var/log/watchdog

Remove the watchdog module from black list. /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-watchdog.conf

#blacklist s3c2410_wdt  //ysun Here you should check what kind of device you're using

blacklist softdog              //alternativly you can use soft dog

Append the default watchdog configuration. /etc/default/watchdog

# Start watchdog at boot time? 0 or 1

run_watchdog=1

# Start wd_keepalive after stopping watchdog? 0 or 1

run_wd_keepalive=1

# Load module before starting watchdog

watchdog_module=softdog   #the same as your loaded module!!!

# Specify additional watchdog options here (see manpage).

watchdog_options="-s -v -c /etc/watchdog.conf"

Watchdog demon configuration files

Note: Watchdog drivers start automatically as it's buildin, but only if a watchdog daemon to configure the times.

You need to edit the /etc/watchdog.conf file to un-comment and so actually use the /dev/watchdog device access to the module. Otherwise the watchdog will not use the hardware and rely only on its internal code to soft-reboot a broken machine

$ cat /etc/watchdog.conf

#ping                   = 172.31.14.1

#ping                   = 172.26.1.255

#interface              = eth0

file                    = /var/log/syslog

#change                 = 1407

# Uncomment to enable test. Setting one of these values to '0' disables it.

# These values will hopefully never reboot your machine during normal use

# (if your machine is really hung, the loadavg will go much higher than 25)

#max-load-1             = 24

#max-load-5             = 18

#max-load-15            = 12

# Note that this is the number of pages!

# To get the real size, check how large the pagesize is on your machine.

#min-memory             = 1

#allocatable-memory     = 1

#repair-binary          = /usr/sbin/repair

#repair-timeout         =

#test-binary            =

#test-timeout           =

watchdog-device = /dev/watchdog

# Defaults compiled into the binary

#temperature-device     =

#max-temperature        = 120

# Defaults compiled into the binary

admin                   = root

interval                = 1

logtick                = 1

log-dir                = /var/log/watchdog

# This greatly decreases the chance that watchdog won't be scheduled before

# your machine is really loaded

#realtime                = yes

#priority                = 1

# Check if rsyslogd is still running by enabling the following line

#pidfile                = /var/run/rsyslogd.pid

# set watchdog timer

watchdog-timeout        = 15

# set heartbeat setting 

heartbeat-file = /var/log/watchdog/heartbeat.log

heartbeat-stamps = 300