2000-12-20 12:33:44

by Matthias Andree

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: [2.2.18] VM: do_try_to_free_pages failed

Last night, one of your production machines got wedged, I caught a lot
of kernel: VM: do_try_to_free_pages failed for ... for a whole range of
processes, among them ypbind, klogd, syslogd, xntpd, cron, nscd, X,
master (Postfix super daemon), pvmd3, K applications and so on, I was
unable to log in via ssh, someone on-site has finally reset that machine
this noon to bring it back online.

How can I get rid of those do_try_to_free_pages lockups? That box
exports root file systems for some SparcStation 2 that are used as X
terminals, so it's pretty important I keep that box running.

Should I try the most recent 2.2.19-pre?

The machine is a pentium-MMX with 64 MB RAM with a kernel 2.2.18 that
has these patches/updated drivers (none VM related AFAICS):

IDE 2.2.18.1209
I?C 2.5.4
LM_Sensors 2.5.4
DC390 2.0e7
ReiserFS 3.5.28

--
Matthias Andree


2000-12-20 12:50:39

by Ville Herva

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [2.2.18] VM: do_try_to_free_pages failed

On Wed, Dec 20, 2000 at 01:03:00PM +0100, you [Matthias Andree] claimed:
> Last night, one of your production machines got wedged, I caught a lot
> of kernel: VM: do_try_to_free_pages failed for ... for a whole range of
> processes, among them ypbind, klogd, syslogd, xntpd, cron, nscd, X,
> How can I get rid of those do_try_to_free_pages lockups? That box

Almost everybody (including me) who have seen that problem seem to
have had it fixed with Andrea Arcangeli's VM-global-7 patch
(ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/andrea...).

> Should I try the most recent 2.2.19-pre?

Yes, Andrea's VM-global-7 is included in pre2.


-- v --

[email protected]

2000-12-20 13:41:37

by Alan

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [2.2.18] VM: do_try_to_free_pages failed

> How can I get rid of those do_try_to_free_pages lockups? That box
> exports root file systems for some SparcStation 2 that are used as X
> terminals, so it's pretty important I keep that box running.
>
> Should I try the most recent 2.2.19-pre?

2.2.19pre2 should resolve that problem


2000-12-20 15:31:56

by Matthias Andree

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [2.2.18] VM: do_try_to_free_pages failed

On Wed, 20 Dec 2000, Alan Cox wrote:

> > How can I get rid of those do_try_to_free_pages lockups? That box
> > exports root file systems for some SparcStation 2 that are used as X
> > terminals, so it's pretty important I keep that box running.
> >
> > Should I try the most recent 2.2.19-pre?
>
> 2.2.19pre2 should resolve that problem

I'll give that a try. Thanks to you and Ville Herva for replying.

--
Matthias Andree

2000-12-20 21:28:00

by Chris Mason

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [2.2.18] VM: do_try_to_free_pages failed



On Wednesday, December 20, 2000 13:03:00 +0100 Matthias Andree
<[email protected]> wrote:

> Last night, one of your production machines got wedged, I caught a lot
> of kernel: VM: do_try_to_free_pages failed for ... for a whole range of
> processes, among them ypbind, klogd, syslogd, xntpd, cron, nscd, X,
> master (Postfix super daemon), pvmd3, K applications and so on, I was
> unable to log in via ssh, someone on-site has finally reset that machine
> this noon to bring it back online.
> > How can I get rid of those do_try_to_free_pages lockups? That box
> exports root file systems for some SparcStation 2 that are used as X
> terminals, so it's pretty important I keep that box running.
> > Should I try the most recent 2.2.19-pre?
> > The machine is a pentium-MMX with 64 MB RAM with a kernel 2.2.18 that
> has these patches/updated drivers (none VM related AFAICS):
> > IDE 2.2.18.1209
> I?C 2.5.4
> LM_Sensors 2.5.4
> DC390 2.0e7
> ReiserFS 3.5.28
>
If you still see the problem with Andrea's VM global patch (you can get
just that one patch from ftp.kernel.org/pub/people/andrea), try cutting
JOURNAL_MAX_BATCH in half. This will lower the amount of memory reiserfs
is willing to pin in one transaction...

-chris