Re: 1.3.68 is unstable with bzImage+initrd-1.3.66c patch

Matthias Sattler (m_sattle@informatik.uni-kl.de)
Tue, 27 Feb 1996 17:41:59 +0100 (MET)


Hiho

Hans Lermen <lermen@elserv.ffm.fgan.de> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I guess we need help from Bjorn and Alan.
>
> On Mon, 26 Feb 1996, Matthias Sattler wrote:
>
> > Hiho
> >
> > I've encountered a strange phenomenon. When I use the rootramdisk patches
> > (bzImage+initrd-1.3.66c) with the 1.3.68 kernel my machine is significantly
> > less stable. The errors occur in areas that were not changed by the patch?!
> > Here in one example that I can easily reproduce:
> > nohup xpilots -noQuit &
> > xpilot
> > Now play a bit (a few seconds seem enough) and quit xpilot. As a result I get
> > the following Oops that I do not get with plain 1.3.68.

> Ne need some more help from you to track this down. In order
> to isolate the problem, can you please check:
>
> 1. What is your system setup _without_ the patch (vanilla 1.3.68) ?

Plain 1.3.68.

>
> 2. Does the Oops also happen _with_ the patch, but having the same
> setup as with vanilla 1.3.68 ?
> If it does, can you please test the same without the initrd part of the
> patch, hence testing only the high-load stuff.
> (bzImage parts starts at top of the patch file until
> arch/i386/boot/tools/build.c (inclusive) )

I've tested several scenarios:
Common to all is the patched (bzImage+initrd-1.3.66c) 1.3.68 kernel.

1.) With kerneld support enabled, kernel loaded high with ramdisk but boot-
device modules (scsi) loaded by hand (linuxrc was a link to /bin/bash).
=> error
2.) With kerneld support enabled, bootdevice compiled in, kernel loaded
low (zImage), ramdisk feature not used.
=> no error
3.) With kerneld support enabled, bootdevice compiled in, kernel loaded
high (bzImage), ramdisk feature not used.
=> error !!!
4.) Without kerneld support enabled, everything compiled in, kernel loaded
high (bzImage), ramdisk feature not used.
=> no error !!!

The last two seem most informative to me. It seems that kerneld and the
kernel loaded high don't like each other.

Matthias

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