> All...
>
> Just had some disturbing problems after switching to 2.2.8.
>
> I was only switched over for a short period of time and was working
> on some kernel drivers (Computone serial card drivers - not in the kernel
> I was running at the time of the problems). In one window I had my mail
> up in elm. In the other window, I went to unpack the kernel sources to
> test out a patch. I started a resync on my mailbox about the same time
> I started to untar the 2.2.8 for a fresh set of sources. Both got about
> half way through and died. At that point, I could not kill any of my
> xterm windows although I could run commands like top. Top showed system
> load over 16 and climbing! Could not shut down. Sync would hang. Could
> switch to a virtual console but Cntrl-Alt-Delete failed to do anything.
> Cntr-Alt-Backspace out of X Windows just left a grey screen and then couldn't
> switch to another virtual console. Had to reboot from the hardware switch...
>
> Ok... Rebooted system and came back up on 2.2.8. Fsck reported
> all kinds of problems in the kernel source directory I was untaring. That
> figured and wasn't real surprising.
>
> Once the system back was up, I logged back into X Windows and brought
> my usual array of xterms back up. I then performed the same actions that
> I did before. I deleted the old kernel source tree, remade the directory,
> restarted the untar, and then deliberately resynced my mailbox. Bang...
> Dead again! Sync still hangs, but I was able to get to another virtual
> console. I executed an init 6 and this time it shut down until it was
> trying to unmount the local file systems. It died then and there. Could
> not even get the "Num Lock" light on the keyboard to toggle. Grrr...
>
> Hit the reset switch and brought it back up. This time back on
> 2.2.7 which had been running perfect for me since it first came out (I
> patched up from the E-Mail announcement). Fsck found some serious bad
> juju on one of the SCSI drives (I use a mix of IDE and SCSI). Had to
> fsck the drive manually. One inode was chock full of illegal blocks.
>
> Once again got the system back up and got back into X Windows.
> Repeated same fatal steps, this time on 2.2.7. No problem. Did it twice.
> No problem. I'm about to go back to 2.2.8 and reconfirm, but something
> does not seem right here. I know there's been a lot of work down in the
> scheduler, but this seems to be a file system handler problem. At least
> it seems to be hanging on intense file system activity.
>
> Lot's of user level programs, such as ps, df, and top can still
> run so I can get status on some things. It doesn't die until it seems
> to need to write to the disk. (That's just my HIGHLY SUBJECTIVE opinion
> and may be way off base.)
>
> Notes:
>
> System: 350MHz K6 Asus P5A-B Mother Board
> Kernel: 2.2.8
> Dstrib: RedHet 5.2
> Memory: 128Meg
> Swap: 128Meg
> Drives: Mix of 2 Gig IDE and SCSI drives.
> SCSI: aic7xxx
>
> Note: /var file system (and subsequently the /var/spool/mail spool
> files) is on an IDE drive. My source directories are on one of the SCSI
> drives. Both would have been busier than one-armed paper hangers at the
> time of the crash.
>
> Ok... Once is chance, twice is co-incidence, three times is enemy
> action. I'm about to switch back over to 2.2.8 and go for three. Any
> suggestions from anyone as to what else I might look out for or what I
> might do to determine what blew its brains out????
>
> If it still dies, I'll follow up but then drop back to 2.2.7. I've
> got work to get done... Sigh...
>
> Mike
> --
> Michael H. Warfield | (770) 985-6132 | mhw@WittsEnd.com
> (The Mad Wizard) | (770) 925-8248 | http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
> NIC whois: MHW9 | An optimist believes we live in the best of all
> PGP Key: 0xDF1DD471 | possible worlds. A pessimist is sure of it!
>
>
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-- Pete Clements clem@clem.digital.net- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/