2002-10-01 15:37:47

by undertow

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: possible bug


Im spannish user of linux, I have detected an error on my distro and I
ask to local average users and told me that prob. is a kernel bug.
Sometimes when I do a kill -9 pid the command dont tells any error but
no pid die, the task still freeze but the os works perfect and I can
continue using my linux box with any problem, but I read that a kill -)
command MUST finnish the running task, Im quite newbie with linux but I
hope is a real bug and dont make you losing time.Normaly the freeze task
is edonkey or overnet.
My system specs:
amd k7-900 448 ram
hd ide ibm 40 gb 7200 rpm
voodoo3
mainboard msi ms-6330
distro: MDK 9.0 kernel: 2.4.19-16 mdk

I can make an ssh account on my machine when the problem appear to let
you enter on my linux and watch the problem or I can send you whatever
you want.

see you
Eduardo Galan de Andres
Spain, Madrid
01-10-2002


2002-10-01 16:23:13

by DervishD

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: possible bug

Hi Eduardo :)

> Im spannish user of linux, I have detected an error on my distro
> and I ask to local average users and told me that prob. is a kernel
> bug.

I'm spanish, too ;)) But let's go to the matter: probably the PID
you're trying to 'kill -9' is stuck in 'D' state (or any other
uninterruptible state), so it's not a kernel bug ;) If this is not
the case, you may have hit a kernel bug.

> but I read that a kill -)
> command MUST finnish the running task

AFAIK this is not exact ;) The 'SIGKILL' signal (that is, 9),
cannot be trapped and so its action cannot be changed. Moreover, it
is unblockable, so it's always 'fatal' ;))) it is always *sent*. This
doesn't mean that the process will die. If the process is in any
uninterruptible state, it won't be interrupted!. You will have to
wait until the process is woken up and then it will die.

The more probable state, in my experience, is the 'D' state,
which if I remember well, is something like 'disk sleep', waiting for
disk i/o, etc...

> Normaly the freeze task
> is edonkey or overnet.

Oh... The eDonkey client... AFAIK, this is closed source, so any
problem related to this client is difficult (if not impossible) to
catch...

Ra?l

2002-10-02 20:35:44

by Denis Vlasenko

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: possible bug

On 1 October 2002 14:37, DervishD wrote:
> I'm spanish, too ;)) But let's go to the matter: probably the PID
> you're trying to 'kill -9' is stuck in 'D' state (or any other
> uninterruptible state), so it's not a kernel bug ;) If this is not

How come? Process stuck in 'D' state *is* a kernel bug
(well, the only legitimate reason for it is a hard,nointr NFS mount
and remote server down but I still think that this mount option for NFS
should be never used).
--
vda

2002-10-02 22:40:31

by DervishD

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: possible bug

Hi Denis :)

> > you're trying to 'kill -9' is stuck in 'D' state (or any other
> > uninterruptible state), so it's not a kernel bug ;) If this is not
> How come? Process stuck in 'D' state *is* a kernel bug

Yes if it is stuck in that state forever, but I've suffered
processes stuck in 'D' state due to, for example, my CD recorder
frozen... It can last more than 600 seconds, and it's not a kernel
bug, just a 'long-lasting' transient state ;)

Anyway, last time I had a process stuck in 'D' state was back in
2.2 kernel, more than a year ago.

Ra?l